Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has disclosed its first net loss as a public company of $430 million in Q1, but CEO Brian Armstrong said on an earnings call that he's “never been more bullish on where we are as a company.”

In its first quarter 2022 report Coinbase disclosed that revenue had dropped 27% to $1.17 billion, down from $1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2021 and a long way off its Q4 2021 revenue of $2.5 billion. Monthly transacting users also dropped by over 19% to 9.2 million, from last quarter's 11.4 million.

Shares of Coinbase had already fallen by over 16% to close at $73 over the day, and after the earnings disclosure after hours trading saw the price fall further to $61 at the time of writing. Coinbase's shares have been on a steady fall since November 2021 where it almost reached the $380 high from its initial public offering in April last year.

Despite the figures, Armstrong explained why he was still optimistic on an earnings call:

Armstrong said that the company was “greedy when others are fearful”, acquiring talent and focusing on projects and infrastructure for the future. Addressing what he called the “elephant in the room” of the company earnings downturn, he said:

He reminded shareholders of a prospectus released by the company a year ago which stated it aimed to grow crypto adoption long term, operating the company at a rough break even.

In its shareholder letter Coinbase mentioned its recent non-fungible token (NFT) market launch as an area it was focusing more on in a bid to become a market leader in the space and its ambition to develop its platform as an “on-ramp to the cryptoeconomy”.

Related: Coinbase CEO responds to insider trading allegations with changes for token listings

Armstrong stated