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Coinbase from YC to DPO

blog.ycombinator.com

511–520 of 883 posts

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#512
post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.advratings.com/banking/worlds-top-banks-by-marke... : it's in the top 10-20. Does anyone know what the value of assets under management by Coinbase is?

All crypto is < 1T. I don't know what their market share is, probably high 100Bs.

All crypto is > 2T, as of the last few days

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airbnb market cap is at 105 billion and Coinbase is currently at 86. Personally I'm very sceptical that current valuation for Coinbase is justified. It is a great company for sure but there definitely arent similar network effects as with Airbnb. There's plenty of competition in the crypto exchange space.

Airbnb doesn't have network effects, the value to users increases pretty linearly with the number of hosts, and doesn't really increase at all with the number of other users.

That's just cross-side network effects. More users is better for hosts which means more hosts which is better for users which means more users.

What you probably have in mind is "direct network effects", more like what you'd see with a chat app or social network (though social networks also have cross-side effects between users and advertisers).

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#514

Does anyone know what percentage of their business is in Bitcoin vs Etherium vs other crypto currencies? I have not been able to find that out and I think it would be a helpful thing to know in terms of forecasting their business. Does anyone know how I can find that out? Thank you anyone who can help.

probably in their s1 or other sec docs

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#515
Compare Coinbase to say a major exchange like the NYSE. Realize that crypto is a space that could be damaged by gov intervention at any time. Realize that there is very little lock in effect on these markets, and fees are becoming less and less over time.

How does Coinbase ever manage to justify a valuation this high? 100B....

Ping me when the stock price is under $100.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#516
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still makes no sense to me. It makes sense in the sense that if people believe in it it becomes real. But I don't get why people believe in it. And frankly I'm still pretty skeptical that it's being floated by more than money laundering.

One thing is, crypto is at the intersection of many disciplines at once, tech/finance/economy/psychology/game theory, etc. I'd if you try to start with a clean slate and no biases against it from the get go, spend some time researching and understanding it alonside what money is and it's history, etc. You'll probably start to see some usefulness to it.

I understand a lot of that stuff. I think the last 10 years have very thoroughly vindicated fiat currencies and central banking. The fact that we powered through the last financial crisis without inflation and the biggest pain was inflicted by austerity policies in Europe made it all pretty unequivocal. Crypto is powering close to zero of the mainstream economy. Nobody got a bitcoin bailout. The "money" isn't flowing. I've seen multiple big Wall Street banks say they're going to start using blockchains for whatever and fail to get any traction. It's great for avoiding taxes or buying drugs but I haven't seen any other practical application. The game theory aspect is probably very relevant. There's a lot of FOMO driving speculators into the frenzy.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#517
It would be really interesting to see an article about biggest companies YC passed on around that time in the crypto space. We hear about the YC success stories but I think the “could have been”s are also equally interesting

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#518
One thing I find hilarious, btw:

The antiquated low-tech equity exchanges charge less than 1 bp in trading fees on average, if I'm not mistaken.

The hip new high-tech crypto exchange charges between 50 and 200 bp in trading fees (unless you trade a lot), around 60 bp on average, it seems.

So, crypto trading on Coinbase is two orders of magnitude more expensive than good old fashioned equity. Yay for progress!

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#519

For reference, BP the number five global oil behemoth with 200B in revenues in 2020, has a market cap of 85B. Coinbase that sells pumped speculation for a fee has a market cap of 100B. Markets are efficient.

So if their business model is raking it in by selling pumped-up speculation, and the pumped-up speculation market is a growing sector, then that's what is called an efficient business model which has nothing to do with the fact that markets are 'efficient'. Also, since when does anyone care if casino's business is based on pumped up gambling. As long as there are millions of transactions going on, the business model…

Getting people to overpay for entertainment is a great business model.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#520

For reference, BP the number five global oil behemoth with 200B in revenues in 2020, has a market cap of 85B. Coinbase that sells pumped speculation for a fee has a market cap of 100B. Markets are efficient.

> Fee for speculation

Well first of all everything is speculation, it goes both ways, you mentioned BP, well people use barrels of oil today because they think it won't be worth more tomorrow

Coinbase takes a fee for every transaction in the assets traded on the platform.

The asset in question is the one which people choose as the asset to hold on to express their fears of inflation

This is not unlike 2010 when people like Stanley Druckenmiller and libertarians alike predicted hyperinflation due to QE.

Normies are where Druckenmiller was back in 2010, they have an irrational fear of inflation and they express it by buying BTC.

Coinbase is perfectly positioned to gain from this movement which emerged, and it will only continue given that like anything the more authorities tell humans what to do (in this case to spend) the more they rebel by doing the opposite

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