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The new iPad

Apple

A redesigned iPad

The new iPad and keyboard accessory

Apple

The new entry-level iPad is totally redesigned.

The home button at the bottom of the screen is gone and has been replaced with a fingerprint reader in the power button. It has a more squared design, similar to the iPad Air and iPad Pro, with a large 10.9-inch screen, USB-C in place of the Lightning connector, and will ship in different colors like red, yellow, blue and white.

Apple also announced a new $249 Magic Keyboard Folio case for the iPad that has a kickstand, a trackpad with support for multitouch and a magnetic connector that automatically charges it. But there’s something strange about the Apple Pencil support.

The new iPad doesn’t work with the better second-generation Apple Pencil, which charges on the side of the iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad Pro. Since the new iPad uses USB-C instead of a Lightning port — which is used to charge the Apple Pencil on earlier models — you’ll need to buy a $9 USB-C to Lightning adapter in order to charge the Apple Pencil.

Apple will sell different configurations, including Wi-Fi only and WiFi + 5G cellular, but it starts at $449, which is a bump from the $329 starting price of the ninth-generation iPad. It’s available to order Tuesday and will be in stores beginning Oct. 26.

Apple iPad Pro 2022

Apple’s new iPad Pros in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes.

Apple

As in recent years, the company will sell two sizes of the iPad Pros: an 11-inch model and a larger 12.9-inch model with a nicer screen.

The big change to the iPad Pro is a new M2 processor, which is the same one that was introduced in the MacBook Air earlier this year. Apple said it’s up to 15% faster than the M1 processor used in the last model of the iPad Pro that was introduced in 2021.

The Apple Pencil works a bit differently on the new iPad Pros, too. The screen can now detect the tip of the Pencil up to 12 mm above the surface of the screen. Apple says this will allow artists to sketch with more precision and makes handwriting-to-text conversions faster.

The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 while the 12.9-inch model starts at $1,099. They’re available to order beginning Tuesday and land in stores on Oct. 26.

Apple TV 4K 2022

Apple TV 4K 2022

Apple

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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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