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Source: Apple

Starting this fall, the decade-long spat between Apple and Facebook will start a new chapter. And this part of the story has Apple encroaching on Facebook’s territory in ways it never has before.

On Monday, Apple revealed several new social features that will come to iPhones and iPads with the launch of iOS 15 this fall.

Soon, iPhone users will be able to hold FaceTime video calls with Android and Windows users for the first time. They will also be able to use a new feature called SharePlay, which lets you hold a FaceTime call and watch a streaming movie, listen to music, or share your screen with your contacts. IMessage is getting a boost as well, with new features that make it easier to share web links, photos, Apple Music tracks and Apple News articles with your contacts.

In short, Apple is laying the groundwork for a suite of social features designed to let you do a lot of what you would normally do on Instagram and Facebook, only with more emphasis on privacy. Think of it as a watered-down social network without all the bloat and annoying stuff you find in other apps.

It’s the kind of stuff that will drive Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg absolutely crazy.

Zuckerberg has already said he considers Apple a major competitor, largely because of apps like FaceTime and iMessage that come preinstalled on the more than 1 billion Apple gadgets in use around the world.

On top of that, Facebook late last year started an anti-Apple PR and advertising blitz over a new iOS privacy feature that limits how companies like Facebook can use your personal data to send you targeted ads. (Facebook makes most of its money from ads, and needs that targeting data for its ads to be effective.)

It’s no coincidence Zuckerberg took a swipe at the 30% fee Apple collects from many app makers on the iPhone just hours before Apple’s big event on Monday.

Apple’s new social features in iOS 15 are also coming well before Zuckerberg can complete Facebook’s pivot to privacy, which he announced more than two years ago. In Zuckerberg’s view, there will be two types of social sharing on the internet in the future: private communication, such as messaging in Facebook apps like WhatsApp and Messenger, and public communication, like posts on Instagram or the core Facebook service.

Apple’s announcements on Monday proved you don’t need Facebook for a lot of the stuff you already do on Facebook. Why log into Facebook or Instagram and give up personal data when you can just as easily share photos, messages, and videos right there in iOS 15?

If Zuckerberg was right and there will be a large swath of communication that takes place on a “privacy-focused” version of the internet, Apple has largely beaten Facebook to that future.

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Coinbase shares tumble as second-quarter revenue disappoints

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Coinbase shares tumble as second-quarter revenue disappoints

Chesnot | Getty Images

Coinbase shares fell Thursday as second-quarter revenue came in shy of analysts’ estimates. Gains in the cryptocurrency exchange’s subscription revenue failed to offset weaker trading volumes during the quarter.

In the quarter ended June 30, Coinbase net income rose to $1.43 billion, or $5.14 per share, from $36.13 million, or 14 cents per share, a year ago. Earnings in the latest period benefited from a gain $1.5 billion related its Circle investment and $362 million from its crypto investment portfolio.

On an adjusted basis, Coinbase earned $1.96 per share, topping estimates of $1.26 reported by LSEG.

Revenue rose slightly to $1.5 billion from $1.45 billion in the same quarter last year, coming in just under analysts’ expectations of $1.6 billion. Revenue tied to transactions came in at $764 million, missing StreetAccount estimates of $787 million.

Shares fell 6% in extended trading.

Analysts were anticipating a weaker second quarter in the wake of the market’s exuberance in the first quarter, when traders positioned themselves for the upside of the Trump administration’s promises to create more favorable regulatory conditions for the crypto industry.

As Washington’s focus shifted to tariffs in the second quarter, speculative trading by retail investors slowed across centralized crypto exchanges, while crypto ETF inflows and buying by crypto treasury companies supported prices.

Retail engagement and stablecoins

Coinbase reported that retail trading volume, which is typically more profitable than institutional volume, grew 16% year-over-year to $43 billion, but missed the $48.05 billion expected by analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. 

Subscriptions and services offerings – which include stablecoins, staking, interest income and custody – grew 9% from the same period a year ago to $655.8 million, short of analysts’ projection of $705.9 million.

Revenue from stablecoins, which became a dominant theme and major driver of crypto market action in the second quarter, came in at $332.5 million, about in line with estimates of $333.2 million, per StreetAccount. That was a 38% increase from the same period a year ago and a 12% increase from the first quarter.

