Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong declared on Thursday that the company would add the popular novelty cryptocurrency Dogecoin in the near future.
“We plan to list DOGE in the next six to eight weeks,” said Armstrong on an earnings call following the company’s formal release of its first quarter earnings.
The Dogecoin announcement came in response to a query from a crypto user named Jordi Y who had asked about it on a Reddit-style forum where Coinbase had solicited questions from its shareholders. The forum invited others to “upvote” questions, and the Dogecoin one proved most popular.
Dogecoin has been on a roller-coaster ride of late, peaking shortly before Tesla CEO Elon Musk (and his mom Maye Musk) name-dropped it on Saturday Night Live; it has slumped badly since.
On the earnings call, Armstrong also noted that the crypto economy is adding “more and more assets,” and likened the process of adding new cryptocurrencies to the process of adding apps to an app store.
Another popular question on the forum concerned Coinbase’s view of decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Armstrong said the company is “very excited” about decentralized finance (DeFi), but offered few details about Coinbase’s specific strategy.
In response to a question on the forum about Coinbase’s fees, which are higher than some exchanges, CFO Alesia Haas said, “We’re not trying to win on fees. We’re not trying to compete on fees. We’re competing on being the most trusted.”
Thursday’s earnings call was highly unusual in that companies typically read from a prepared script and then solicit calls from Wall Street analysts. Coinbase’s approach—first soliciting questions posted on a public forum—is novel, but consistent with Armstrong’s self-proclaimed quest to democratize finance. The company did field calls from analysts after first responding to the most popular forum questions.
The call included a number of other notable remarks, including CFO Haas noting that Coinbase intended to spend 12-15% of its net revenue on advertising. She also acknowledged that the company has been “moving slower than we would like on the international front.”
Armstrong added that he has been spending time in Washington, DC, to improve the regulatory situation for crypto. And in response to an analyst question about popular future uses for crypto, Armstrong cited NFTs and “ad platforms” as possible contenders.
This story was updated several time to include further details from the call.
