Benchmark Keeps Buy on Coinbase, Raises Target to $270

Benchmark reiterated a Buy rating on Coinbase and raised its price target to $270 from $260 after the exchange reported first-quarter 2026 results. Coinbase posted a net loss of $394 million and revenue of $755.8 million. Adjusted EBITDA on a non-GAAP basis was $303.3 million, down from $929.9 million a year earlier. Shares fell about 6% after the results. Coinbase announced plans to cut roughly 14% of its workforce ahead of the earnings release.

Benchmark’s research team described Coinbase as shifting from a market-dependent brokerage toward a broader infrastructure provider for the onchain economy, citing growth in stablecoins, derivatives, tokenization, decentralized finance and payments within the company’s ecosystem.

The report noted Coinbase reached an all-time high 8.6% share of global crypto trading volume in the quarter and reported its 12th consecutive quarter of net inflows, with about $294 billion of customer assets on the platform.

Benchmark highlighted product diversification, saying the company has 12 monetized business lines that each generate about $100 million in annualized revenue. Derivatives contributed a record share of revenue in the quarter. The firm estimated Coinbase captures roughly half of USDC stablecoin economics and reported that stablecoin-related transaction volume on the blockchain rose about tenfold year over year. Benchmark also described Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum scaling layer, as currently underappreciated given increasing integrations for decentralized finance and other applications.

The analysis flagged regulatory developments as a potential catalyst. Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal expressed confidence that the CLARITY Act could become law by the end of summer 2026. The report added that comprehensive market-structure legislation might increase institutional participation in tokenization, custody, stablecoins, lending and other crypto-enabled services.

Other brokerages issued mixed views. Rosenblatt Securities and Bernstein maintained Buy ratings. Mizuho kept a Neutral rating, valuing Coinbase at about $200 per share based on roughly 17 times estimated 2027 adjusted EBITDA, and noted that Coinbase’s lead among nonprofessional traders versus some competitors narrowed to about 51% in the first quarter.

The quarter combined rising market share, higher assets on platform and expanding product contributions with a steep year-over-year decline in adjusted EBITDA and a significant quarterly net loss.