In this photo illustration, the Coinbase logo is seen displayed on a mobile phone screen.
Idrees Abbas | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase soared 13% Friday in U.S. premarket trading after the company reported its first profit in two years.
Coinbase, the largest U.S. venue for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, said that net income totalled $273 million in the fourth quarter.
Coinbase said Thursday that its net revenue was $905 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, up nearly 50% from $605 million in the same period of the previous year.
Cryptocurrencies saw a huge amount of interest from investors in the fourth quarter of last year, following news of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approving the first spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) — for bitcoin.
Bitcoin ETFs enable retail investors to access the cryptocurrency as a share that’s traded on a regulated exchange without directly exposing them to the underlying asset.
The news has driven heightened demand for cryptocurrencies due to anticipation that it could drive heightened interest from retail investors.
Coinbase said that transaction revenues were the primary driver of revenues for the last quarter of 2023, adding that subscription and services revenue remained relatively flat.
This is a breaking news story, and it is being updated.
