Coinbase will plow $500 million into crypto to boost its balance sheet – and bet 10% of future quarterly profits on digital assets

• Coinbase has secured board approval to add $500 million of cryptocurrencies to its balance sheet.
• The crypto exchange said it would invest 10% of its future quarterly profits into digital assets.
• Coinbase will invest the cash over several years using a dollar-cost averaging strategy.
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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced on Thursday that the cryptocurrency exchange will add $500 million of crypto to its balance sheet, and allocate 10% of its future quarterly profits to growing its holdings.

“We recently received board approval to purchase over $500M of crypto on our balance sheet to add to our existing holdings,” he said in a tweet. “And we’ll be investing 10% of all profit going forward in crypto. I expect this percentage to keep growing over time as the cryptoeconomy matures.”

On Friday, Coinbase posted a blog that built on Armstrong’s tweets.

Coinbase’s chief financial officer, Alesia Haas, said the company’s updated investment policy reflects its belief in crypto adoption and utility.

“This means we will become the first publicly-traded company to hold ethereum, proof of stake assets, DeFi tokens, and many other crypto assets supported for trading on our platform, in addition to bitcoin, on our balance sheet,” she wrote.

Coinbase will allocate the funds based on what its customers are holding, and deploy its cash over several years using a dollar-cost averaging strategy. This strategy involves spreading out an investment purchase by putting in equal dollar amounts at regular intervals.

“We are long-term investors and will only divest under select circumstances, such as an asset delisting from our platform,” Haas said.

Several companies have been adding crypto assets to their balance sheet, with MicroStrategy and Tesla being the top holders. Coinbase itself holds about $256 million worth of bitcoin, according to Bitcoin Treasuries.

Earlier this month, Coinbase reported second-quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates. Revenue for the quarter came in at $2.2 billion, higher than expectations of $1.78 billion. The company also revealed it counts Elon Musk, SpaceX, and Tesla as clients, and 10 of the top 100 largest hedge funds.

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