The plans, disclosed in the company's quarterly filing, cover about $1.9 billion of stock at Friday's price. Chief Executive Brian Armstrong's plan can begin selling on Nov. 16. Six brokerages cut their price targets after the results.
Coinbase's quarterly report came with a second disclosure that investors are now weighing alongside the numbers.
The company's filing shows that Chief Executive Brian Armstrong, co-founder and director Fred Ehrsam and President Emilie Choi have adopted Rule 10b5-1 trading plans covering about 13.6 million Class A shares. At Friday's early-afternoon price of about $138, that is roughly $1.9 billion of stock.
Armstrong's plan, adopted Aug. 12, covers up to 8,167,446 shares from exercising vested options, with sales possible from Nov. 16 through Oct. 22, 2027, and only above set price thresholds. Ehrsam's covers up to about 3.87 million shares. Choi's covers 1,560,453 shares plus future vested restricted stock, with sales from Jan. 4, 2027. The plans were adopted during an open trading window.
Plans like these allow executives to sell on a preset schedule. They do not require any sales, and none has taken place under these plans.
Scale
Armstrong's plan is more than twice the size of his previous one, which covered 3.75 million shares. Together, the three plans cover about 6% of Coinbase's roughly 223.7 million Class A shares.
Coinbase itself bought back 37,995 shares in the third quarter and had about $1.96 billion left under its repurchase authorization at Sept. 30.
The analysts
Barclays cut its price target to $120, Mizuho to $145, Jefferies to $174, JPMorgan to $187, Goldman Sachs to $210 and Canaccord Genuity to $275. Oppenheimer raised its target to $207. Mizuho called the quarter "better than feared" but said "crypto remains challenged."
The stock fell about 14% to a 52-week low near $137 on Friday. At about $36.4 billion, Coinbase's market value is now below the $40 billion private valuation prediction-market operator Kalshi announced on Thursday, though one is a public market price and the other a negotiated funding round.
Routine or signal?
The routine reading: executives with large option grants routinely use 10b5-1 plans to diversify, the sales only trigger above set prices, and the company's own buyback capacity exceeds the plans' value at current prices.
The signal reading: the plans are larger than last year's, they were disclosed with a 35% revenue decline and an industry security shock, and they add a potential supply of stock just as it reaches its low for the year.
What to watch
Form 4 filings from Nov. 16, when Armstrong's plan can first sell; the pace of Coinbase's own buybacks; and the stock against the plans' undisclosed price floors.