Bittersweet results from Coinbase ??♂?; Block finishes up 2021 strong ??; FC Barcelona to create its own cryptocurrency? ??

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Last week (28 February – 4 March) was another super hot week in the world of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency.?We will look at Coinbase's latest results that caused some mixed feelings; Block finishing 2021 strong; Barcelona exploring the crypto universe, and other interesting news and developments.

Without further ado, let us dive into what has happened in Blockchain & Crypto sector last week. Let’s connect the dots.

Bittersweet results from Coinbase ??♂?

Earnings call ???Crypto exchange?Coinbase?reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates. Shares bounced around after the report. They were down about 5% in extended trading by the end of executives’ call with analysts.

Key numbers ???Here are the key numbers:

• Earnings per share (EPS): $3.32, versus $1.85 expected, according to a Refinitiv survey of analysts
• Revenue: $2.5 billion, versus $1.94 billion expected, according to Refinitiv.
• MTUs jumped to 11.4 million in the prior quarter, up from 7.4 million in the third quarter; Coinbase saw a decline in MTUs between the second and third quarters.
• It also reported net income doubled to $840 million in the fourth quarter compared with the prior period, or several times the year-earlier quarter, when it reported $177 million.

?? THE TAKEAWAY

Investors are buying the story ??♂??Despite record-breaking quarter, the price of COIN shares fell. The key reason for that is because the crypto exchange noted it faces headwinds, including macroeconomic, geopolitical, and crypto-specific issues. Investors don’t love a non-growth story, and Coinbase did not promise one. Yet, some investors are still bullish, and you probably should be too. Coinbase has an opportunity to diversify revenue in staking, NFTs, and derivatives products, not to mention a potentially massive surge in new customers after their?blockbuster Super Bowl ad. So don’t panic-sell $COIN just yet.

Block finishes up 2021 strong ??

Earnings call ???Block?- which changed its name in early December to highlight its focus on things like cryptocurrencies and its seller business -?has reported its latest numbers. Key numbers have beaten the analysts’ expectations.

More on that ???Block’s?gross payments volume (GPV) jumped 45% year over year (YoY) and hit $46.3B, per its shareholder letter. GPV growth accelerated from both the previous quarter (+43% YoY) and the same period last year (+12% YoY).

The company reported revenue of $4.1 billion.

How we got here? ???Solid numbers were achieved partly because?Block targeted larger, “more complex” merchants last year, in part by doubling down on business management tools like Square Invoicing Plus, which integrates with its core payment solutions. Those efforts are already paying off: in Q4, 37% of Block’s seller GPV came from merchants that earned at least $500,000 in GPV - compared with approximately 30% in the same period in 2020.?Not bad!

But what’s next??Quite a few things, actually…

?? THE TAKEAWAY

The future is still bright for Block.?Although Block stock is up by 32% in the last 5 days, it’s still -22% year-to-date and it lost almost 50% of its value in the last year. That’s pretty huge when you think about it… But I wouldn’t worry too much as there’s quite a lot of room for growth for the FinTech giant. First and foremost, Block plans to use Afterpay (which acquisition it recently finalized) to tighten connections between its Square and Cash App ecosystems and grow its global user base. Block can hence attract much larger retailers and also leverage cross-selling opportunities between Square sellers and Afterpay customers. Second, Cash App, which is Block’s cash cow, is still predominantly a US play only. Block may also bring Cash App to new markets and explore new growth opportunities. It's already live in the UK, where Dorsey says there’s been “steady growth.” Block acquired the European financial app Verse?in 2020 and has been using it to learn about peer-to-peer payments behavior in Europe. Finally, the company is also thinking of targeting more actively the teen users that are typically underserved yet are a very good long-term play when it comes to FinTech. Hence, when you add it all up, there’s no other way apart from being bullish on the Block.

FC Barcelona to create its own cryptocurrency? ??

The news ???Spanish soccer giant?FC Barcelona?wants to create its own cryptocurrency, its president has said, according to a report by ESPN.

More on this ???The club has rejected offers to be associated with crypto enterprises because it wishes to develop its own cryptocurrency and its own metaverse, Joan Laporta said at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.

"We want to create our own cryptocurrency and we have to do that ourselves," Laporta said. "We are different because we survive financially from what we can generate through the industry of sport."

The size of Barca ???Unlike the majority of major soccer clubs, Barcelona is owned and operated by its fans. The governance of the club is built around 160,000 members rather than shareholders. It was the world's most valuable soccer club in 2021, according to Forbes.

?? THE TAKEAWAY

A turning point. Potentially…?This could potentially be a turning point for the mainstreamification of crypto. The fact that Barca is already owned and operated by its fans is a huge game-changer. Laporta already said that the club will launch a range of non-fungible tokens (NFT) in the near future, following plans initially announced in November. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Fan tokens, crypto payments, decentralized ownership are some of the very few ways how the world’s most valuable football club could be brought even closer to its fans. And then there’s a possibility of building this in the metaverse… ?? This is huge.

Extra Reads & Quick Bites for Curious Minds??

• Rakuten goes NFTs ???The Rakuten NFT marketplace will offer users digital collectibles of sports and entertainment — such as music and anime — the firm wrote in a release. In addition, Rakuten will offer minting services for intellectual property (IP) holders to create digital assets of their IP. The firm intends to provide peer-to-peer listing and sales in 2021 or later.?
• Card sanctions ???Visa and Mastercard separately announced that they are both blocking numerous Russian financial institutions from their global card payment networks, in support of and compliance with sanctions imposed by the West following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine. Both payment networks also separately pledged a donation of $2 million apiece for humanitarian aid.
• Massive buyback ???The Digital Currency Group (DCG) board has authorized a?share repurchase program of up to $250M?across its nine publicly-traded cryptocurrency trusts – many of which are trading at a steep discount – using cash on hand in the open market. The plan includes up to $30M worth of shares in the Grayscale Litecoin Trust (LTCN), $10 million of the Grayscale Horizen Trust (HZEN), $10M of the Grayscale Zcash Trust (ZCSH), and up to $200M in any of its other six publicly-traded products, including the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

Money Moves??

• Blockchain infrastructure startup?Aligned?raised?$34M?in funding to expand its Web 3 infrastructure and attempt to become the Amazon Web Services for blockchain.
• Blockchain-based storage app?ArDrive?raised?$17.2M?to continue developing its decentralized file storage services. The app currently hosts over 6M files and first gained traction when Hong Kong activists used the service to store content censored by China.?
• Solana-based protocol?Dialect?raised?$4.1M?in a seed fundraising round to bring wallet-to-wallet chat and on-chain notification features to Web 3 apps.

Continue reading by subscribing to?Linas's Newsletter.?You will receive fresh news about FinTech, Blockchain & Crypto with hot takeaways every day.

P.S.?You might enjoy my earlier pieces as well:

?? Bitcoin in 2021: a story in 5 graphs, and what might come in 2022

???A Wise pitch deck that led to London’s biggest and most successful direct listing ever

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About: I am?a business developer, sales professional, FinTech strategist, as well as Cryptocurrency and Blockchain enthusiast. I'm highly passionate about Financial Technology and Digital Innovation, and strongly believe that it will change the world for the better. Apart from my daily job at a global payments startup where I'm leading the company's expansion into Europe, I'm an active member of the FinTech community and a TechFin evangelist.

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