Coinbase's Stock Fell 90%. FTX Lost Its Customers' Money.

Business Onion · 2:58

On April 14, 2021, Coinbase listed on Nasdaq worth about $86 billion. Twenty months later its stock had fallen about 90% — and in the same crash, rival exchange FTX collapsed with its customers' money gone. Part 2 of THE COINBASE STORY: what playing by the rules actually bought Coinbase in the crypto crash — a scary bankruptcy warning, an apology, 1,100 layoffs, and the week FTX fell. Numbers & sources: ~$86bn is the fully diluted value at the 14 Apr 2021 close ($328.28), per CNBC. The ~90% fall is close to close: $328.28 (14 Apr 2021) to $32.53 (28 Dec 2022). The "general unsecured creditors" line is from Coinbase's Q1 2022 10-Q (10 May 2022), added under the SEC's SAB 121. ~1,100 job cuts: Coinbase 8-K, 14 Jun 2022. Alesia Haas's "There can't be a 'run on the bank' at Coinbase": Coinbase blog, 8 Nov 2022. Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud on 2 Nov 2023. SEC v. Binance was filed 5 Jun 2023; SEC v. Coinbase, 6 Jun 2023. Some scenes are cinematic reconstructions of documented events. All quotes, dates, and figures are verified.