Crypto trading platform CoinbaseGlobal on Tuesday said it would lay off nearly 20% of its workforce. That should stave off fears of a bankruptcy filing, even if crypto’s bear market persists, some Wall Street analysts say.
Once enamored of the company’s swift growth rate, investors are now focused on Coinbase’s (ticker: COIN) cash burn, after a collapse in digital-asset prices led to a precipitous drop in trading activity by Coinbase’s retail investors. Coinbase’s stock has dropped 81% in the past 12 months, and its bonds currently trade at distressed-level yields.
To that end, Coinbase’s announcement came as welcome news to investors. In a blog post, CEO Brian Armstrong said the cuts of 950 employees would contribute to a 25% drop in Coinbase’s operating expenses in the first quarter from the fourth quarter of 2022.
On Tuesday, Coinbase stock rose nearly 13% to $43.23 per share, but the cuts aren’t doing much for the firm’s debt. The company’s bonds maturing in 2028 on Tuesday traded at 58 cents on the dollar, up two cents from Monday, according to Bloomberg data. That puts the yield, at about 14.3%, in distressed territory.
“In the face of increasingly challenging economic conditions, we made the difficult decision to further reduce the size of our teams to ensure we have the appropriate operational efficiency to weather downturns in the crypto market, and capture opportunities that may emerge,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a statement.
Coinbase had already announced it would slash 18% of its workforce last June during the early part of the crypto downturn.
Despite little movement in Coinbase’s bonds, some Wall Street analysts were upbeat that the cuts will give the firm a long runway to weather a potentially protracted crypto downturn.
“At least for now, it takes the armageddon, worst case scenario off the table,” says Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, whose firm has an Outperform rating on Coinbase.
Ives said that Coinbase stock trades not too far above its cash-per-share of $31.
The cuts are “an important first step, but not necessarily the end. There still could be more cuts, but it does show that management is focused on cash preservation,” Ives says.
The company on Tuesday said it expected its full-year 2022 loss before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) wouldn’t exceed $500 million. The company had about $5 billion in cash and equivalents at the end of September, the company said in its last earnings report.
If current market conditions were sustained, Coinbase might have lost more than $1 billion this year on an adjusted Ebitda basis, estimated D.A. Davidson analyst Chris Brendler in a research note on Tuesday. After the cuts, even with depressed revenue, Brendler’s model estimates the company will lose about $316 million.
“Against COIN’s $5B cash position, we’re feeling better about the company’s ability to make it through the deepening downturn,” wrote Brendler, who has a Buy rating on the stock.