Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending June 30, 2023

August 3, 2023 5:30 p.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Tamika, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Coinbase Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. [Operator Instructions]

I would now hand today’s call over to Anil Gupta, Vice President, Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Anil Gupta

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Coinbase second quarter 2023 earnings call. Joining me on today's call are Brian Armstrong, Co-Founder and CEO; Emilie Choi, President and COO; Alesia Haas, CFO; and Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer. I hope you've all had the opportunity to read our shareholder letter, which was published on our Investor Relations website earlier today.

Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that during today's call, we may make forward-looking statements. Actual results may vary materially from today's statements. Information concerning risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause these results to differ is included in our SEC filings.

Our discussion today will also include references to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our shareholder letter on our IR website. Non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for GAAP measures. We are once again using safe technologies to enable our shareholders to post questions. In addition, we will take some live questions from our analysts.

With that, I'll turn it over to Brian and Alesia for opening comments.

Brian Armstrong

Thanks, Anil. Q2 was a strong quarter for us as we demonstrated operational discipline, focused on product excellence and help drive regulatory clarity for the industry. I'll start by touching on operational discipline. We drove $194 million of adjusted EBITDA in Q2, marking the second consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA. About a year ago, we started executing on cost reductions, and I'm happy to say that in Q2, our operating expenses are now down nearly 50% year-over-year. We ended Q2 with 3,400 employees, and we've been able to get a lot done by being a more efficient company at this size.

Next, let me touch on product excellence. People use Coinbase’s product because we're the most trusted brand, and we made crypto easier to use. Over the past decade, we focused on compliance, cybersecurity, great design, user experience and customer support. We've always taken a long-term view and tried to do the right thing even when it wasn't easy or the rules weren't clear.