Coinbase’s (COIN) weak first-quarter earnings report sparked another divide on Wall Street over whether the crypto platform is building a more durable business or remains tied to crypto’s boom-and-bust cycles.

Several analysts lowered forecasts after the company missed expectations on revenue and adjusted EBITDA as trading activity slowed across the crypto market. Still, a number of firms argued Coinbase’s expanding stablecoin and derivatives businesses — along with the possible passage of crypto legislation in Washington — could improve the company’s outlook later this year.

JPMorgan said the quarter reflected “a challenging environment” but added that Coinbase had “positioned the company well to operate in an increasingly digital world.”

The bank said pending U.S. crypto legislation “does set up for a better outlook into 2H26 and into 2027” and maintained an overweight rating on the stock.

The legislation in focus is the CLARITY Act, a proposed market structure bill that would establish rules for how crypto assets are regulated in the U.S. The bill aims to define which digital assets fall under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and which would be overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Coinbase and other crypto firms have argued clearer rules could encourage banks, asset managers and large companies to expand crypto activity.

Coinbase executives told analysts they expect a Senate Banking Committee markup this month, followed by a broader vote later in the summer.

Clear Street also pointed to regulation as a major catalyst.

“We see multiple catalysts ahead and remain constructive on the shares going into 2H26,” the firm wrote, even as it lowered its price target to $107 from $140 following weaker trading volume.

The firm highlighted growth in newer products including prediction markets, which generated more than $100 million in annualized revenue by March, and retail derivatives, which surpassed a $200 million annualized pace.

Oppenheimer said Coinbase’s push beyond spot crypto trading is beginning to show traction.

“Prediction Markets has emerged as one of the fastest growing new products,” the firm wrote, adding that the company’s “Everything Exchange strategy” could support long-term growth. The strategy includes stablecoins, derivatives, payments and tokenized assets alongside traditional crypto trading.

William Blair argued the first quarter may represent the low point of the current cycle.

“If Bitcoin BTC$79,876.65 has bottomed, as we suspect it has, April could be the trough spot volume month of the cycle,” the firm wrote.

The firm also pointed to growth in USDC stablecoin activity and Coinbase’s Base blockchain network as signs the company is becoming more embedded in crypto infrastructure beyond trading fees.

Not all analysts were convinced.

Barclays maintained an Underweight rating and warned that “profitability [is] under pressure” as trading activity continues to weaken. The bank said second-quarter transaction revenue trends remain well below Wall Street expectations.

Compass Point also kept a Sell rating, arguing Coinbase “remains entirely beholden to crypto cycles five years after going public.”

The firm said weaker monthly user activity raised questions about whether newer products are attracting new customers or simply replacing older trading businesses.

Shares of Coinbase are down 3.6% in pre-market trading.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong personally sold more stock over the past year than his company lost on behalf of its COIN shareholders last quarter. Although he took a break from his sales in Q1, he entered the quarter with more personal compensation than his company would lose in three months.

The company lost $394 million for its shareholders during the first quarter of 2026. Armstrong, between May 2025 and January 2026, personally sold over $540 million worth of COIN.

Coinbase reported a $394 million net loss on $1.4 billion in revenue compared to a profit of $66 million in Q1 2025 during the brief exuberance over Donald Trump’s pro-crypto policies. 

Net transaction revenue, the engine of the business, fell 40% from Q1 2025 to less than $756 million. 

Coinbase also marked the start of the Consensus conference in Miami by slashing its workforce by 14%, firing about 700 employees on the first day of the mega-event.

The company’s stock closed yesterday down roughly 57% from its July 18, 2025 high of $444.64. The stock was trading another 4% lower in after-hours trading on its earnings disappointment.

XRP keeps grinding toward the top of its recent range, and the move is starting to matter more because liquidity has thinned out while price keeps compressing underneath resistance. That combination tends to make breakouts sharper once the market finally picks a direction.

News Background

• Analysts continue pointing to longer-term bull flag and falling wedge patterns that resemble setups seen before previous XRP rallies.

