Crypto exchange COINBASE is struggling as a result of the bear market but the firm’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, says they’re built for the long term.
During an earnings call on Wednesday, Armstrong says that the industry is going through one of those difficult periods in the crypto cycle.
“The narrative in crypto tends to flip every two years. It’s either irrational exuberance or despair. Neither one is true at any given time, but we’re in one of those despair phases right now.”
Coinbase’s fourth quarter and full-year 2022 report to shareholders that the biggest US-based crypto exchange lost $2.64 billion last year. In 2021, the firm posted a net income of $3.62 billion.
Despite the dismal numbers, Armstrong says that the current environment could even be beneficial for crypto-focused companies like Coinbase.
He says beyond the noise and negativity, good things are happening in the crypto space.
“There’s an opportunity for builders who are focused in this space like Coinbase.
You can’t just look at what happened in the last year or the last quarter.
The Bitcoin price in January of 2023 is up 80% compared to the average price in 2020. The number of software developers who work in crypto has doubled since 2020, and that’s a great predictor, I think, of where the future is going.”
