Coinbase Rides Post-Election Rally 🧿
How the crypto platform played the US elections? Pumped $45M to flip a pro-crypto Congress. Market share drops amid stiff competition. Base hits 1B transactions in record time.
Happy Monday. Grab your coffee ☕️ Today’s story? How Armstrong & Co. flipped the script. From SEC's most wanted to Wall Street's darling.
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Remember when Coinbase was just fighting the SEC?
Read: SEC sues Binance and Coinbase 🧟♂️
It went on for almost a year.
Well, well … look who's running the show now.
The crypto exchange just pulled off its most dramatic transformation yet.
Coinbase has made the most of the "Trump Trade".
Let’s look at the numbers
Trading volume exploded 400% post-election.
On November 12, it hit almost $12 billion - a record high for 2024.
Retail traders are back with a vengeance.
Coinbase stock surged past $300 for the first time since 2021.
COIN shares touched $334, flirting with their all-time high of $357.
Over $2.1 billion added to CEO Brian Armstrong's net worth in a day.
What else?
Coinbase market cap nearing pre-2022 crash level
Daily active users the highest since 2021
Coinbase app rocketed from #26 to #1 in Apple's Finance category
What did they do to get here?
Coinbase didn't just sit back and hope; they played to win. How?
They poured big money into the elections.
And it worked out perfectly.
$75M+ spent on pro-crypto campaigns
46 wins out of 58 supported candidates
$40 million deployed to flip the crucial Ohio Senate seat
Over 250 pro-crypto candidates elected to House
Strategic expansion of "Stand With Crypto" advocacy to Australia and Canada
Read: Crypto's $200M Election War Chest 🪖
The crown jewel? Unseating Sherrod Brown, the crypto-skeptic Senate Banking Committee chairman, in favour of blockchain entrepreneur Bernie Moreno. The $40 million industry investment in Ohio might prove to be the most consequential political bet in crypto history.
The most telling sign? When Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal attended Trump fundraisers, it wasn't just lobbying – it was laying groundwork for what Armstrong would later call "the most pro-crypto Congress ever."
His message to SEC post-victory?
"Stop suing crypto. Start talking to crypto. Initiate rulemaking now."
Global Expansion
While all eyes were on Washington, Coinbase was quietly building a global empire.
Launched COIN50 Index covering 50+ digital assets
Acquired Utopia Labs to foray into on-chain payments
Expanded Base to become the largest Ethereum L2 with $3.15 billion TVL
Introduced cbBTC to Solana, potentially transforming DeFi
Extended "Stand With Crypto" advocacy to Australia and Canada
Developed new institutional trading products and indices
Despite the victories, hurdles remain
Rising competition in international markets
Market share dropped to 41% from 54% since March amid competition
Robinhood's acquisition of Bitstamp poses new threats
Stripe buying Bridge for $1.1B
New players offering zero-fee trading
Traditional finance giants entering the crypto space
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In The Numbers 🔢
1 Billion
That's how many transactions Base - Coinbase’s Ethereum-based L2 - just hit in its first year.
Bitcoin took 15 years to get there. Base? Just 15 months.
Base Dominance
2nd most popular blockchain in 2024
9x more interest than Arbitrum
5x increase in investor interest since Q1
Jumped to 2nd from 7th in ecosystem rankings
$3.15B Total Value Locked
The NFT That Wasn't
But then came the commemorative NFT. In their rush to celebrate, Base created an artwork that bore an uncomfortable resemblance to digital artist Chris Biron's work. By the time Biron noticed, the NFT had already generated $36,000 in profits.
Base's response?
Immediate acknowledgment of the issue
Public apology from lead developer Jesse Pollak
Commitment to send 100% of proceeds to Biron
A "class act" - as the artist himself mentioned.
Block That Quote
Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO
"DOGE is a once in a lifetime opportunity to increase economic freedom in the US and cut the size of government back to health.”
First, they helped elect the right people.
Then, their stock hit three-year highs.
Now? They're advising how government should run.
Armstrong's diving deep into constitutional territory.
On democracy's dilemma
Elections won by "promising free stuff"
Government size grows over time
Incentives need realignment
Constitutional limits needed
His solution? Two big ideas.
The 10% Rule
Cap government spending at 10% of GDP
Constitutional amendment required
Prevent spending "getting totally out of control"
American Ownership
Every citizen becomes a shareholder
Budget surpluses paid as dividends
Congress gets bigger stakes
"Skin in the game" for everyone
"This would make people and lawmakers think more carefully about how the government spends money," he added.
Want to fix government waste? Make everyone a shareholder.
Token Dispatch View
Analysts now see Coinbase as more than just a trading platform.
"With the incoming Trump administration expected to be more favorable to the cryptocurrency industry, the firm's staking business will face less regulatory pressure," Morningstar's Michael Miller said.
But even their bullish price targets (ranging from $165 to $400) might be missing the bigger picture. Coinbase isn't just riding the crypto wave anymore – it's creating it.
The irony is rich: the company that once banned political discussions in its workplace has become Washington's most effective crypto advocate. But perhaps that's exactly why it succeeded where others failed – by approaching politics not as an ideology, but as infrastructure.
With Trump promising to fire SEC Chair Gensler and Bitcoin touching new highs above $90,000, Coinbase stands at the intersection of politics, technology and finance. The question isn't whether it can maintain this position, but how far it can expand it.
As Armstrong puts it: "America is going to follow a path toward economic freedom which is our source of strength." After this election, it seems Coinbase might be showing the way.
The Surfer 🏄
NFT sales surged 94% last week, reaching $181 million, driven by a bullish crypto market. Ethereum led with $67 million in sales, while Bitcoin-based NFTs generated $60 million, reflecting a significant recovery in digital collectibles.
Giggle Academy, founded by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, suffered a cyberattack on its X account, leading to the spread of phishing links and false claims about a new CEO. Losses from phishing attacks in crypto space exceeded $800 million in 2024.
Solana-based decentralised exchanges (DEXes) reached record trading volumes, processing $33 billion in trades over the past week. Daily volumes peaked at $6.88 billion on November 12, significantly outperforming Ethereum's DEX sector, with Raydium leading the charge by accounting for 66% of Solana's DEX activity.
A trader turned $17 into $3 million by investing in the memecoin Pnut, named after a celebrity squirrel, benefiting from a Binance listing. The trader's investment saw an astonishing 16,470,500% profit as they strategically swapped tokens for Solana over several days, capitalising on the token's rapid price surge.
Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed stricter penalties for cryptocurrency fraud, with offenders facing fines up to $12,000 or a 10-year prison sentence. Nigeria has struggled with a reputation as a hub for scams, hindering its growth as the world's second-ranked nation in terms of cryptocurrency adoption.
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