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Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) has struggled since its IPO back in April of last year. The stock has fallen nearly 85% since opening at $381. Yesterday, the firm’s issues worsened as the Coinbase share price fell a further 11%.
So, with the stock experiencing such a large decline, is now a good time for me to buy some cheap shares? Or is its poor performance over the past year or so a sign that I should steer clear of the stock? Let’s take a look.
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Why the Coinbase share price has fallen
The reason for the fall yesterday was the major fall in the price of Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies have had a dire year, with the two largest — Bitcoin and Ethereum — down 47% and 64%, respectively. Yesterday saw Bitcoin drop over 10%, while Ethereum saw 14% shaved off its price. Coinbase’s alignment with the price of Bitcoin has been a familiar story since going public. So, with the Bitcoin price falling below $24,000, it’s easy to see how the Coinbase share price has tanked.
The drop has been further fuelled by the pausing of withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts by Celsius Network. The crypto lender cited “extreme market conditions,” and it wasn’t alone as Binance, a crypto exchange platform, also temporarily halted Bitcoin withdrawals. Overall, the volatility of the cryptocurrency market has had an adverse impact on Coinbase.
Is there a way back?
So, can Coinbase recover from this? I’m not too sure. Looking at its latest set of results doesn’t provide me with much hope. For Q1 2022, monthly transacting users sat at 9.2 million, representing a fall from the 11.4 million seen in the preceding quarter. And on top of this, trading volume dropped 7% year-on-year to $309bn. As a potential investor, these are not positive signs.
What also concerns me about Coinbase is the recent launch of its non-fungible token (NFT) platform. The wider market has exploded in the last year, with total NFT sales reaching nearly $20bn in 2021. But while the firm had over 2.1 million users on its waiting list for the marketplace, since its launch, the total number of transactions has been disappointing. Where Coinbase has attempted to grab a chunk of the rising NFT market, so far, it has failed.
That said, there are positives too. The cryptocurrency market is volatile in nature. So there’s no reason to write off a Coinbase recovery. The firm posted some strong results last year, especially in Q4. And as it mentioned in its latest results, “you can expect volatility in our financials, given the price cycles of the cryptocurrency industry”. From a long-term perspective, the cheap share price could present an opportunity.
Would I buy?
However, I still won’t be buying Coinbase shares today. The performance year-to-date has been poor. And while I had high hopes for its NFT marketplace, it hasn’t seemed to take off in the manner I expected. While the share price could surge should we see a Bitcoin rally, I’ll be watching from the sidelines.
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