Crypto Headlines of the Week: Coinbase Profits, Crypto Senate Race

Crypto exchange Coinbase has reported a profit of $273.4 million, or $1.04 per share, in the three months ending December 31, marking the platform’s first positive quarterly earnings result since the fourth quarter of 2021.

Coinbase’s quarterly profit came on the back of surging crypto prices, which ostensibly translated into more business at the firm. It saw 100% more trading volume during the quarter versus the third quarter.

As the crypto market makes a comeback, industry participants are trying to influence the Senate race.

Recently, crypto political group Fairshake launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign aimed at crushing Representative Katie Porter, a Democrat running in the California Senate primary.

Here are this week’s important crypto stories:

Coinbase Posts First Quarterly Profit in Two Years

Coinbase Global posted its first quarterly profit in two years as trading surged on a new wave of optimism about digital assets. Coinbase earned $273 million in profits during the fourth quarter, well above analyst expectations. It was the first positive quarterly earnings result since the fourth quarter of 2021.

Coinbase rides bitcoin ETF frenzy to first quarterly profit in 2 years (Yahoo! Finance)

Crypto’s Role in Illicit Finance ‘Exaggerated’

A US Treasury official has said that cryptocurrency constitutes only a small fraction of the funds raised by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas. The Treasury’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, added that “terrorists” still prefer traditional products and services.

US Treasury: crypto’s role in Hamas funding minor (Forkast)

Spot Bitcoin ETFs Largest Holder of Bitcoin

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have reached 192,000 in BTC holdings, excluding the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). That total has surpassed the 190,000 BTC held by business intelligence provider and large-scale Bitcoin investor MicroStrategy, making the spot Bitcoin funds collectively the world’s largest Bitcoin holder.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs Now the World’s Largest BTC Holder (ETF.com)

Elizabeth Warren to Go Against Crypto Proponent in Senate Race

Crypto skeptic Elizabeth Warren may find herself squaring off against a serious proponent of the digital asset industry. John Deaton, 56, a Massachusetts attorney and digital assets advocate, is seriously considering running this year as a Republican.

Elizabeth Warren hasn’t lost a Senate race. Is a pro-crypto Republican lawyer about to change that? (Fortune)

Microstrategy’s Bitcoin Bet Now Worth $10 Billion

With a total of 190,000 Bitcoins, MicroStrategy’s investment in Bitcoin has surpassed $10 billion. According to the company’s most recent investor presentation, MicroStrategy, at the end of January, held 190,000 Bitcoins purchased for a total of $5.93 billion, or $31,224 per coin.

With the leading cryptocurrency trading at $53,000, MicroStrategy has amassed a profit of more than $4 billion.

MicroStrategy’s Unconventional Bitcoin Bet Is Now Worth $10 Billion (Bloomberg)

Crypto Money Laundering Drops 30%

Illicit crypto activity dropped significantly last year, partly because of lower crypto trading volume and partly because sophisticated threat actors like the Lazarus Group are developing methods to evade detection, Chainalysis said in its annual report on crypto money laundering. Per the report, $22.2 billion was laundered via crypto in 2023, down from $31.5 billion the year before.

Money Laundering Activity Spread Across More Service Deposit Addresses in 2023, Plus New Tactics from Lazarus Group (Chainalysis)

Crypto PAC Targets California Senate Candidate Katie Porter

Super PAC Fairshake is going after Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), spending a part of its war chest to try to derail the progressive lawmaker’s Senate bid. A new video ad attempts to skewer Porter’s own campaign fundraising and is part of what the group said is a multi-million-dollar effort in California and online.

Peter Thiel Made $200M Crypto Investment before Bull Run

Founders Fund, the venture capital firm founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, has invested $200 million to acquire crypto tokens, half in Bitcoin and the other half in Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has publicly praised Bitcoin, declaring it is a store of value like gold and a hedge against central banks’ monetary policy.

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund made $200 million crypto investment before bull run (Reuters)

Bitcoin ETFs Reach $10B in AUM

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have amassed a staggering $10 billion in assets under management (AUM) within their first 20 days of trading. Leading the charge are BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, boasting holdings of $4 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively. ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF also recently surpassed the $1 billion mark on February 10.

Bitcoin ETFs hit $10B milestone just one month after approval (Cointelegraph)

The Bottom Line

The crypto markets are looking relatively buoyant at the moment, highlighted by Coinbase announcing a profit of $273.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 and its first positive quarterly earnings since Q4 2021.

With money flowing into crypto and industry players getting involved in political campaigns, the rise of digital currencies continues — and we will see what next week brings.