2023年3月3日,公司完成了对One River Digital Asset Management,LLC(“ORDAM”)的收购,收购了ORDAM的所有已发行和尚未发行的会员单位。ORDAM是一家在美国证券交易委员会注册为投资顾问的机构数字资产管理公司。该公司认为,此次收购符合公司的长期战略,即为机构释放更多参与加密经济的机会。
投资我们的A类普通股有很高的风险。您应仔细考虑以下所述的风险和不确定性,以及本Form 10-Q季度报告中的所有其他资讯,包括题为“管理层对财务状况和经营结果的讨论和分析”的部分,以及简明综合财务报表和相关说明。下面描述的风险和不确定性并不是我们面临的唯一风险和不确定性。我们没有意识到或我们认为无关紧要的其他风险和不确定性也可能成为对我们的业务产生不利影响的重要因素。如果发生以下任何风险,我们的业务、经营业绩、财务状况和未来前景都可能受到实质性的不利影响。许多风险影响不止一个类别,并且这些风险是 Not in Order of重大程度或发生概率,因为它们已按类别进行了分组。我们A类普通股的市场价格可能会下跌,你可能会因为这些风险中的任何一种而损失部分或全部投资。
然而,如果这些金融机构受到银行清算或倒闭的影响,或者限制或结束它们的密码市场活动,或者如果银行关系变得严重受限或对某个国家的密码市场参与者不可用,那么在该国家/地区,对于我们或我们的合作伙伴的运营、开发商或客户至关重要的服务可能会暂时延迟或不可用,可用的供应商可能会受到进一步的限制,我们、我们的合作伙伴、我们的开发商或客户能够获得的服务质量下降,以及加密经济的全面中断,可能导致我们平台上的活动减少,这可能对我们的业务、运营业绩和财务状况产生不利影响。例如,虽然我们的业务和运营没有受到Silvergate Capital Corp.和Signature Bank的关闭及其2023年3月停止即时法定货币支付网路的实质性影响,但大型加密经济参与者,包括我们和我们的机构客户,暂时无法在标准营业时间以外转移法定货币。
我们代表客户持有现金并保护加密货币资产,并持有法定货币和加密货币用于企业投资和运营目的。此外,在收购Coinbase Asset Management(前身为One River Digital Asset Management(「CBAM」)后,我们还根据美国证券交易委员会工作人员发布的第121号员工会计公告(「SAb 121」)的定义,为资产管理产品的第三方托管人提供少量加密货币。
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service our debt and other obligations, including our obligations under the 2026 Convertible Notes, 2030 Convertible Notes and Senior Notes.
therefore we may be exposed to loss in the event of a customer default, even if we appear to be secured against such default. While we have not incurred any material losses to date, if any of the foregoing events were to occur, our reputation and relationships with borrowers, and our financial results, could be harmed. We intend to continue to explore other products, models, and structures for offering commercial financing, and other forms of credit and loan products. Some of those models or structures may require, or be deemed to require, additional data, procedures, partnerships, licenses, regulatory approvals, or capabilities that we have not yet obtained or developed.
We are exposed to transaction losses due to chargebacks, refunds or returns as a result of fraud or uncollectability that may adversely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Certain of our products and services are paid for by electronic transfers from bank accounts, which exposes us to risks associated with returns and insufficient funds. Furthermore, some of our products and services are paid for by credit and debit cards through payment processors, which exposes us to risks associated with chargebacks and refunds. These risks could arise from fraud, misuse, unintentional use, settlement delay, insufficiency of funds, or other activities. Also, criminals are using increasingly sophisticated methods to engage in illegal activities, such as counterfeiting and fraud. If we are unable to collect such amounts from the customer, or if the customer refuses or is unable, due to bankruptcy or other reasons, to reimburse us, we bear the loss for the amount of the chargeback, refund, or return.
While we have policies and procedures to manage and mitigate these risks, we cannot be certain that such processes will be effective. Our failure to limit chargebacks and fraudulent transactions could increase the number of returns, refunds and chargebacks that we have to process. In addition, if the number of returns, refunds and chargebacks increases, card networks or our banking partners could require us to increase reserves, impose penalties on us, charge additional or higher fees, or terminate their relationships with us. Failure to effectively manage risk and prevent fraud could increase our chargeback, refund, and return losses or cause us to incur other liabilities. Increases in chargebacks, refunds, returns, or other liabilities could have an adverse effect on our operating results, financial condition, and cash flows.
We route orders through third-party trading venues in connection with our Coinbase Prime trading service. The loss or failure of any such trading venues may adversely affect our business.
In connection with our Prime trading service, we routinely route customer orders to third-party exchanges or other trading venues. In connection with these activities, we generally hold cash and other crypto assets with such third-party exchanges or other trading venues in order to effect customer orders. If we were to experience a disruption in our access to these third-party exchanges and trading venues, our Prime trading service could be adversely affected to the extent that we are limited in our ability to execute order flow for our Prime customers. In addition, while we have policies and procedures to help mitigate our risks related to routing orders through third-party trading venues, if any of these third-party trading venues experience any technical, legal, regulatory or other adverse events, such as shutdowns, delays, system failures, suspension of withdrawals, illiquidity, insolvency, or loss of customer assets, we might not be able to fully recover the cash and other crypto assets that we have deposited with these third parties, and these risks may be heightened following the 2022 Events. For example, in connection with the 2022 Events, we were not able to recover an immaterial amount of cash deposited at FTX. As a result, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Any acquisitions and investments that we make could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, result in dilution to our stockholders, and adversely affect our financial results.
