Coinbase Considered Saylor-Like Bitcoin Reserve Model — But CEO Decided It Was ‘Too Risky’

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has revealed that the crypto exchange considered adopting a Michael Saylor-style Bitcoin investment strategy on multiple occasions — but decided against it over fears it could “kill the company.”

“There were definitely moments over the last 12 years where we thought, man, should we put 80% of our balance sheet into crypto — into Bitcoin specifically, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said during a Q&A session with customers when asked whether they missed an opportunity to start accumulating the benchmark crypto BTC sooner, given the company had an eight-year headstart on Saylor’s Bitcoin-stacking firm Strategy.

Armstrong claimed that BTC’s inherent volatility meant a bold play would have been too risky. This is especially in Coinbase’s early days, when important milestones had to be reached to unlock more funding rounds.

“If our runway had gone from 18 months—and suddenly it was 12 months, or 10 months — it could have just killed the company entirely,” Armstrong posited.

He revealed that when Coinbase was still in its infancy, executives made a “conscious choice about risk,” as a massive downturn in BTC’s price would have greatly affected the trading platform’s growth.

However, Armstrong emphasized that Coinbase does hold Bitcoin on its balance sheet, and about 25% of its net cash is currently in cryptocurrency.

“We’re not going to take 80%, that would be too risky, I think,” he continued.

Coinbase, the US’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, currently holds 9,480 BTC, valued at around $988 million based on current market prices, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries. BTC makes up the lion’s share of its $1.3 billion crypto asset stockpile.

Of course, these holdings pale in comparison to the gargantuan 568,840 BTC that Strategy currently owns, which is worth nearly $60 billion.

Notably, several companies, including Metaplanet, MARA Holdings, and Semler Scientific, have copied Strategy’s Bitcoin playbook, financing BTC purchases through stock and debt sales on the bet that the asset’s price surge will boost their share prices.

Meanwhile, Coinbase is deepening its presence in the derivatives market, after recently agreeing to buy crypto derivatives Deribit in a mega $2.9 billion deal.