Coinbase Pulls the Block Playbook... And That’s a Buy Signal

Hang on a minute. On Tuesday, Brian Armstrong told the world he was cutting roughly 14% of Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) staff, around 700 people, because the company is going ‘AI-native.’ Smaller teams, fewer managers, ‘humans around the edges aligning the intelligence.’ Big visionary stuff[1]. Days later, Coinbase reports its Q1 numbers, and we see that first announcement for what it really is… Revenue down 31% year-on-year to $1.41 billion. A $394 million net loss. A surprise loss of $1.49 per share against analyst expectations of a 27 cent profit. Spot trading volumes off 37%. Transaction revenue down 23% quarter-on-quarter[2]. That’s not an ‘AI-native transformation.’ That’s a company that needed to cut costs ahead of horrific earnings and decided ‘AI’ sounded better than ‘the market crashed, we over-hired, and the company’s performance sucked.’ Sound familiar? Cast your mind back to February. Jack Dorsey announced Block (NASDAQ: XYZ) was cutting around 40% of staff, more than 4,000 people, and pinned it on AI. Smaller, flatter teams. New way of working. Block stock ripped 24% on the news[3]. But when you really looked at it, not all was as it seemed. Block’s headcount went from 3,900 at the end of 2019 to over 12,500 by late 2022. They tripled their workforce during the COVID hiring bonanza. The ‘AI revolution’ at Block was really a long overdue correction of a hiring binge, dressed in sexy ‘AI’ clothing. Looks like Coinbase is running the same play… Apple just enabled Starlink satellite support to T-Mobile iPhones. One of the biggest potential winners from global satellite coverage? Just about everything Elon touches turns to gold: • SpaceX projected IPO at $1.75T • Tesla up by over 30,000% since IPO • And now - iPhone’s get satellite access But while Wall Street focuses on Apple, Mode Mobile is quietly positioned to capitalize on this global satellite revolution. Their EarnPhone technology already: • Reaches 490M+ users worldwide • Helped those users save and earn over $1 billion • Grew revenue 32,481% And that was before global satellite coverage. With SpaceX eliminating “dead zones,” Mode’s earning technology can reach 3B+ unbanked people globally in rural populations worldwide. We’re talking about emerging markets with no infrastructure. Right now, you can still invest at $0.50/share. Over 59,000 shareholders have already claimed their shares and they’ve just secured the $MODE ticker from Nasdaq. The time to invest is now, before any potential IPO.* Tap into a $1T opportunity — invest now at just $0.50/share and get up to 20% bonus! They had close to 5,000 staff coming into 2026. They just lived through a brutal Q1 where their main revenue engine, transaction fees, fell off a cliff. They needed to cut headcount. No shame in that. So, they cut. But instead of admitting a mistake, they’ve ‘done a Dorsey’ and said it’s because ‘AI.’ Just seems disingenuous. I’m not saying Armstrong is wrong about AI changing the business. He’s probably right. But the timing? Announce the layoffs Tuesday so that by Thursday, when the earnings hit, the headline is ‘Coinbase getting leaner for the AI era,’ not ‘Coinbase revenue collapses 31%.’ Well played, gentlemen. Well played. Here’s the part most people will miss. Coinbase results stank because the crypto market has been in a quasi-winter. Bitcoin ripped down almost 50%. Trading volumes collapsed. Retail stepped back and realized it wasn’t FOMO-time anymore. Of course, transaction revenue tanked. That’s what happens to an exchange when nobody’s trading. The question isn’t whether Q1 was bad. It clearly was. The question is whether it’s representative of where crypto is going, or where it’s been. I think it’s the latter. The winter ice is thawing. Tokenization is rolling out at NYSE, NASDAQ, BlackRock, Ondo, Solana. Stablecoin adoption is accelerating faster than I can keep track. Fear and greed that was buried in the red, has started to pick up into the green. A bit of ‘hopium’ is absorbing into the market. If 2026 plays out the way I think it will, Coinbase’s Q2 numbers will be somewhat irrelevant. Q3 too. But this time next year, when we’re looking at Q1 2027 results against this quarter, I think the comparison will be radical. If Coinbase stock gets sold down on all this (and it will), you’re potentially being handed a chance at shares in the largest U.S. crypto exchange at the bottom of a cycle, while the company restructures itself for the rebound. I say, buy the fear and hodl strong. Trust in crypto, Adam Atlantic [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/07/coinbase-coin-earnings-q1-2026.html [3] https://fortune.com/2026/02/27/block-jack-dorsey-ceo-xyz-stock-square-4000-ai-layoffs/ *Disclaimer: Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.modemobile.com. This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile’s Regulation A+ Offering. Mode Mobile recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($MODE), indicating an intent to IPO in the next 24 months. An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur. The Deloitte rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their fiscal-year revenue growth percentage over a three-year period. Tesla return calculated based on Yahoo Finance adjusted stock price data from June 29, 2010 to January 31, 2025.