As part of our business strategy, we routinely conduct discussions and evaluate opportunities for possible acquisitions, strategic investments, entries into new businesses, joint ventures, and other transactions. We have made and may continue to make acquisitions of and investments in, among other
We may change our key business metrics from time to time, which may be perceived negatively. Given the rapid evolution of the crypto markets and our revenue sources, we regularly evaluate whether our key business metrics remain meaningful indicators of the performance of our business. As a result of these evaluations, in the past we have decided to make changes, and in the future may make additional changes, to our key business metrics, including eliminating or replacing existing metrics. Further if investors or the media perceive any changes to our key business metrics disclosures negatively, our business could be adversely affected.
Unfavorable media coverage could negatively affect our business.
Moreover, while fiat currencies can be used to facilitate illegal activities, crypto assets are relatively new and, in many jurisdictions, may be lightly regulated or largely unregulated. Many types of crypto assets have characteristics, such as the speed with which digital currency transactions can be conducted, the ability to conduct transactions without the involvement of regulated intermediaries, the ability to engage in transactions across multiple jurisdictions, the irreversible nature of certain crypto asset transactions, and encryption technology that anonymizes these transactions, that make crypto assets susceptible to use in illegal activity. U.S. federal and state and foreign regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies, such as the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), SEC, CFTC, FTC, or the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), and various state securities and financial regulators have taken and continue to take legal action against persons and entities alleged to be engaged in fraudulent schemes or other illicit activity involving crypto assets. We also support crypto assets that incorporate privacy-enhancing features, and may from time to time support additional crypto assets with similar functionalities. These privacy-enhancing crypto assets obscure the identities of sender and receiver, and may prevent law enforcement officials from tracing the source of funds on the blockchain. Facilitating transactions in these crypto assets may cause us to be at increased risk of liability arising out of anti-money laundering and economic sanctions laws and regulations.
While we believe that our risk management and compliance framework is designed to detect significant illicit activities conducted by our potential or existing customers, we cannot ensure that we will be able to detect all illegal activity on our platform. Base, an open source permissionless L2 protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain developed by us, has been in the past, and may in the future, be a target for scam tokens or other illegal activity. For example, in August 2023, a number of fraudulent tokens were identified and traded on Base blockchain. As we continue to develop Base, and in light of this fraudulent activity, we continue to invest in improving our security processes, including through our in-house blockchain monitoring capabilities, third-party tools for identifying malicious and out of pattern events, and the monitoring of contract source code and bytecode on Base against a database of known scam code patterns. While to date, such illegal or fraudulent activity on Base has not had a material impact on our business, operating results, financial condition, or cash flows, future illegal activity may have an adverse impact on our business, operating results, financial condition or cash flows and our efforts to identify and
remedy such illegal or fraudulent activity may not be successful.If any of our customers use our platform to further such illegal activities, our business could be adversely affected.
Our compliance and risk management methods might not be effective and may result in outcomes that could adversely affect our reputation, operating results, and financial condition.
Our ability to comply with applicable complex and evolving laws, regulations, and rules is largely dependent on the establishment, maintenance, and scaling of our compliance, internal audit, and reporting systems to continuously keep pace with our customer activity and transaction volume, as well as our ability to attract and retain qualified compliance and other risk management personnel. While we have devoted significant resources to develop policies and procedures to identify, monitor, and manage our risks, and expect to continue to do so in the future, we cannot assure you that our policies and procedures are and will always be effective or that we have been and will always be successful in monitoring or evaluating the risks to which we are or may be exposed in all market environments or against all types of risks, including unidentified or unanticipated risks. Our risk management policies and procedures rely on a combination of technical and human controls and supervision that are subject to error and failure. Some of our methods for managing risk are discretionary by nature and are based on internally developed controls and observed historical market behavior, and also involve reliance on standard industry practices. These methods may not adequately prevent losses, particularly as they relate to extreme market movements, which may be significantly greater than historical fluctuations in the market. Further, as a result of the 2022 Events or similar market disruptions in the future, we may reevaluate our risk management policies and procedures. Accordingly, in the future, we may identify gaps in such policies and procedures or existing gaps may become higher risk, and may require significant resources and management attention. Our risk management policies and procedures also may not adequately prevent losses due to technical errors if our testing and quality control practices are not effective in preventing failures. In addition, we may elect to adjust our risk management policies and procedures to allow for an increase in risk tolerance, which could expose us to the risk of greater losses.
Regulators periodically review our compliance with our own policies and procedures and with a variety of laws and regulations. We have received in the past and may from time to time receive additional examination reports citing violations of rules and regulations and inadequacies in existing compliance programs, and requiring us to enhance certain practices with respect to our compliance program, including due diligence, training, monitoring, reporting, and recordkeeping. If we fail to comply with these, or do not adequately remediate certain findings, regulators could take a variety of actions that could impair our ability to conduct our business, including, but not limited to, delaying, denying, withdrawing, or conditioning approval of certain products and services. In addition, regulators have broad enforcement powers to censure, fine, issue cease and desist orders, prohibit us from engaging in some of our business activities, or revoke our licenses. We face significant intervention by regulatory authorities, including extensive examination and surveillance activities, and will continue to face the risk of significant intervention by regulatory authorities in the future. In the case of non-compliance or alleged non-compliance, we could be subject to investigations and proceedings that may result in substantial penalties or civil lawsuits, including by customers, for damages which can be significant. Any of these outcomes would adversely affect our reputation and brand and our business, operating results, and financial condition. Some of these outcomes could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business.
