Coinbase (Coin) has BTC’s own strategy on the corporate balance sheet, but it’s not the largest list of bitcoins like Michael Saylor’s strategy (MSTR).
In the company’s first quarter, 2025 revenue call, CFO Alesia Haas revealed that Coinbase had purchased $150 million in crypto, “mainly Bitcoin,” bringing its long-term investment portfolio to $1.3 billion, or 25% net cash.
However, Haas did not get in her way to draw a line between Coinbase and the corporation.
“To be clear, we are the management company,” she said. “But we’re investing along with the space.”
In other words, Coinbase is not betting the company on Bitcoin. Armstrong said in a Q&A call with retail investors that he had been tempted to put a lot of BTC on his balance sheet in the early days, but that was too dangerous. Cryptocurrency was unstable, and at the time Coinbase was too young to take that risk.
Now the huge ones listed have changed so you don’t need to all-in with Bitcoin. Coinbase allocates profits from operations to crypto assets, similar to how commodity companies accumulate raw materials. This move is not Michael Saylor, but recycling capital in the sector.
In fact, Coinbase didn’t even trumpet the purchase in a shareholder’s letter. The news only surfaced in response to questions from retail shareholders regarding “acquiring hard crypto reserve assets.”
CEO Brian Armstrong did not talk directly about the purchase, but provided a philosophical context. Coinbase reminds investors and doesn’t dare dabble with cryptography – it’s cryptography.
“We’ve been focusing on cryptography since the beginning 12 years ago, and we’re still focusing on that,” Armstrong said. “Crypto is eating financial services.”
For Armstrong, buying BTC is a by-product of conviction and operational integrity, not a headline play, a Treasury Pivot, or an activist bet.
Coinbase has not held BTC to market broader beliefs or become an agent like MSTR. Behind the accounting language is deeper. Holding Bitcoin is simply part of Coinbase’s job, such as building rails underneath it.
It’s not a financial strategy – it’s the middle one.