Coinbase Call: "Universal Exchange" Shows Initial Results, Accelerating Transition to "AI-Native"

Ask AI · How does AI-native transformation improve engineers’ work efficiency?

Bloomberg reports that after the US stock market closed on May 7, Coinbase announced first-quarter total revenue of $140 million, a 21% decrease quarter-over-quarter, with a net loss of $394 million. CFO Alesia Haas stated at the start of the earnings call:

Due to the decline of over 20% in both cryptocurrency asset prices and trading volume, revenue performance was inevitably impacted, but the company executed well within controllable ranges, and all guidance targets were met or exceeded expectations.

Cryptocurrency market share hits a record high, stablecoin USDC holdings also reach a new peak, and revenues from new products such as derivatives and prediction markets have grown significantly, providing important support for overall performance.

In terms of asset scale, despite falling crypto prices, platform assets still achieved net inflows, marking the 12th consecutive quarter of growth. CEO Brian Armstrong said:

When market conditions are tough, we see customers consolidating their trading activity onto platforms they trust.

Meanwhile, the company announced this week a reduction in staff and a shift to an AI-native operational model, expected to save approximately $500 million annually. Haas said:

We are transforming into an AI-native company. Our product iteration speed is rapidly increasing. The number of pull requests per engineer has surged nearly 80% year-over-year.

“Everything Exchange” shows initial results, with non-crypto businesses and derivatives taking the lead

Amid pressure on core spot trading volume, investors’ top concern is: where is Coinbase’s revenue growth sustainable? The answer from the earnings report is the full bloom of the “Everything Exchange” strategy.

Besides stable revenue of $584 million from subscriptions and services (accounting for 44% of net income), emerging businesses are rapidly monetizing:

• Retail derivatives: hitting a record high, with annualized revenue exceeding $200 million.
• Prediction markets: growing extremely fast, reaching an annualized revenue of $100 million just two months after launch in March.
• Non-crypto contracts: trading volume for contracts like silver, gold, oil increased over 4 times quarter-over-quarter.

CEO Brian Armstrong stated:

We hear from customers that they want to trade not just cryptocurrencies on Coinbase. Over the past year, we’ve transformed Coinbase from a primarily spot-focused crypto platform into a platform capable of trading any asset class.

He added:

In any given market, there are assets rising and assets falling—that’s the essence of trading. We see real traction in diversifying asset classes.

Regarding institutional markets, despite a 27% quarter-over-quarter decline to $136 million in institutional trading revenue, demand for institutional lending remains strong, with average daily loan balances reaching a record $1.4 billion.

The company also confirmed smooth integration of Deribit options business for institutions, expected to be fully completed by 2026.

Embracing “AI-native”: Agentic Commerce unlocks valuation potential

If derivatives have been a recent performance pillar, then the “fusion of AI and crypto technology” is Coinbase’s strongest mid- to long-term growth story pitched to Wall Street. In this call, “AI” became the most frequently mentioned strategic term.

Armstrong painted a highly automated future business landscape:

Soon, billions of AI agents will be trading, requiring infrastructure that can keep pace. Cryptocurrency is the only option that can simultaneously meet the criteria of being fast, inexpensive, and global. The world economy is shifting onto the chain, and Coinbase was born to seize this transformation.

According to management, over 90% of on-chain intelligent agent trading volume occurs on Coinbase-supported Base chain, and 99% of AI agent on-chain payments use USDC. The open-source X4O2 protocol, incubated by Coinbase, is becoming the most popular standard for AI agent commerce.

This “AI-native” approach is reflected not only in external business but also in Coinbase’s internal R&D. Haas revealed operational efficiency metrics:

We are transforming into an AI-native company. Our product iteration speed is rapidly increasing, with pull requests per engineer up nearly 80% YoY. This ability to expand team members and iterate products at such speed is a game-changer for our execution efficiency.

Beyond business, the long-standing regulatory cloud over Wall Street is also showing signs of clearing. Regarding the market’s “Clarity Act,” Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal expressed high optimism:

We are confident that the bill will go through full chamber voting in early summer, with legislation signed into law by late summer.

