Even in the midst of a crypto market sell-off, cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase (COIN) maintains a “bull thesis,” according to Owen Lau, Oppenheimer executive director and senior analyst.

“The long-term crypto adoption is the bull thesis,” Lau stated on Yahoo Finance Live this week . “The number one thing the market hasn’t given Coinbase credit for is that it’s focused on long-term crypto adoption.”

Stocks of crypto-focused companies have fallen 60% from their highs this year, according to FactSet, with Coinbase down 40% year to date.

Nonetheless, Lau is optimistic about the stock, calling it “one of the most disruptive firms.”

“If you ask me if I believe there will be more or less people who own or use digital assets over the next three, five, or ten years, I would say yes. I’d guess it’d be a lot more “he stated

According to CoinMarketCap, the entire crypto market has dropped 19% this year, while bitcoin (BTC) has dropped 11%, causing some investors to become negative on the stock. This emotion is due to two factors, according to Lau.

“First and foremost, the bitcoin price has been detrimental to the stock,” he explained. “There is a strong link. Based on our research, I believe there is still an 80-90 percent link between the bitcoin price and the Coinbase price “”cost.”

Second, “many people talk about fee compression,” according to Lau, which he describes as “one of the most talked about like race to the bottom bear thesis against traditional exchanges, e-brokers, and now Coinbase.”

Last year, Coinbase President and COO Emilie Choi stated that the business was working on a trading fee compression as a strategy to diversify its revenue streams away from trading fees.

Trading fees provide for the majority of the exchange’s earnings, but due to the considerable price volatility that most cryptocurrencies have, these fees are an unreliable source of revenue.

Furthermore, Lau mentioned a number of additional negative aspects, including “poor trading volume, and then Coinbase has not been quick enough to start on several initiatives like the futures platform and also NFT.”