Irish arm of crypto trading platform Coinbase sees profits drop over 60%
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The Irish arm of the cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase has seen profits and turnover drop substantially during 2023, the company's latest financial statement shows.
Coinbase is an US cryptocurrency exchange where people can buy, sell, and store crypto assets.
It is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
Coinbase Ireland Ltd posted a turnover of €29.5m during 2023 — down nearly 68% from the €91.6m recorded in 2022.
A similar decline was seen in the company’s pre-tax profit.
It posted a profit of €1.7m during last year — a year-on-year drop of 64.6% from €4.8m in 2022.
The company did not recommend the payment of a dividend to its parent company during the years 2023 and 2022.
As of the end of last year, the company had €103.3m cash at banks and in hand.
It also held €373m in customer deposits.
The company is also preparing for additional regulatory requirements from the EU which are due to take effect in the coming months.
It noted that changing regulations may threaten Coinbase’s competitive position and capacity to conduct business.
New rules for issuers of utility tokens and crypto-asset service providers, under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), are due to come into effect next month.
“Among other provisions, MiCA introduces a comprehensive authorization and compliance regime for crypto asset service providers and a disclosure regime for the issuers of certain crypto assets, which may impact the Company’s operations,” the company said.
“Companies providing crypto asset services in Ireland will need to comply with MiCA by the end of the transition period in December 2025,” it added.
In addition, the new Digital Operational Resilience Act — which regulates the provision of information and communication technology services by third parties, to financial entities within the EU — may lead to “increased operational and capital expenditure” for the company.
Dora is due to take effect in January.
The company first opened its offices in Dublin in 2018 and in October last year it chose Ireland as its main regulatory and operational hub within the EU.
Cryptocurrencies have seen a boost in recent weeks following Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential election.
Mr Trump digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the US the "crypto capital of the planet" and accumulate a national stockpile of Bitcoin.
The best known cryptocurrency Bitcoin hit a high of $99,800 (€94,550) per coin last week but has since fallen back to around €95,000.