Barclays analyst Benjamin Budish downgraded Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) from Equal Weight to Underweight on April 8, cutting his price target to $140 from $148.
The thesis is simple: the retail trading boom that built Coinbase is over, and the company has yet to find anything to replace it.
Budish’s note puts the damage in plain terms. Despite a pro-crypto White House and a favorable regulatory backdrop, “global crypto trading activity has declined to a level not seen since the end of 2023,” he wrote.
Coinbase’s Q1 spot volume came in around $189 billion — down 30% from the prior quarter. Barclays is modeling transaction revenues of $678 million for the period, well short of the Street’s $876 million estimate.
March was Coinbase’s worst volume month since September 2024. April, he says, is showing no signs of a rebound.
The Everything Exchange Problem
Budish also questioned whether Coinbase’s “everything exchange” strategy can actually work. Equities …
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