We hold certain investments in DeFi protocols and may suffer losses if they do not function as expected.
In some cases, smart contracts can be controlled by one or more “admin keys” or users with special privileges, or “super users.” These users have the ability to unilaterally make changes to the smart contract, enable or disable features on the smart contract, change how the smart contract receives external inputs and data, and make other changes to the smart contract. For smart contracts that hold a pool of reserves, these users may also be able to extract funds from the pool, liquidate assets held in the pool, or take other actions that decrease the value of the assets held by the smart contract in reserves. Even for crypto assets that have adopted a decentralized governance mechanism, such as smart contracts that are governed by the holders of a governance token, such governance tokens can be concentrated in the hands of a small group of core community members, who would be able to make similar changes unilaterally to the smart contract. If any such super user or group of core members unilaterally make adverse changes to a smart contract, the design, functionality, features and value of the smart contract, its related crypto assets may be harmed. In addition, assets held by the smart contract in reserves may be stolen, misused, burnt, locked up or otherwise become unusable and irrecoverable. These super users can also become targets of hackers and malicious attackers. If an attacker is able to access or obtain the super user privileges of a smart contract, or if a smart contract’s super users or core community members take actions that adversely affect the smart contract, our customers who hold and transact in the affected crypto assets may experience decreased functionality and value of the applicable crypto assets, up to and including a total loss of the value of such crypto assets. Although we do not control these smart contracts, any such events could cause customers to seek damages against us for their losses, result in reputational damage to us, or in other ways adversely impact our business.
From time to time, we may encounter technical issues in connection with the integration of supported crypto assets and changes and upgrades to their underlying networks, which could adversely affect our business.
In order to support any supported crypto asset, a variety of front and back-end technical and development work is required to implement our wallet, custody, trading, staking and other solutions for our customers, and to integrate such supported crypto asset with our existing technical infrastructure. For certain crypto assets, a significant amount of development work is required and there is no guarantee that we will be able to integrate successfully with any existing or future crypto asset. In addition, such integration may introduce software errors or weaknesses into our platform, including our existing infrastructure. Even if such integration is initially successful, any number of technical changes, software upgrades, soft or hard forks, cybersecurity incidents, or other changes to the underlying blockchain network may occur from time to time, causing incompatibility, technical issues, disruptions, or security weaknesses to our platform. If we are unable to identify, troubleshoot and resolve any such issues successfully, we may no longer be able to support such crypto asset, our customers’ assets may be frozen or lost, the security of our hot, warm, or cold wallets may be compromised, and our platform and technical infrastructure may be affected, all of which could adversely impact our business.
If miners or validators of any supported crypto asset demand high transaction fees, our operating results may be adversely affected.
We charge miner fees when a customer sends certain crypto assets from their Coinbase account to a non-Coinbase account. We estimate the miner fee based on the cost that we will incur to process the withdrawal transaction on the underlying blockchain network. In addition, we also pay miner fees when we move crypto assets for various operational purposes, such as when we transfer crypto assets between our hot and cold wallets, for which we do not charge our customers. However, miner fees have been and may continue to be unpredictable. If the block rewards for miners on any blockchain network are not sufficiently high to incentivize miners, miners may demand higher transaction fees, or collude to reject low transaction fees and force users to pay higher fees. Although we generally attempt to pass miner fees relating to customer withdrawals through to our customers, we have in the past incurred, and expect to incur from time to time, losses associated with the payment of miner fees in excess of what we charge our customers, resulting in adverse impacts on our operating results.
Future developments regarding the treatment of crypto assets for U.S. and foreign tax purposes could adversely impact our business.
Due to the new and evolving nature of crypto assets and the absence of comprehensive legal and tax guidance with respect to crypto asset products and transactions, many significant aspects of the U.S. and foreign tax treatment of transactions involving crypto assets, such as the purchase and sale of crypto assets on our platform, as well as the provision of staking rewards and other crypto asset incentives and rewards products, are uncertain, and it is unclear whether, when and what guidance may be issued in the future on the treatment of crypto asset transactions for U.S. and foreign tax purposes.
In 2014, the IRS released Notice 2014-21, discussing certain aspects of “virtual currency” for U.S. federal income tax purposes and, in particular, stating that such virtual currency (i) is “property,” (ii) is not “currency” for purposes of the rules relating to foreign currency gain or loss, and (iii) may be held as a capital asset. From time to time, the IRS has released other notices and rulings relating to the tax treatment of virtual currency or crypto assets reflecting the IRS’s position on certain issues. The IRS has not addressed many other significant aspects of the U.S. federal income tax treatment of crypto assets and related transactions.