• XRP ETF inflows and thinning Binance liquidity have added to speculation that the market is entering a higher-volatility phase after weeks of sideways trading.

Price Action Summary

• XRP traded in a tight 1.4% range between $1.3787 and $1.3948 over the 24-hour session.
• A late-session push lifted price from $1.3879 to $1.3930 on a 1.45M volume spike, breaking above the immediate consolidation ceiling.
• Support repeatedly held between $1.3825-$1.3870, while sellers continued defending the $1.3930-$1.3950 zone.

Technical Analysis

• The market has spent weeks compressing between support near $1.38 and resistance just below $1.40, with volatility continuing to tighten.
• Volume expanding into the latest move higher matters because thin liquidity conditions tend to exaggerate price reactions once resistance finally gives way.
• XRP is still stuck below larger breakout levels near $1.47 and $1.50, but repeated tests of resistance usually weaken seller control over time.
• Analysts tracking bull flag and wedge formations continue targeting the $1.60-$1.73 range if the broader structure confirms.

What traders should watch

• $1.3930-$1.3950 is the immediate resistance zone. A sustained move above it shifts focus toward $1.42 and $1.47.
• $1.3825 remains the key support floor holding the current consolidation structure together.
• Liquidity conditions remain unusually thin, increasing the odds of a fast move once the range finally breaks.

TLDR:

• Ondo and Ripple completed a near real-time tokenized Treasury redemption across borders.
• XRP Ledger processed the blockchain asset transfer in under five seconds during pilot.
• Mastercard MTN connected blockchain redemption directly with banking settlement rails.
• The pilot demonstrated 24/7 institutional settlement beyond standard banking hours.

Ondo Finance has completed the first near real-time cross-border redemption of a tokenized U.S. Treasury fund. The transaction was carried out in collaboration with Kinexys by J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, and Ripple.

Together, the four firms settled a cross-border transaction using both a public blockchain and traditional interbank rails.

The process cleared outside standard banking windows, connecting blockchain execution directly to fiat settlement. This marks a practical framework for 24/7 global settlement of tokenized financial assets.

How the Transaction Was Structured

Ripple redeemed a portion of its Ondo OUSG holdings on the XRP Ledger as part of the pilot. Ondo processed the redemption and issued a fiat instruction via the Mastercard Multi-Token Network. The MTN then routed that instruction to Kinexys by J.P. Morgan for settlement execution.

Kinexys debited Ondo’s Blockchain Deposit Account and settled U.S. dollar proceeds to Ripple’s Singapore bank account.

The transfer moved through J.P. Morgan’s correspondent banking network, completing a full cross-border, cross-bank flow. No separate manual instructions were needed at any point in the process.

The XRP Ledger processed the asset leg in under five seconds. Markus Infanger of RippleX stated that this pilot showed institutions can execute cross-border transactions as a single integrated flow.

That speed enabled settlement well outside traditional banking cut-off windows. That distinction gave the pilot a clear operational advantage over conventional settlement systems.

One leg cleared on a public blockchain while the other settled on banking infrastructure. The two systems coordinated directly rather than requiring parallel, independent instructions. Ian De Bode of Ondo Finance said this lays the groundwork for 24/7 global markets that never close.

What This Means for Tokenized Asset Infrastructure

Tokenized real-world assets have grown across the financial sector, but redemption infrastructure has lagged behind.

Traditional wire systems, manual processes, and limited operating hours have restricted how institutions redeem and settle these assets.

Together, these constraints have limited the scalability of tokenized asset redemption for institutional players. This pilot connects blockchain-based redemption to automated fiat settlement, removing those long-standing barriers.

The Mastercard MTN served as the interoperability layer between the blockchain and banking environments. Raj Dhamodharan of Mastercard said the MTN makes near real-time, cross-border settlement available through existing bank accounts. That connectivity allows institutions to access tokenized assets without replacing existing banking infrastructure.

