Reportedly, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase, considered adopting a bold Bitcoin accumulation strategy similar to Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy, but has decided multiple times to abandon it over the past 12 years.

In a video interview with Bloomberg on May 9, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed that there had been internal discussions about allocating a significant portion of the balance sheet (up to 80%) to Bitcoin. However, the leadership deemed this move too risky and potentially detrimental to the company's core business.

"We made a conscious choice of risk," Armstrong said, acknowledging the temptation to make large-scale cryptocurrency investments. "There was indeed a time over the past 12 years when we considered whether to allocate 80% of our balance sheet to cryptocurrency—especially Bitcoin."

Avoid conflicts with customers

Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas also expressed similar concerns. She emphasized that Coinbase does not want to be seen as picking cryptocurrency winners, especially since the platform covers a wide range of assets and customers.

"We do not want to be seen as directly competing with our customers," Haas explained.

Nevertheless, Coinbase has not completely exited the Bitcoin market. According to its Q1 earnings report released on May 8, the company added $153 million in cryptocurrencies to its held assets—primarily Bitcoin. It currently holds 9,480 Bitcoins, worth approximately $988 million, making up the majority of its $1.3 billion in cryptocurrency assets.

This places Coinbase ninth among corporate Bitcoin holders, behind MicroStrategy, MARA Holdings, and Tesla.

While Coinbase remains cautious, others are all-in.

While Coinbase remains cautious, some other listed companies are also following Saylor's model—raising funds through stock and bond offerings to buy Bitcoin, betting that long-term price increases will boost their equity value.

Today, over 100 publicly traded companies hold Bitcoin. According to public data, this list also includes 40 ETF issuers, 26 private companies, and 12 sovereign nations.

Coinbase expands into derivatives with a $2.9 billion deal

To expand its market influence, Coinbase announced on May 8 that it would spend $2.9 billion to acquire the cryptocurrency derivatives platform Deribit. This is the largest corporate acquisition in the cryptocurrency industry to date.

This acquisition has given Coinbase a significant position in the booming cryptocurrency derivatives market, which was previously only accessible through its Bermuda platform. Deribit processed over $1 trillion in trading volume in 2024, with about $30 billion in open contracts.