There continues to be uncertainty with respect to the timing, character and amount of income inclusions for various crypto asset transactions including, but not limited to lending and borrowing crypto assets, staking and other crypto asset incentives and products that we offer. Although we believe our treatment of crypto asset transactions for federal income tax purposes is consistent with existing positions from the IRS and/or existing U.S. federal income tax principles, because of the rapidly evolving nature of crypto asset innovations and the increasing variety and complexity of crypto asset transactions and products, it is possible the IRS and various U.S. states may disagree with our treatment of certain crypto asset offerings for U.S. tax purposes, which could adversely affect our customers and the vitality of our business. Similar uncertainties exist in the foreign markets in which we operate with respect to direct and indirect taxes, and these uncertainties and potential adverse interpretations of tax law could impact the amount of tax we and our non-U.S. customers are required to pay, and the vitality of our platforms outside of the United States.
There can be no assurance that the IRS, the U.S. state revenue agencies or other foreign tax authorities, will not alter their respective positions with respect to crypto assets in the future or that a court would uphold the treatment set forth in existing positions. It also is unclear what additional tax authority positions, regulations, or legislation may be issued in the future on the treatment of existing crypto asset transactions and future crypto asset innovations under U.S. federal, U.S. state or foreign tax law. Any such developments could result in adverse tax consequences for holders of crypto assets and could have an adverse effect on the value of crypto assets and the broader crypto assets markets. Future technological and operational developments that may arise with respect to crypto assets may increase the uncertainty with respect to the treatment of crypto assets for U.S. and foreign tax purposes. The uncertainty regarding tax treatment of crypto asset transactions impacts our customers, and could impact our business, both domestically and abroad.
Our tax information reporting obligations with respect to crypto transactions may be subject to further scrutiny in light of changes made to the U.S. and global broker reporting regime for tax reporting.
In November 2021, the U.S. Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (the “IIJA”), providing that brokers would be responsible for reporting to the IRS the transactions of their customers in digital assets, including transfers to other exchanges or to digital asset wallets not connected to any exchange. On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS released finalized regulations and issued other administrative guidance on tax information reporting for digital assets (the “Final Regulations”) and introduced new rules that will be applicable, in certain cases, starting January 1, 2025, related to our tax reporting and withholding obligations on our customer transactions.
Although we believe we are compliant with U.S. tax reporting and withholding requirements with respect to our customers’ crypto asset transactions, our compliance with the Final Regulations, including but not limited to U.S. onboarding requirements through Forms W9 and W8, backup withholding, non-resident alien withholding, and Form 1099 and Form 1042-S reporting obligations, may be subject to scrutiny and may be challenged. There is a risk that we may not have proper processes and procedures necessary to comply with the Final Regulations, may not interpret the IIJA, the Final Regulations, or administrative guidance correctly, or may not build systems within the required timelines to ensure compliance for certain customers or transactions. If the IRS determines that we are not in compliance with our tax reporting or withholding obligations on customer transactions, significant taxes and penalties may be imposed, which could adversely affect our financial position. The Final Regulations will require us to invest substantially in new compliance processes and procedures, which also could adversely affect our financial position. Further, the IRS announced it intends to issue additional guidance in the future, including, but not limited to, guidance on the treatment of non-custodial parties, which could impose additional burdens on us and result in significant taxes and penalties that could adversely affect our financial position.
Similarly, new rules for reporting crypto assets under the global “common reporting standard” as well as under the “crypto-asset reporting framework” will be implemented on our international operations, creating new obligations and a need to invest in new onboarding and reporting infrastructure. Such rules are under discussion today by the member and observer states of the “Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development” and by the European Commission on behalf of the member states of the European Union. These new rules may give rise to potential liabilities or disclosure requirements for prior customer arrangements and new rules that affect how we onboard our customers and report their transactions to taxing authorities. Additionally, the European Union has issued a directive, commonly referred to as “CESOP” (the Central Electronic System of Payment information), requiring payment service providers in the European Union to report cross-border fiat transactions to taxing authorities on a quarterly basis beginning in January 2024. Any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with the above or any other emerging tax and financial regulations that apply to our operations could harm our business and adversely affect our financial position.
The nature of our business requires the application of complex financial accounting rules, and there is limited guidance from accounting standard setting bodies on certain topics. If financial accounting standards undergo significant changes, our operating results could be adversely affected.
futures contracts and swaps, including transactions that are based on current and future prices of crypto assets and indices of crypto assets. To the extent that a crypto asset in which we facilitate or facilitated trading or transactions in a crypto asset which we facilitate or facilitated are deemed to fall within the definition of a commodity interest, including pursuant to subsequent rulemaking or guidance by the CFTC, we may be subject to additional regulatory requirements and oversight and could be subject to judicial or administrative sanctions if we do not or did not at a relevant time possess appropriate registrations as an exchange (for example, as a designated contract market for trading futures or options on futures, or as a swaps execution facility for trading swaps) or as a registered intermediary (for example, as a futures commission merchant or introducing broker). Such actions could result in injunctions, cease and desist orders, as well as civil monetary penalties, fines, and disgorgement, as well as reputational harm. The CFTC has previously brought enforcement actions against entities engaged in crypto asset activities for failure to obtain appropriate exchange, execution facility and intermediary registrations.
