Crypto Boom Fuels Coinbase & Robinhood’s Q4 Blowout as Investors Eye Bitcoin Miners

Key Takeaways

• Coinbase and Robinhood outperformed market expectations in the last quarter of 2024.
• Strategy reinforced its Bitcoin-centric shift by rebranding and increasing BTC holdings.
• Investors turn to Riot Platforms and MARA results.

The crypto market’s strong rally in late 2024 powered Coinbase and Robinhood past expectations, with both reporting massive revenue and earnings growth.

Meanwhile, MicroStrategy, now rebranded as Strategy, has reinforced its Bitcoin-centric vision despite a $1 billion impairment loss.

With these results in, investor focus now turns to Bitcoin (BTC) miners Riot Platforms and MARA, set to report earnings amid evolving network conditions and the approaching Bitcoin halving.

Crypto Exchanges Beat Market Expectations

Coinbase and Robinhood both exceeded market expectations in Q4 2024, driven by a surging crypto market. Coinbase reported earnings per share of $4.68, far surpassing the expected $1.81.

Net income soared to $1.3 billion, up from $273 million a year ago, while revenue jumped to $2.3 billion from $953.8 million.

Transaction revenue more than doubled to $1.56 billion, beating analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. Trading volume surged 185% year-over-year to $439 billion, with consumer trading up 224% and institutional trading up 176%.

Robinhood also posted impressive results, with total net revenue up by 115% year-over-year to $1.01 billion. Net income skyrocketed over tenfold to $916 million, with diluted earnings per share of $1.01.

Crypto trading revenue was a key driver, surging 700% to $358 million—more than half of its transaction-based revenue of $672 million.

CEO Vlad Tenev highlighted Robinhood’s aggressive expansion, including new products, a trading platform for active traders, the Gold Card and expansion into the U.K. and EU.

User engagement hit record highs, with funded accounts reaching 25.2 million and assets under custody up 88% to $193 billion. Robinhood Gold subscriptions grew to 2.6 million, reflecting rising demand for premium trading features.

Strategy Struggles While BTC Holding Increases

MicroStrategy’s rebrand to Strategy includes a new logo, a bold orange color scheme and a stylized “₿,” reinforcing its Bitcoin-centric focus.

The company also launched a branded merchandise store. Strategy’s new corporate page reflects the new shift:

“We are a publicly traded company that has adopted Bitcoin as our primary treasury reserve asset.”

This suggests plans to offer investors Bitcoin exposure through securities, structured financial products or financial services.

However, its aggressive Bitcoin bet carries risks. Q4 2024 results revealed a $1 billion impairment loss on its Bitcoin holdings, contributing to a net loss of $670.8 million—the company’s fourth consecutive quarterly loss.

Despite this, Strategy remains committed, targeting a $10 billion gain from Bitcoin in 2025.

At the end of 2024, it held 447,470 Bitcoins with a carrying value of $23.909 billion and a market value of $41.789 billion. With an average cost per bitcoin of $62,503, Strategy is betting heavily on a bullish future for the digital asset.

Eyes on Riot and MARA

With Coinbase, Robinhood and Strategy’s results behind us, crypto investors’ eyes now turn to Riot Platforms and MARA earnings, which will be released later this month.

According to analysts, RIOT will report a loss per share of $0.18, narrowing from the $0.54 loss reported in the same quarter in 2023. RIOT exceeded EPS estimates 50% of the time, while the industry did 65%. The sales forecast is $135.9 million.

MARA is also expected to report a loss-per-share at $0.13, improving from $0.42. MARA also beat EPS estimates 50% of the time. Sales forecast is $188.6 million, up from $131.7 million.

MARA exceeded sales estimates 25% of the time, compared to the industry’s 81%.

Both Riot and MARA published production figures for January 2025.

Riot increased its BTC holdings to 18,221 BTC—up by 3%—in January, mining 527 BTC. The hash rate reached 33.5 EH/s, with the Corsicana Facility at 15.7 EH/s.

The company earned $3.6 million in power credits, up by 250%. Riot adjusted its 2025 hash rate target to 38.4 EH/s from 46.7 EH/s, focusing on efficiency and AI applications.

MARA’s BTC production fell by 13% to 750 BTC due to network difficulty. It completed immersion cooling for 230 containers in Texas and is transitioning its Nebraska site to S21 Pro miners.

The hash rate remained at 53.2 EH/s, with no new miners deployed. MARA plans to expand in 2025 with near-net-zero energy solutions.