Coinbase on upside catalyst watch at Citi, on ether merger, reg developments

Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) stock is rising 2.9% in Friday premarket trading after Citi analyst Peter Christiansen opened a 90-day upside catalyst watch on the cryptocurrency exchange's stock, but not due to any optimism over the company's upcoming Q2 earnings release.Rather, Christiansen sees "good developments brewing" on the potential for legislation on stablecoins and ethereum's (ETH-USD) transition to proof-to-stake. The latter "could represent hundreds of millions of annual blockchain reward revenue for Coinbase (COIN)" and could spark Web 3.0 development, he said in a note to clients.Its Q2 earnings will be marred by a ~60% Q/Q decline in crypto prices and ~25% Q/Q drop in volumes, he said. Meanwhile Coinbase (COIN) saw its active users decline by ~20% Q/Q with a sharper decline in downloads. Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC-USD) is gaining ~1.4% Friday morning, sitting at ~$23.3K.Note that since May 13, the SA Quant system, which historically outperforms the market, has warned that Coinbase (COIN) is at high risk of performing poorly. It currently has a Sell rating on the stock, up from Strong Sell as recently as July 27.SA contributor Juraj George Salapa holds a more positive view on the stock as a long-term bet on crypto growth.