Furthermore, the CFTC and the SEC have jointly adopted regulations defining “security-based swaps,” which include swaps based on single securities and narrow-based indices of securities. If a crypto asset is deemed to be a security, certain transactions referencing that crypto asset could constitute a security-based swap. A crypto asset or transaction therein that is based on or references a security or index of securities, whether or not such securities are themselves crypto assets, could also constitute a security-based swap. To the extent that a crypto asset in which we facilitate or have facilitated trading or transactions in a crypto asset which we facilitate or have facilitated are deemed to fall within the definition of a security-based swap, including pursuant to subsequent rulemaking or guidance by the CFTC or SEC, we may be subject to additional regulatory requirements and oversight by the SEC and could be subject to judicial or administrative sanctions if we do not or did not a relevant time possess appropriate registrations as an exchange (for example, as a security-based swaps execution facility) or as a registered intermediary (for example, as a security-based swap dealer or broker-dealer). This could result in injunctions, cease and desist orders, as well as civil monetary penalties, fines, and disgorgement, as well as reputational harm.
We obtain and process a large amount of sensitive customer data. Any real or perceived improper use of, disclosure of, or access to such data could harm our reputation, as well as have an adverse effect on our business.
We are subject to laws, regulations, and industry requirements related to data privacy, data protection and information security, and user protection across different markets where we conduct our business, including in the United States, European Economic Area (the “EEA”) and Asia-Pacific region and industry requirements and such laws, regulations, and industry requirements are constantly evolving and changing. Any actual or perceived failure to comply with such laws, regulations, and industry requirements, or our privacy policies, could harm our business.
Various local, state, federal, and international laws, directives, and regulations apply to our collection, use, retention, protection, disclosure, transfer, and processing of personal data. These data protection and privacy laws and regulations are subject to uncertainty and continue to evolve in ways that could adversely impact our business. These laws have a substantial impact on our operations both outside and in the United States, either directly or as a data processor and handler for various offshore entities.
In the United States, state and federal lawmakers and regulatory authorities have increased their attention on the collection and use of user data. In the United States, non-sensitive user data generally may be used under current rules and regulations, subject to certain restrictions, so long as the person does not affirmatively “opt-out” of the collection or use of such data. If an “opt-in” model or additional required “opt-outs” were to be adopted in the United States, less data may be available, and the cost of data likely would increase. For example, California enacted the CCPA (effective January 2020) and the California Privacy Rights Act (the “CPRA”) (effective January 2023), which expands upon and amends the CCPA.
The CCPA and the CPRA require covered companies to, among other things, provide new disclosures to California users, and affords such users new privacy rights such as the ability to opt-out of certain sales of personal information and expanded rights to access and require deletion of their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing, and receive detailed information about how their personal information is collected, used, and shared. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for security breaches that may increase security breach litigation. In addition, several other states have proposed or enacted laws that contain obligations similar to the CCPA and CPRA that have taken effect or will take effect in coming years. We cannot fully predict the impact of recently proposed or enacted laws or regulations on our business or operations, but compliance may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies incurring costs and expense. Further, to the extent multiple state-level laws are introduced with inconsistent or conflicting standards, it may require costly and difficult efforts to achieve compliance with such laws. Our failure or perceived failure to comply with state privacy laws or regulations passed in the future could have a material adverse effect on our business, including how we use personal information, our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Additionally, many foreign countries and governmental bodies, including Australia, Brazil, Kenya, the European Union, India, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and numerous other jurisdictions in which we operate or conduct our business, have laws and regulations concerning the collection, use, processing, storage, and deletion of personal information obtained from their residents or by businesses operating within their jurisdiction. These laws and regulations often are more restrictive than those in the United States. Such laws and regulations may require companies to implement new privacy and security policies, permit individuals to access, correct, and delete personal information stored or maintained by such companies, inform individuals of security breaches that affect their personal information, require that certain types of data be retained on local servers within these jurisdictions, and, in some cases, obtain individuals’ affirmative opt-in consent to collect and use personal information for certain purposes.
could affect our product usage and harm our business.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property
Our intellectual property rights are valuable, and any inability to protect them could adversely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our business depends in large part on our proprietary technology and our brand. We rely on, and expect to continue to rely on, a combination of trademark, trade dress, domain name, copyright, and trade secrets, as well as confidentiality and license agreements with our employees, contractors, consultants, and third parties with whom we have relationships, to establish and protect our brand and other intellectual property rights. However, our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights may not be sufficient or effective. Our proprietary technology and trade secrets could be lost through misappropriation or breach of our confidentiality and license agreements, and any of our intellectual property rights may be challenged, which could result in them being narrowed in scope or declared invalid or unenforceable. There can be no assurance that our intellectual property rights will be sufficient to protect against others offering products, services, or technologies that are substantially similar to ours and that compete with our business.
We do not intend to monetize our patents or attempt to block third parties from competing with us by asserting our patents offensively, but our ability to successfully defend intellectual property challenges from competitors and other parties may depend, in part, on our ability to counter-assert our patents defensively. Effective protection of our intellectual property may be expensive and difficult to maintain, both in terms of application and registration costs as well as the costs of defending and enforcing those rights. As we have grown, we have sought to obtain and protect our intellectual property rights in an increasing number of countries, a process that can be expensive and may not always be successful. In some instances, patent applications or patents may be abandoned or allowed to lapse, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in a relevant jurisdiction. Further, intellectual property protection may not be available to us in every country in which our products and services are available. For example, some foreign countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner must grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against certain third parties, including government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, patents may provide limited or no benefit. We may also agree to license our patents to third parties as part of various patent pools and open patent projects. Those licenses may diminish our ability, though, to counter-assert our patents against certain parties that may bring claims against us.
