BlockBeats News, May 8th, Coinbase released its first quarter 2026 financial report, with a 31% year-on-year decrease in net revenue to $14 billion and a net loss of approximately $394 million, far exceeding market expectations. The outside world generally attributes this to the downturn in the crypto market, but a careful review of the company's various "antics" over the past year seems to have already sounded the alarm for its performance.

CEO's Continuous Significant Stock Sales: According to statistics, in the past year, Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong has sold approximately $500 million worth of COIN shares. The sale prices mainly ranged from $176.58 to $398.20.

Acquisition of Echo Platform: Acquired the on-chain financing platform Echo for $375 million. However, the platform has a limited user base and has been questioned for its Sybil attack risk.

NFT Podcast "Money Burning": Invested $25 million in creating the NFT-related podcast project UpOnly, but has not released any episodes to date.

Heavy Investment in Deribit: Acquired the derivatives platform Deribit for $29 billion, aiming to fill the gap in the derivatives business.

Massive Layoffs: On the 5th, Coinbase announced a reduction of approximately 14% of its workforce, corresponding to 700 employees, citing AI transformation as the reason.

BlockBeats believes that Coinbase's strategy execution during market volatility, with executives cashing out while aggressively investing and expanding, alongside personnel optimization, is highly controversial. The downturn in Q1 financial report may not solely be attributed to the "industry winter".