As a Finance Manager at Coinbase, Robert Kasinow provides strategic partnership to the company’s Base and Institutional business units. His team manages the full P&L, from revenue forecasting and analysis to operating expense management and resource allocation, while helping leaders think through the financial implications of key business decisions.
In this article, Robert discusses how his team plays a central role in connecting strategic priorities with financial outcomes, and how Coinbase as a whole balances the often-changing frontier of crypto finance with rigorous compliance-first discipline.
Q1: What drew you to Coinbase’s Finance team, and how did your perspective on crypto’s stability and risk change after joining?
I joined Coinbase four years ago during a period of rapid growth. It felt like a chance to take my finance experience to a company leading a fast-paced industry with a strong mission to increase economic freedom in the world. Since joining, I’ve been consistently impressed by the caliber of our teams across every function. Coinbase is best-in-class, with strong governance, clear frameworks, and disciplined financial practices that enable long-term, sustainable growth.
Q2: What’s one misconception you hear from finance candidates about working in crypto—and what’s the “inside view” at Coinbase that changes minds?
A common misconception is that working in crypto finance feels similar to traditional corporate finance roles. In reality, the environment changes constantly, driven by market movements, regulation, and innovation across the business. That pace keeps the work fresh and strategic, requiring you to think critically, learn quickly, and collaborate across a wide range of teams. It’s a place where financial rigor meets continuous problem-solving, and that combination makes the work uniquely rewarding.
Q3. As a strategic finance partner to C-level leaders, describe a time you drove a major shift in resource allocation or investment based on your modeling. What operational improvement resulted from this?
One project I’m particularly proud of involved an in-depth analysis of Coinbase’s payment processing economics. I built dashboards to evaluate transaction-level margins across processors, currencies, and order types, partnering closely with BizDev, Data Science, and Product. The insights shaped vendor negotiations, informed pricing models, and supported product experiments that improved efficiency and flexibility. It was a strong example of how thoughtful financial analysis can directly influence both strategy and execution.
Q4. Coinbase operates at the intersection of traditional markets and a fast-moving crypto economy. How do you turn rapidly changing market and onchain signals (e.g., regulatory announcements, liquidity trends) into clear short- and long-term guidance for non-finance leaders?
Our finance team plays a key role in helping leadership make sense of new market or regulatory developments in real time. We build models and scenarios that quantify the potential impact of events like policy updates or major market shifts and use those to inform decisions about investment and resource allocation. The goal is to stay flexible while maintaining discipline, ensuring that our financial guidance reflects both near-term realities and long-term strategic priorities.
Q5. When evaluating a new product or an international expansion, which financial metrics and growth models matter most at Coinbase and how do they differ from traditional finance roles?
When evaluating a new product or international expansion, we focus on identifying which drivers we can influence, like user adoption or engagement, which are more market dependent. By modeling those controllable metrics clearly, we can define success around execution quality and sustainable growth, while maintaining a realistic view of how external factors might shape performance over time.
Q6. How does Finance influence product decisions, such as revenue recognition, new listings, or international expansion while maintaining a compliance-first approach?
Because Coinbase often pioneers new financial models for onchain activity, our finance and accounting teams are frequently setting precedents where none exist. When launching a new product or entering a new market, we partner with teams in Product, Data, and Accounting to establish the right frameworks for tracking revenue, expenses, and fund flows. It’s exciting to be part of a team that is paving the way for how crypto-related transactions are accounted for globally while ensuring our systems remain accurate, compliant, and scalable.
Q7. Looking ahead, what multi-year shift, regulatory or technological, do you expect to impact Coinbase most, and how is Finance architecting the company’s model to turn that into an advantage?
With greater regulatory clarity emerging over the past year, competition across the industry has accelerated as more established financial and technology companies enter the space. Coinbase’s comes from having built trusted, compliant infrastructure for over a decade. We’re focused on gaining leverage from that foundation to drive efficient growth and continued innovation. From a finance perspective, that means allocating capital strategically, ensuring disciplined investment, and reinforcing the company’s position as the most trusted and enduring name in crypto.
Q8. In a remote‑first company, how does the Finance Team move quickly without sacrificing quality across time zones—and what keeps it repeatable?
As a remote-first company, one of our core cultural tenets is clear communication. Because most of our work happens asynchronously, we focus on being concise, structured, and intentional in how we share context: using TL;DRs, well-designed materials, and clear documentation. One effective practice our team uses is recording short, five-minute videos or voice notes to summarize updates or walk through analyses, which helps partners engage on their own time. We also balance this with periodic in-person sessions that deepen collaboration and strengthen team connection.
Q9. Beyond technical skills, what foundational qualities must a new hire possess to succeed in building and leading a high-performing finance team in this industry?
Continuous learning is one of our cultural tenets, and it’s essential to being effective in this role. The pace of change in our industry means we’re often doing things for the first time, whether that’s evaluating new business models, interpreting evolving regulations, or designing new forecasting approaches. The most successful team members are curious, adaptable, and collaborative, translating those developments into financial insights that help our cross-functional partners make better decisions.
Q10: For finance professionals who prioritize thoughtful scaling and long-term growth, what indicators of resilience make Coinbase a compelling place to build a lasting career?
Coinbase offers the rare combination of high growth and operational discipline. Finance is deeply integrated into the business, working alongside Product, Engineering, and leadership to guide major strategic and investment decisions. That proximity to impact allows you to see how your work drives the company forward in real time. For finance professionals who care about scale, rigor, and long-term growth, it’s a uniquely rewarding place to build a meaningful career.
Ready to build your finance career at Coinbase? Check out our open positions and apply today!