We have been, and in the future may be, sued by third parties for alleged infringement of their proprietary rights.
number of crypto projects, their developers, members of their ecosystem, and investors. These transactions and relationships could create potential conflicts of interests in management decisions that we make. For instance, certain of our officers, directors, and employees are active investors in crypto projects themselves, and may make investment decisions that favor projects that they have personally invested in. Many of our large stockholders also make investments in these crypto projects. In addition, our co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Armstrong, is involved in a number of initiatives related to the cryptoeconomy and more broadly. For example, Mr. Armstrong currently serves as the chief executive officer of ResearchHub Technologies, Inc., a scientific research development platform. This and other initiatives he is involved in could divert Mr. Armstrong's time and attention from overseeing our business operations which could have a negative impact on our business. Moreover, we may in the future be subject to litigation as a result of his involvement with these other initiatives.
Similarly, certain of our directors, officers, employees, and large stockholders may hold crypto assets that we are considering supporting for trading on our platform, and may be more supportive of such listing notwithstanding legal, regulatory, and other issues associated with such crypto assets. While we have instituted policies and procedures to limit and mitigate such risks, there is no assurance that such policies and procedures will be effective, or that we will be able to manage such conflicts of interests adequately. If we fail to manage these conflicts of interests, or we receive unfavorable media coverage with respect to actual or perceived conflicts of interest, our business may be harmed and the brand, reputation and credibility of our company may be adversely affected.
General Risk Factors
Adverse economic conditions may adversely affect our business.
Our performance is subject to general economic conditions, and their impact on the crypto asset markets and our customers. The United States and other key international economies have experienced cyclical downturns from time to time in which economic activity declined resulting in lower consumption rates, restricted credit, reduced profitability, weaknesses in financial markets, bankruptcies, and overall uncertainty with respect to the economy. Adverse general economic conditions have impacted the cryptoeconomy, although the extent of which remains uncertain and dependent on a variety of factors, including market adoption of crypto assets, global trends in the cryptoeconomy, central bank monetary policies, instability in the global banking system and other events beyond our control. Geopolitical developments, such as trade wars and foreign exchange limitations can also increase the severity and levels of unpredictability globally and increase the volatility of global financial and crypto asset markets. For example, the capital and credit markets have experienced extreme volatility and disruptions, resulting in steep declines in the value of crypto assets. To the extent general economic conditions and crypto assets markets materially deteriorate or decline for a prolonged period, our ability to generate revenue and to attract and retain customers could suffer and our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected. Moreover, even if general economic conditions were to improve following any such deterioration, there is no guarantee that the cryptoeconomy would similarly improve.
Further, in 2022, a number of blockchain protocols and crypto financial firms, and in particular protocols and firms involving high levels of financial leverage such as high-yield lending products or derivatives trading, suffered from insolvency and liquidity crises leading to the 2022 Events. Some of the 2022 Events are alleged or have been held to be the result of fraudulent activity by insiders, including misappropriation of customer funds and other illicit activity and internal controls failures. In connection with the 2022 Events, concerns were raised about the potential for a market condition where the failure of one company leads to the financial distress of other companies, which has the potential to depress the prices of assets used as collateral by other firms. If such a market condition were to become widespread in the cryptoeconomy, we could suffer from increased counterparty risk, including defaults or bankruptcies of major customers or counterparties, which could lead to significantly reduced activity on our platform and fewer available crypto market opportunities in general. Further, forced selling of crypto assets by distressed companies could lead to lower crypto asset prices and may lead to a reduction in our revenue. To the extent that conditions in the general economic and crypto asset markets were to materially
deteriorate, our ability to attract and retain customers may suffer.
Actual events involving limited liquidity, defaults, non-performance or other adverse developments that affect financial institutions, transactional counterparties or other companies in the financial services industry, or the financial services industry generally, or concerns or rumors about any such events or other similar risks, have in the past and may in the future lead to market-wide liquidity problems. For example, in March 2023, Silvergate Capital Corp. announced it would wind down operations and liquidate Silvergate Bank. Soon after, the FDIC was appointed receiver of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. In connection with these issues and issues with other financial institutions, the prices of fiat-backed stablecoins, including USDC, were temporarily impacted and may be similarly impacted again in the future. Further, if the instability in the global banking system continues or worsens, there could be additional negative ramifications, such as additional all market-wide liquidity problems or impacted access to deposits and investments for customers of affected banks and certain banking partners, and our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
We are a remote-first company which subjects us to heightened operational risks.
Our employees and service providers work from home and we are a remote-first company. This subjects us to heightened operational risks. For example, technologies in our employees’ and service providers’ homes may not be as robust as in our offices and could cause the networks, information systems, applications, and other tools available to employees and service providers to be more limited or less reliable than in our offices. Further, the security systems in place at our employees’ and service providers’ homes may be less secure than those used in our offices, and while we have implemented technical and administrative safeguards to help protect our systems as our employees and service providers work from home, we may be subject to increased cybersecurity risk, which could expose us to risks of data or financial loss, and could disrupt our business operations. There is no guarantee that the data security and privacy safeguards we have put in place will be completely effective or that we will not encounter risks associated with employees and service providers accessing company data and systems remotely. We also face challenges due to the need to operate with the remote workforce and are addressing those challenges to minimize the impact on our ability to operate.
