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Investing.com – Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) stock fell 2.4% in premarket Friday after the crypto exchange warned of trading volumes declining in January-March, a reversal from the surge it experienced in its most recent quarter.
“And so we expect Q1 to have lower monthly transacting users and lower trading volume than Q4 2021,” Coinbase wrote in a letter to shareholders.
With crypto asset prices declining, it expects current quarter subscription and services revenue also to be lower sequentially.
“This is not unusual, as we have seen historical crypto market patterns where all-time high periods have been followed by softer periods,” it said in the letter.
Trading volumes jumped more than 67% to $547 billion sequentially in December quarter, with retail trading accounting for 32% of volumes and crypto assets contributing 68% to total trading. Retail trading alone rose 90%.
While crypto assets remain a subject of debate for reasons of utility and legality, new investors have continued to flock to them while the exchange also attempts to create new revenue streams like custody and a marketplace for non-fungible tokens.
So-called altcoins — tokens other than Bitcoin (BTC/USD) and Ethereum (ETH/USD) — made up 68% of the exchange’s trading volume in the fourth quarter, the highest reported yet.
Total revenue in the quarter was $2.5 billion compared to about $1.3 billion July-September.
For the full year, Coinbase expects average transaction revenue per user to fall to “pre-2021 levels.” It forecasts a wide range of annual average retail monthly transacting users of 5 million to 15 million.