Coinbase has benefited from a surge in interest in stablecoins after the wildly successful June IPO of Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin. Coinbase has a significant revenue sharing agreement with Circle, wherein it keeps 100% of the revenue generated on all USDC held on Coinbase platforms, plus about 50% of all other USDC revenue generated on other platforms.

While trading for retail and institutional investors is Coinbase’s core business, the company is in the midst of a big push to amplify consumer engagement through new products and services, taking advantage of new pro-crypto policies out of Washington.

On Thursday the company said it will soon expand beyond crypto to offer tokenized real-world assets, derivatives, prediction markets, and early-stage token sales within the Coinbase app. The rollout will focus on U.S. users initially.

Coinbase shares remain higher by more than 50% year-to-date, outperforming the benchmark S&P 500, which the stock joined in May.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

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Amazon’s cloud business records 18% growth in second quarter

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Amazon's cloud business records 18% growth in second quarter

Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman speaks at the AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas on Dec. 4, 2024.

Noah Berger | Reuters

Amazon’s cloud group grew recorded revenue growth of 18% in the second quarter, slightly ahead of analysts’ estimates.

Amazon Web Services continues to lead the cloud infrastructure market, but is facing intensifying pressure from Microsoft and Google, as all three companies ramp up investments in artificial intelligence to take advantage of booming demand.

Microsoft and Google reported better-than-expected cloud results for the latest quarter, with higher growth rates than Amazon.

On Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said revenue from Azure and other cloud services exceeded $75 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30, with growth in the quarter of 39%. It’s the first time Microsoft has provided a dollar figure for the business. Last week, Alphabet reported revenue of $13.62 billion for its cloud computing business, a 32% increase from a year ago.

AWS’ revenue for the second quarter totaled $30.87 billion, Amazon said on Thursday. Analysts polled by StreetAccount had expected $30.8 billion. AWS now represents 18% of Amazon’s revenue.

The cloud remains a profit center for Amazon. AWS generated $10.2 billion in second-quarter operating income, trailing the average analyst estimate of $10.9 billion, according to StreetAccount. Amazon’s total operating income was $19.2 billion.

During the quarter, AWS said it would open a data center region in Chile before 2027, and PepsiCo announced a multi-year agreement that involves moving workloads to the Amazon cloud.

WATCH: Top Amazon AWS executive on the outlook for generative AI

Top Amazon AWS executive on the outlook for generative AI

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Coinbase says it’s launching tokenized stocks, predictions markets for U.S. users in coming months

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Coinbase says it's launching tokenized stocks, predictions markets for U.S. users in coming months

Thiago Prudencio | LightRocket | Getty Images

Coinbase is planning to expand its core trading app beyond crypto, the company said Thursday.

The newly imagined “everything exchange” will include tokenized real-world assets, stocks, derivatives, prediction markets and early-stage token sales. The new offerings will roll out in the next few months, first to U.S. users, followed by a “gradual international rollout based on jurisdictional approvals,” Max Branzburg, vice president of product at Coinbase, told CNBC. 

“We’re building an exchange for everything,” he said. “Everything you want to trade, in a one-stop shop, on-chain. … We’re bringing all assets onchain — stocks, prediction markets, and more. We’re building the foundations for a faster, more accessible, more global economy.”

The expansion puts Coinbase in even closer competition with Robinhood, Gemini and Kraken, all of whom have recently opened tokenized equity offerings to users outside the U.S. CEO Brian Armstrong has said he has a goal of making Coinbase the top financial services app within the next decade.

Coinbase’s announcement comes hours after the Securities and Exchange Commission introduced “Project Crypto,” an initiative to “modernize” securities rules and regulations to allow for crypto-based trading activity. 

Tokenization of stocks and other traditional, non-crypto native assets, has surged in popularity this year as the Trump administration has worked to roll back restrictive crypto policies from the previous U.S. leadership. 

While trading for retail and institutional investors is Coinbase’s core business, the company is in the midst of a big push to amplify consumer engagement through new services, taking advantage of the new pro-crypto policies out of Washington. Two weeks ago, it unveiled the “Base App,” which it aims to make the West’s answer to a WeChat-style super app.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

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