Being a remote-first company may make it more difficult for us to preserve our corporate culture and our employees may have decreased opportunities to collaborate in meaningful ways. Further, we cannot guarantee that being a remote-first company will not have a negative impact on employee morale and productivity. Any failure to preserve our corporate culture and foster collaboration could harm our future success, including our ability to retain and recruit personnel, innovate and operate effectively, and execute on our business strategy.
Environmental, social and governance factors may impose additional costs and expose us to new risks.
There is an increasing focus from certain investors, regulators, employees, users and other stakeholders concerning corporate responsibility, specifically related to environmental, social and governance matters (“ESG”). Some investors may use these non-financial performance factors to guide their investment strategies and, in some cases, may choose not to invest in us if they believe our policies and actions relating to corporate responsibility are inadequate. The growing investor demand for measurement of non-financial performance is addressed by third-party providers of sustainability assessment and ratings on companies. The criteria by which our corporate responsibility practices are assessed may change due to the constant evolution of the sustainability landscape, which could result in greater expectations of us and cause us to undertake costly initiatives to satisfy such new criteria. If we elect not to or are unable to satisfy such new criteria, investors may conclude that our policies and actions with respect to corporate social responsibility are inadequate. We may face reputational damage in the event that we do not meet the ESG standards set by various constituencies.
Furthermore, if our competitors’ corporate social responsibility performance is perceived to be better than ours, potential or current investors may elect to invest with our competitors instead. In addition, in the
event that we communicate certain initiatives and goals regarding environmental, social and governance matters, we could fail, or be perceived to fail, in our achievement of such initiatives or goals, or we could be criticized for the scope of such initiatives or goals. If we fail to satisfy the expectations of investors, employees and other stakeholders or our initiatives are not executed as planned, our reputation and business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely impacted.
Changes in U.S. and foreign tax laws, as well as the application of such laws, could adversely impact our financial position and operating results.
We are subject to complex tax laws and regulations in the United States and a variety of foreign jurisdictions. All of these jurisdictions have in the past and may in the future make changes to their corporate income tax rates and other income tax laws which could increase our future income tax provision. For example, our future income tax obligations could be adversely affected by earnings that are lower than anticipated in jurisdictions where we have lower statutory rates and by earnings that are higher than anticipated in jurisdictions where we have higher statutory rates, by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, by changes in the amount of unrecognized tax benefits, or by changes in tax laws, regulations, accounting principles, or interpretations thereof, including changes with possible retroactive application or effect.
Our determination of our tax liability is subject to review and may be challenged by applicable U.S. and foreign tax authorities. Any adverse outcome of such a challenge could harm our operating results and financial condition. The determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires significant judgment and, in the ordinary course of business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is complex and uncertain. Moreover, as a multinational business, we have subsidiaries that engage in many intercompany transactions in a variety of tax jurisdictions where the ultimate tax determination is complex and uncertain. Our existing corporate structure and intercompany arrangements have been implemented in a manner we believe is in compliance with current prevailing tax laws. Furthermore, as we operate in multiple taxing jurisdictions, the application of tax laws can be subject to diverging and sometimes conflicting interpretations by tax authorities of these jurisdictions. It is not uncommon for taxing authorities in different countries to have conflicting views with respect to, among other things, the characterization and source of income or other tax items, the manner in which the arm’s-length standard is applied for transfer pricing purposes, or with respect to the valuation of intellectual property. The taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our tax treatment of certain items or the methodologies we use for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements, which could impact our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our financial position and operating results.
Further, any changes in the tax laws governing our activities may increase our tax expense, the amount of taxes we pay, or both. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “TCJA”), enacted on December 22, 2017, significantly reformed the U.S. federal tax code, reducing the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate, making sweeping changes to the rules governing international business operations, and imposing new limitations on a number of tax benefits, including deductions for business interest and the use of net operating loss carryforwards. Effective beginning in 2022, the TCJA also eliminated the option to immediately deduct research and development expenditures and required taxpayers to amortize domestic expenditures over five years and foreign expenditures over fifteen years. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “Inflation Reduction Act”), enacted on August 16, 2022, further amended the U.S. federal tax code, imposing a 15% minimum tax on “adjusted financial statement income” of certain corporations as well as an excise tax on the repurchase or redemption of stock by certain corporations, beginning in the 2023 tax year. In addition, over the last several years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been working on a Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project that, if implemented, would change various aspects of the existing framework under which our tax obligations are determined in many of the countries in which we do business. As of September 2024, over 140 countries have approved a framework that imposes a minimum tax rate of 15%, among other provisions. As this framework is subject to further negotiation and implementation by each member country, the timing and ultimate impact of any such changes on our tax obligations are uncertain. There can be no
assurance that future tax law changes will not increase the rate of the corporate income tax, impose new limitations on deductions, credits or other tax benefits, or make other changes that may adversely affect our business, cash flows or financial performance.
In addition, the IRS has yet to issue guidance on a number of important issues regarding the tax treatment of cryptocurrency and the products we provide to our customers and from which we derive our income. In the absence of such guidance, we will take positions with respect to any such unsettled issues. There is no assurance that the IRS or a court will agree with the positions taken by us, in which case tax penalties and interest may be imposed that could adversely affect our business, cash flows or financial performance.