Zack Chestnut of Kinexys by J.P. Morgan said broad adoption requires collaboration across geographies, banking systems, and public blockchains.

This pilot proves that multi-party coordination at that level is achievable today. The transaction was not theoretical — it was executed between real global financial institutions.

The framework supports redemptions from any public blockchain where OUSG is issued, starting with XRPL. Ondo Finance has positioned this as a scalable model for continuous, round-the-clock tokenized asset markets.

The completed pilot shows that 24/7 cross-border settlement across global banks is now operationally within reach.

In this video, we’ll explore the key economic events and market trends, shaping the financial landscape. Get ready for insights into financial markets to help you navigate the week ahead. Let’s dive in!

In this episode of Market Insights, Gary Thomson unpacks the strategic implications of the most critical events driving global markets.

👉 Key topics covered in this episode:

✔️ US Inflation Rate
The US inflation report on 12 May could become a key short-term catalyst for the dollar, especially as markets remain cautious amid geopolitical uncertainty and steady Fed policy expectations. While headline inflation has accelerated due to rising energy prices, traders will closely watch whether inflationary pressures continue to build. Will persistent inflation support the US dollar, or will markets continue to expect no Fed rate changes this year?

✔️ UK GDP Data
The British pound is showing relative strength ahead of the UK GDP release on 14 May, with recent GBP moves largely driven by US dollar dynamics and improving UK economic data. As traders assess quarterly and annual growth figures, the release could trigger heightened volatility in GBP pairs. Will strong GDP data support a sustained recovery in the pound, or will broader market uncertainty limit further gains?

✔️ US-China Meeting
Attention will also turn to the reported meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping on 14-15 May in China. While the event itself may not trigger major volatility, any comments or signals on trade, geopolitics, or global cooperation could influence overall market sentiment and risk appetite. Will the meeting help ease geopolitical concerns, or add further uncertainty to global markets?

To summarise, the market outlook remains driven by a combination of macroeconomic data and geopolitical developments, with no clear dominant trend yet established.

In this environment, traders closely monitor incoming data, being flexible and getting ready for short-term volatility.

Gain insights to strengthen your trading knowledge.

💬 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more professional market insights every week.

Watch it now and stay updated with FXOpen.

This article represents the opinion of the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand only. It is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation with respect to products and services provided by the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand, nor is it to be considered financial advice.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) briefly slipped from $79,000 to just $0.019 today on UK online banking platform Revolut. Mercifully, the dip lasted just a few seconds before it returned to its original price. 

Using Google Chrome, Revolut displays the low between 7:45/50 GMT+1 as $73,000. However, the platform’s mobile app mobile displays the BTC drop as low as $0.019. 

Revolut told Protos that the inaccurate pricing was caused by “a service disruption at a third-party provider.” It said the issue has since been solved and that it’s still “in the process of evaluating the details of the disruption.”

There was a flurry of confusion from onlookers on X this morning as they wondered whether or not a flash crash had taken place. 

Many received a push notification from Revolut on their lock screens claiming that BTC had reached a 52-week low, and that the price was now $0.02. This would be closer to an all-time low. 

Read more: Hot air at AWS causes Coinbase outage

All Revolut told users at the time through its support account is that it’s “currently experiencing technical issues affecting some crypto functionalities.”

However, it’s still unclear if this third-party disruption, leading to BTC’s brief cratering, was the result of a visual glitch or liquidity issues. Neither CoinGecko nor Coinbase are displaying such BTC crashes.

Visual glitches and flash crashes aren’t uncommon

Similar visual glitches aren’t uncommon in the crypto world. Binance, for example, displayed a glitch in people’s wallets last year that dropped everybody’s balance to $0.

This was caused by “network congestion,” which followed a $400 billion crash in the global crypto market just days beforehand. 

In 2021, crypto exchange PDAX briefly listed BTC for $6,000, almost 90% cheaper than it was at the time. Users rushed to buy at the low price, and PDAX began suspending accounts. 

The exchange then began to exchange legal threats with buyers. The listing in the end was a visual glitch.