Understand $COIN, $MSTR and $HOOD

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Good Sunday! Here’s what we unpacked this week:

• 📉 Coinbase Missed… But Should You Care?

  A rough Q2, but one analyst sees a bullish long game.

• 📱 Is Base a Bad Bet for Coinbase?

  Going opinionated might cost them their neutrality edge.

• 💰 Strategy Printed $10 Billion. Now What?

  Huge profits, bold moves, and one giant Bitcoin question.

• 🛡️ Saylor’s Master Plan to Avoid Liquidation

  Why Strategy may never be forced to sell its BTC.

• 🧭 Robinhood’s Crypto Pivot Has Bigger Goals

  A deeper play that could reshape its TradFi business.

• 🔗 Aave’s Stani Kulechov Is Still All-In on Ethereum

  10 years later, he’s betting DeFi is just getting started.

• 🧠 Where the Ethereum Foundation Is Headed Next

  Tomasz Stanczak, the co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, reflects on the 10-year anniversary and talks about what’s ahead.

• 🚀 Bits + Bips: ETH Pops, Treasuries Go Risk-On

  Altcoin momentum, tokenized assets, and big macro shifts.

Catch up on anything you missed 👇

Coinbase Missed Earnings, But the Bull Case Is Still Intact, Analyst Says

A rough quarter for Coinbase sent the stock down. But analyst Owen Lau says that investors need to look at the bigger picture.

Coinbase posted a weaker-than-expected Q2, and the market noticed. But Oppenheimer’s Owen Lau argues the big picture might be more nuanced.

In this interview, Lau and Unchained’s Steven Ehrlich unpack:

• What really drove the revenue miss

• Why Coinbase’s bank partnerships could matter more than people realize

• How its infrastructure strategy is taking shape

• And what clues Q3 might already be offering

And continuing our coverage on Coinbase, Laura Shin wrote a great article on whether Coinbase’s bet on Base could backfire 👇️ 

By Not Staying Chain-Agnostic With Base, Could Coinbase Make a Wrong Bet?

As a neutral player, Coinbase has historically captured the lion’s share of crypto activity. But by being opinionated with the Base App, it risks losing out as users move onchain.

Strategy Had a Massive Quarter: Impressive Numbers, But Are They Sustainable?

After Strategy’s eye-popping $10 billion in Q2 net income, analyst Lance Vitanza joins to dig into what’s real, what’s repeatable, and how much of it depends on Bitcoin’s price.

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) posted a jaw-dropping $10 billion in net income and raised its full-year guidance. But how much of that is due to new accounting rules, and how sustainable is this growth?

Steven Ehrlich sits down with TD Cowen’s Lance Vitanza to dissect the results. They discuss:

• How fair value accounting changed the game

• Why Strategy is shifting from convertible debt to preferred equity

• What the STRC IPO signals about demand for Bitcoin-adjacent financial products

• Whether Strategy’s massive BTC accumulation could become a systemic issue

• And what it means for other public Bitcoin treasury companies trying to follow suit

Steve also wrote a very interesting analysis this week on how Saylor is planning to never be liquidated 👇️ 

How Michael Saylor Will Keep Strategy From Ever Being Liquidated of Its Bitcoin

Since starting his accumulation strategy in 2020, Saylor has focused on keeping a clean balance sheet. Now he’s taking it to the next level.

Lastly, Kate Drew wrote a very insightful article on Robinhood’s crypto strategy:

How Robinhood’s New Crypto Strategy Could Help Its TradFi Ambitions

In some quarters, Robinhood generates more income from selling crypto than stocks, its bread and butter. But as it moves deeper into the industry, its efforts could have a bigger impact on its traditional business.

10 Years In, Here's Why Aave's Founder Isn’t Done Betting on Ethereum

On Ethereum’s 10th anniversary, Aave founder Stani Kulechov says the “DeFi mullet” is the future of finance.

Ethereum just turned 10, and Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave, one of the earliest and most influential lending protocols in DeFi, is more bullish on the OG layer 1 blockchain than ever.

In this wide-ranging interview, he reflects on Ethereum’s resilience, explains why Aave is still laser-focused on it despite the rise of competitors like Solana, and gives us a preview of Aave v4 and its institutional play, Horizon.

If you want to understand where DeFi is going, you’ll want to hear what Stani has to say.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

As Ethereum Turns 10, Where Is the Foundation Focused Next?

Ethereum’s co-ED is shaking up the Foundation—and has a long-term vision involving business development, communication strategy, and working with founders.

Ethereum turned 10 on Wednesday, capping off a decade of trials and travails — but also triumphs. After years of being the heart of crypto’s onchain economy, Ethereum stalled last year, losing mindshare and market share to Bitcoin and Solana. During that time, some long-time supporters publicly aired frustrations with the Ethereum Foundation.

Now, there’s a palpable shift in energy.

In this episode, Tomasz Stanczak, the co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, reflects on the 10-year anniversary and talks about what’s ahead.

From internal strategy overhauls to his plans to tackle Ethereum’s UX and developer experience, Tomasz shares how the Foundation is trying to re-center Ethereum — and why he’s betting on it for the next decade.

He also lays out what he calls a “secondary roadmap,” including bold ambitions like building Ethereum into a platform for AI, machines, and even a new kind of open-source society.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Bits + Bips: ETH Makes a Comeback While Crypto’s Animal Spirits Revive

Approaching its 10th anniversary, ETH has been up — and the price is backed up by Ethereum’s fundamentals. Meanwhile, when will the digital asset treasuries trend lead to a crash?

What’s fueling crypto’s market surge?

This week on Bits + Bips, Ethereum’s rally has reignited market energy, triggering fresh questions about the return of alt season, and whether Bitcoin’s dominance will continue to fall.

With special guests Katalin Tischhauser from Sygnum Bank and Wintermute’s Jake Ostrovskis, we dive deep into how corporate treasuries, tokenized assets, and shifting ETF flows are reshaping crypto’s microstructure.

Plus, we dissect the macro impact of rising tariffs, the Fed’s delicate dance with Trump, and whether tokenization could breathe new life into the US dollar.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

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