Would that be 5 billion in customer assets and associated liabilities, leaving about 1 billion of equity for Coinbase? At a burn rate of 430 million per quarter that only leaves a runway about 7-8 months.
Wouldn't a hack of the custodial holdings just mean their customers lose their money but the business is otherwise a going concern (for that few moments until everybody stops paying them)?
They get a lot/most of their money from fees with ongoing transactions. If you look at the ‘5 minutes ahead’ picture if there is a hack that either 1) steals all customer assets, or 2) requires them to freeze all activity for a serious length of time, it’s a ‘no longer going concern’ type situation.
No transactions? No income.
No trust/willingness for people to continue doing transactions? No future income.
According to Coinbase 98% of their crypto is stored in offline wallets. So hacking won’t work. You’ll have to break into wherever they have the coins stored and hope the key isn’t destroyed when you unplug the device.