On the previously controversial “stablecoin yield” issue, Grewal emphasized that the current compromise preserves activity-based yields while banning passive bank-like returns. He said:

From the published text, it’s clear that yields will be protected, and key elements of our current plan will be retained.

Full translation of Coinbase’s Q1 2026 earnings call transcript (assisted by AI tools):

Moderator

Welcome to Coinbase’s Q1 2026 earnings call. Before we begin, a reminder: during this call, we may make forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please see our SEC filings and the relevant pages of this presentation for details.

Additionally, this discussion will include some non-GAAP financial measures, with adjustments explained in the Coinbase investor relations website’s earnings presentation.

Alesia Haas, CFO

Hello everyone, and welcome to our Q1 2026 earnings call. I am Alesia Haas, Coinbase’s CFO. Today, you will see a new face on the call.

Let me introduce Sean Aggarwal. Sean is our Chief Business Officer and our newly appointed Head of Investor Relations. You’ll see him often from now on. A quick intro—Sean was one of our earliest IR leads. He led our Series E funding in 2018; during our IPO in 2020-2021, he was my most trusted assistant. Today is his first public earnings call with us, and I’m very pleased to reintroduce him to our investor community. Sean, welcome back. I’ll now hand over to him to guide you through today’s agenda.

Sean Aggarwal, Chief Business Officer & IR Head

Thanks, Alesia. Hello everyone! I’m glad to resume IR duties. As Alicia mentioned, I am Sean Aggarwal, Coinbase’s Chief Business Officer and IR Head. I will host today’s call. Besides Alicia and me, several respected colleagues are present: our co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, President and COO Emily Choi, and Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal.

Today’s agenda: first, Brian and Alicia will review Coinbase’s strategy and Q1 performance, then we’ll answer questions from platform users and analysts. Brian, please.

Brian Armstrong, CEO & Co-founder

Thanks, Sean. I want to start with our mission—to advance global economic freedom. This mission concerns everyone because 4 billion people are excluded from the financial system: unbanked and unbrokered populations. Cryptocurrency fundamentally addresses this by empowering everyone with equal property rights, stable currency options, and permissionless financial services.

Market overview

Despite the overall downturn in crypto markets, the on-chain economy’s fundamentals remain strong. The entire financial industry is migrating onto the chain, as crypto offers faster, cheaper, and more efficient financial infrastructure. Over the past 7 years, crypto trading volume has grown over 50-fold; stablecoin market cap exceeds $300 billion and continues to grow rapidly; tokenized real-world assets are expanding, projected to reach $16 trillion by 2030. Additionally, crypto has a new catalyst—AI. Billions of AI agents will trade, requiring matching infrastructure. Crypto is the only option that can meet all three criteria: fast, low-cost, and global.

Coinbase’s competitive advantages

Overall, the global economy is shifting onto the chain, and Coinbase was built to capitalize on this historic transition. Reasons include:

• We are the most trusted brand in crypto. Trust in our custody of crypto assets surpasses any other company worldwide.
• We aggregate global liquidity at our centralized exchange, creating strong network effects.
• We are the largest regulated stablecoin platform globally.
• We have proven success in building and scaling frontier products. In short, we believe Coinbase has a winning edge as the world increasingly moves onto the chain.

Product matrix

Coinbase’s product ecosystem serves three main customer groups: consumers (retail, advanced trading, self-custody apps), institutional clients (via our Prime brokerage platform), and developers (via Coinbase Developer Platform—an all-in-one platform for integrating crypto functions).

The strength of our product ecosystem lies in its shared infrastructure, generating network effects and economies of scale across the platform. It operates as follows: proven custody system stores the world’s largest crypto assets; settlement channels are fast, low-cost, and global; our exchange offers deep liquidity thanks to diverse client base; stablecoins like USDC ensure efficient fund flows; all supported by over a decade of regulatory compliance.

