Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, has been included in the Fortune 500 for the first time. The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years.
Coin Base earned $7.8 billion in revenue in the fiscal year 2021, placing it 437th on the list. However, among the top 500 companies, the exchange has a revenue growth rate of over 514 percent. Trading fees account for the majority of Coinbase’s revenue.
According to Fortune’s Editor in Chief, Alyson Shontell, both Coinbase and Moderna “thrived under the odd circumstances of COVID.”
Coinbase benefited from the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies. Coinbase advertised itself as a go-to site for investing in digital assets ranging from the NBA to the world of esports before the overall crypto market cap surged beyond $3 trillion in November.
Bitcoin is currently at its lowest price since Coinbase (COIN) went public in April 2021, and the firm is suffering as a result. Since November’s market high, shares have dropped more than 80%, and Q1 revenue was less than half of the previous quarter’s total. During that time, the number of monthly transacting users declined by almost 2 million.
However, Coinbase isn’t alone in reporting poor first-quarter profitability. Block’s first-quarter Bitcoin purchase revenue was down 51% year over year and $200 million from the previous quarter.
Nevertheless, Coinbase isn’t publicly showing signs of worry. The company’s pinned tweet from last Wednesday mocks those who would consider the crypto industry “dead.”
“Volatility is painful, and can be scary,” wrote Coinbase Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouche in a blog post that same day. “That said, volatility is also natural for emerging technological breakthroughs like crypto.”