By Mackenzie Tatananni

Coinbase Global received a pair of price target boosts on Tuesday, with analysts citing the platform's momentum and potential clarity on cryptocurrency regulatory policies.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analysts led by Kyle Voigt raised their price target on Coinbase shares to $305 from $255 while maintaining a Market Perform rating. Canaccord analyst Joseph Vafi increased his price target to $400 from $280 while maintaining a Buy rating on the stock.

Coinbase fell 4.5% to $261.90 on Tuesday, following a broader slide in crypto prices. Bitcoin was down 1.9% over the past 24 hours to $93,742, according to CoinDesk data. XRP was down 5.7%, while Ethereum was down 3.2%.

In Tuesday's note, Keefe's Voigt said that Coinbase offers investors "unique exposure to the long-term growth of the crypto economy," an opportunity that "undoubtedly has scarcity value attached to it."

The analyst pointed to the crypto exchange's strong fourth-quarter results, which were reported last week. Earnings came in at more than double analysts' forecasts and revenue handily topped Wall Street expectations.

Management was also optimistic about the regulatory and political landscape. Voigt highlighted commentary from the earnings call, which pointed to the Trump administration's "crypto-friendly tone," coupled with a more pro-crypto Congress.

However, the Keefe team is holding off on upgrading the stock to Buy for now. While regulators appear to be "warming to crypto," Coinbase's ongoing legal woes and an uncertain regulatory environment "make it extremely difficult for many institutional investors to own COIN," Voigt wrote.

In a separate report, Canaccord's Vafi highlighted Coinbase's strong fourth-quarter performance, with total revenue surging 88% from the previous quarter to $2.3 billion.

Vafi's model projects total revenue of $2 billion for the first quarter of 2025, up nearly 22% from the previous year. The analyst anticipates transactional revenue to rise by 15% and total revenue from subscriptions and services, including staking revenue and stablecoin revenue, to rise by 35%.

Despite the price target boosts, Coinbase stock tumbled on Tuesday, with its decline pointing to uneasy market sentiment. Concerns and confusion surrounding the crypto regulatory landscape have bogged down shares as investors evaluate how much President Donald Trump will deliver on campaign promises to create a strategic reserve of Bitcoin and usher in a golden age of crypto.

Since taking office, crypto has taken a back seat. Trump issued a mandate on Jan. 23 to establish a "working group" tasked with submitting a report outlining regulatory and legislative proposals within 180 days.

Coinbase wasn't the only crypto stock slumping on Tuesday. Shares of MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, were down 2.9% to $327.86.

In a Form 8-K filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, MicroStrategy, now doing business as Strategy, revealed that it hadn't purchased any Bitcoin in the period between Feb. 10 and Feb. 17.

The company said it didn't sell any shares of class A common stock under its at-the-market equity offering program over the same period.

The dry spell marks the second time MicroStrategy has gone without purchasing Bitcoin this year. Earlier this month, the company reported that it didn't purchase any Bitcoin in the period between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2.

As of Feb. 17, MicroStrategy said it held roughly 478,740 Bitcoins acquired at $31.1 billion, or an average price of around $65,033 per Bitcoin.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com

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February 18, 2025 14:16 ET (19:16 GMT)

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