Q1 highlights

Despite headwinds from weak trading markets, we executed well within controllable scope. Derivatives trading volume surged thanks to the “Everything Exchange” strategy. USDC holdings in Coinbase products hit a record high, and stablecoin trading volume on Base chain increased tenfold YoY. We also maintain a leading position in frontier assets—over 90% of on-chain intelligent agent trading volume occurs on Base.

Core metrics review

Crypto market share: Despite market decline, our global market share continues to grow, reaching new highs. When conditions are tough, users tend to concentrate trading activity on trusted platforms.

Platform assets: Simply put, Coinbase’s crypto assets under custody surpass any other platform. Despite price drops, we achieved 12 consecutive quarters of native unit net inflows—core to our strategy of attracting assets to a trusted brand, driving customer adoption of more products.

Stablecoin growth: Particularly notable this quarter. Despite overall market pressure, USDC holdings on our platform hit a new high. We are the largest distributor of USDC, with over 25% of USDC stored in our products, and we capture about 50% of USDC’s economic benefits.

Progress on three strategic priorities for 2026

1. Everything Exchange: We’ve heard users want to trade more asset classes on Coinbase. Over the past year, we’ve transformed Coinbase from a primarily spot crypto platform into a comprehensive platform for any asset class. We added 24/7 stock trading, equity futures, retail derivatives access, and expanded geographically. Prediction markets are live. This strategy is already showing results: derivatives annualized revenue exceeds $200 million; prediction markets hit $100 million in annualized revenue within two months of launch in March; we also added non-crypto contracts like silver, gold, and oil, which grew over 4 times quarter-over-quarter.

2. Global stablecoin expansion: Coinbase offers a full-stack stablecoin solution covering USDC, Base, and Coinbase Developer Platform, accelerating stablecoin adoption. Over two years, total stablecoin supply doubled; USDC’s market share increased. Trading volume of stablecoins doubled this quarter, with USDC and partner stablecoins accounting for over 80% of total volume; Base has become the dominant chain for stablecoin trading, at 60.2%.

In agent infrastructure, USDC and Base support most on-chain AI agent transactions. When agents make on-chain payments, 99% use USDC, and over 90% of transactions occur on Base. In Q1, we saw extensive use of the X402 protocol for trading, AI inference, media generation, storage, and more. Coinbase is at the heart of the agent economy.

3. On-chain business growth: We continue to simplify DeFi usage via Coinbase app. DEX trading volume doubled QoQ, and lending balances exceeded $1 billion in the past year.

In summary, the future of finance is on-chain, and Coinbase is best positioned to lead this change. Crypto is transforming all layers of the financial system, and our full-stack solutions serve diverse clients. Agentic commerce is the next frontier. Now, I’ll hand it back to Alicia.

Alesia Haas, CFO

Thanks, Brian. In Q1 2026, we generated $1.4 billion in total revenue, with a net loss of $394 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $303 million positive. I will now break down these figures, but before diving into the numbers, I want to share our overall assessment of the quarter, because surface figures alone don’t tell the full story.

Quarterly overview

Within our controllable scope, we performed at a good level, with solid fundamentals: crypto market share hit a record high; native unit net inflows continued for the 12th straight quarter; Everything Exchange showed early signs of life in derivatives and prediction markets; costs were better than guidance.

However, macro conditions remain tough: total crypto market cap and trading volume declined over 20% QoQ, with tail assets’ volatility at historic lows. In short, price headwinds outpaced the positive contributions from strong business growth, but the fundamentals remain resilient.

Our outlook provided in February was met or exceeded in all respects, reflecting our “focus on controllable matters” execution philosophy.

Revenue analysis

Q1 total revenue declined 21% QoQ, reflecting overall market softness. It’s important to note that our revenue is nonlinear, with a significant portion fluctuating with crypto prices and trading volume. The key is whether we can continue building and scaling our product ecosystem and platform assets through cycles, and achieve long-term growth amid short-term volatility.

Trading revenue was $756 million, with consumer trading at $567 million, down 23% QoQ, while overall consumer spot trading volume declined 35%—better than the market. This is due to two reasons: first, a shift toward core consumer trading, away from advanced trading; second, contributions from new products like derivatives and prediction markets, which are included in total revenue but not counted in the key “trading volume” metric for spot crypto.

