What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Coinbase (COIN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Coinbase generated $2.79B of operating cash flow and $2.79B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 100% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Coinbase (COIN) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Coinbase's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Coinbase (COIN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.79B

Capex

$0.00

Free Cash Flow

$2.79B

FCF Margin

+100.0%

Cash flow waterfall for Coinbase (COIN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.79B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Coinbase (COIN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.79B	$2.79B
Capital Expenditure	$0.00	$2.79B
Free Cash Flow	$2.79B	$2.79B
Acquisitions	-$764M	$2.03B
Other Investing	-$1.29B	$735M
Share Buybacks	-$1.75B	-$1.02B
Net Debt Change	$3.29B	$2.28B
Other Financing	-$773M	$1.5B
Forex Effect	$1.13B	$2.63B
Net Cash Increase	$2.63B	$2.63B

Operating Cash Flow$2.79B
Capital Expenditure$0.00
Free Cash Flow$2.79B
Acquisitions-$764M
Other Investing-$1.29B
Share Buybacks-$1.75B
Net Debt Change$3.29B
Other Financing-$773M
Forex Effect$1.13B
Net Cash Increase$2.63B

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

Frequently asked questions

Data & methodology

Coinbase (COIN) Key Financials

Charts, filings, and peer comparison for every metric

Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Profitability

Cash Flow

Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees5.0K

Explore more

Deep-dives across the income statement, cash flow, capital return, and valuation

Overview

COIN Overview

Counters