Insider Monkey favors Coinbase over Strategy, citing its fee-based exchange business against Strategy’s leveraged bitcoin bet. Coinbase generated about $6 billion in revenue over the past year; Strategy generated under $500 million and had close to $7 billion in debt.
Coinbase also reported a net loss over the past year, but the article says it largely reflected markdowns on crypto holdings, not the exchange failing to cover costs; the fee business itself generated operating profit. It notes that trading volumes can fall sharply when crypto activity slows.
Strategy lost more than $31 billion over the same 12 months as bitcoin on its balance sheet fell; its software operations were too small to offset the decline. Strategy’s market value was roughly $66 billion, compared with Coinbase’s $52 billion. Its plan to issue shares to buy more bitcoin works only while its shares trade above the value of the bitcoin backing them—a condition the article says was absent for much of the year.