We also are subject to non-income taxes, such as payroll, sales, use, value-added, digital services, net worth, property, and goods and services taxes in the United States and various foreign jurisdictions. Specifically, we may be subject to new allocations of tax as a result of increasing efforts by certain jurisdictions to tax activities that may not have been subject to tax under existing tax principles. Companies such as ours may be adversely impacted by such taxes. Tax authorities may disagree with certain positions we have taken. As a result, we may have exposure to additional tax liabilities that could have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.
As a result of these and other factors, the ultimate amount of tax obligations owed may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and any such difference may harm our operating results in future periods in which we change our estimates of our tax obligations or in which the ultimate tax outcome is determined.
Our ability to use our deferred tax assets may be subject to certain limitations under U.S. or foreign law.
Realization of our deferred tax assets, in the form of future domestic or foreign tax deductions, credits or other tax benefits, will depend on future taxable income, and there is a risk that some or all of such tax assets could be subject to limitation or otherwise unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities, all of which could adversely affect our operating results. For example, future changes in our stock ownership, the causes of which may be outside of our control, could result in an ownership change under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), which could limit our use of such tax assets in certain circumstances. Similarly, additional changes may be made to U.S. (federal and state) and foreign tax laws which could further limit our ability to fully utilize these tax assets against future taxable income.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, our ability to utilize tax deductions or losses from prior years may be limited by the imposition of the 15% minimum tax if such minimum tax applies to us. Therefore, we may be required to pay additional U.S. federal income taxes despite any available tax deductions, U.S. federal net operating loss (“NOL”) carryforwards, credits or other tax benefits that we accumulate.
Fluctuations in currency exchange rates could harm our operating results and financial condition.
Revenue generated and expenses incurred from our international operations are often denominated in the currencies of the local countries. Accordingly, changes in the value of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar can affect our revenue and operating results reflected in our U.S. dollar-denominated financial statements. Our financial results are also subject to changes in exchange rates that impact the settlement of transactions in non-functional currencies. As a result, it could be more difficult to detect underlying trends in our business and operating results. To the extent that fluctuations in currency exchange rates cause our operating results to differ from expectations of investors, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely impacted. From time to time, we may engage in currency hedging activities to limit the risk of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. To the extent we use hedging instruments to hedge exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, the use of such hedging instruments may not offset any or more than a portion of the adverse financial effects of unfavorable movements in foreign exchange rates over the limited time the hedges are in place, and may
introduce additional risks if we are unable to structure effective hedges with such instruments.
If our estimates or judgment relating to our critical accounting estimates prove to be incorrect, our operating results could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Estimates” in Part I, Item 2 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant estimates and judgments that comprise our critical accounting estimates involve the valuation of assets acquired and liabilities assumed in business combinations, valuation of strategic investments, evaluation of tax positions, and evaluation of legal and other contingencies. Our operating results may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to fall below the expectations of analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the trading price of our Class A common stock.
We may be adversely affected by natural disasters, pandemics, and other catastrophic events, and by man-made problems such as terrorism, that could disrupt our business operations, and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from a serious disaster.
Natural disasters or other catastrophic events may also cause damage or disruption to our operations, international commerce, and the global economy, and could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. Our business operations are subject to interruption by natural disasters, fire, power shortages, and other events beyond our control. In addition, our global operations expose us to risks associated with public health crises, such as pandemics and epidemics, which could harm our business and cause our operating results to suffer. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic and the related precautionary measures that we adopted have in the past resulted, and could in the future result, in difficulties or changes to our customer support, or create operational or other challenges, any of which could adversely impact our business and operating results. Further, acts of terrorism, labor activism or unrest, and other geopolitical unrest, including ongoing regional conflicts around the world, could cause disruptions in our business or the businesses of our partners or the economy as a whole. In the event of a natural disaster, including a major earthquake, blizzard, or hurricane, or a catastrophic event such as a fire, power loss, or telecommunications failure, we may be unable to continue our operations and may endure system interruptions, reputational harm, delays in development of our platform, lengthy interruptions in service, breaches of data security, and loss of critical data, all of which could have an adverse effect on our future operating results. We do not maintain insurance sufficient to compensate us for the potentially significant losses that could result from disruptions to our services. Additionally, all the aforementioned risks may be further increased if we do not implement a disaster recovery plan or our partners’ disaster recovery plans prove to be inadequate. To the extent natural disasters or other catastrophic events concurrently impact data centers we rely on in connection with private key restoration, customers will experience significant delays in withdrawing funds, or in the extreme we may suffer loss of customer funds.
The requirements of being a public company, including maintaining adequate internal control over our financial and management systems, may strain our resources, divert management’s attention, and affect our ability to attract and retain executive management and qualified board members.
As a public company we incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses. We are subject to reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the rules subsequently
interest rate changes, or international currency fluctuations, may negatively impact the market price of our Class A common stock. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We are currently subject to stockholder litigation and in June 2023 the SEC filed the June 2023 SEC Complaint, as described in the section titled “Legal Proceedings” in Part II, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and may continue to be the target of these types of actions or additional regulatory uncertainty and scrutiny in the future. Securities or regulatory actions against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could harm our business.
The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with those stockholders, including our directors, executive officers, and 5% stockholders, and their respective affiliates. As a result of this structure, our Chief Executive Officer has control over key decision making as a result of his control of a majority of our voting stock. This ownership will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters, including the election of directors, amendments of our organizational documents, and any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets, or other major corporate transaction requiring stockholder approval.
Accordingly, investors may have to rely on sales of their Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.