Institutional trading revenue was $136 million, down 27% with trading volume.

Subscription and services revenue was $584 million, down 16%. Native unit inflows continued but were offset by asset price declines and interest rate changes. Stablecoin revenue was $305 million. USDC holdings on Coinbase reached a record average of $19 billion.

Note that our USDC contract with Circle renews automatically every three years and cannot be terminated.

Additionally, I want to mention a reporting change this quarter: we reclassified $18 million of enterprise stablecoin revenue into “Other income.” This adjustment reflects our treatment of cash and USDC as fully interchangeable assets at the operational level, consistent with our earlier decision to report payments-related stablecoins as cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet. We have restated prior periods for comparability.

Blockchain rewards revenue was $101 million, affected by falling asset prices and protocol reward rate reductions, but native staking balances increased.

Interest and financial fees revenue was $68 million, up 13% QoQ, with an average daily loan balance of $1.4 billion and double-digit growth in active customers.

Lastly, Coinbase One—our paid subscription product—surpassed 1 million paying users, demonstrating that our value proposition is effective regardless of macro conditions. Notably, Coinbase One customers generate higher incremental trading volume and revenue, and are our most engaged customer segment with strong unit economics.

Revenue diversification

Revenue diversification remains a core financial goal. We are proud to have 12 products with annualized revenue over $100 million. Retail derivatives, as Brian mentioned, hit a new high in Q1, with over $200 million in annualized operating revenue, likely to surpass $250 million soon. Prediction markets are also progressing well, expected to be our 13th product with over $100 million annualized revenue, just two months after launch. We remain focused on revenue diversification and are encouraged by the breadth of our product portfolio and our ability to rapidly launch and scale billion-dollar revenue lines.

Costs and balance sheet

Total operating expenses in Q1 were $1.4 billion, down 5% QoQ. Tech & development costs were $526 million, slightly up due to one-time costs from acquisitions completed in Q4 2025. G&A expenses declined 17% QoQ, mainly due to cost-cutting measures we accelerated, including legal, customer support, and policy-related expenses.

This marks our 13th consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA, across bull, bear, and mixed markets. We believe this demonstrates the robustness of our business model.

At quarter-end, we held over $10 billion in cash and cash equivalents, with total available resources of $12 billion. This gives us flexibility to invest across cycles, seize strategic opportunities, and return value via share repurchases.

Reminder: our 2026 convertible notes mature on June 1. Unless converted at the agreed price, we expect to repay this $1.3 billion debt. In Q1, we repurchased about 600k shares for roughly $1.1 million, offsetting about 90% of the equity issued for employee compensation since Q4 2024.

Outlook

For Q2, we expect subscription and services revenue of $565–$645 million, with potential for QoQ growth.

Tech & development and G&A expenses are expected to continue decreasing QoQ, in the range of $820–$870 million, down 4–9% from Q1.

Besides routine expense guidance, we anticipate restructuring costs of $50–$60 million, which will be reported as a separate restructuring item in Q2.

As announced this Tuesday, we are transforming into an AI-native company. Product iteration speed has increased rapidly, with pull requests per engineer up nearly 80% YoY. Importantly, quality investments have grown even faster, with core service integration test coverage tripling over the past six months. This rapid team expansion and product iteration will fundamentally change our execution efficiency and output.

Beyond quarterly expense guidance, we are also providing a full-year adjusted expense outlook for the first time. Adjusted expenses are defined as tech & development plus G&A plus sales & marketing, minus intangible asset amortization. We expect 2026 adjusted expenses to be between $4.3 billion and $4.6 billion, about $500 million below the midpoint of our 2025 exit rate. I also note that excluding USDC rewards growth, 2026 adjusted expenses are expected to be roughly flat with 2025.

That concludes our prepared remarks. I will now hand it back to Sean for Q&A.

Sean Aggarwal, Chief Business Officer & IR Head

Thanks, Alicia. This quarter’s Q&A will include questions from X platform users and analyst community, submitted in writing. We will try to cover a broad range of topics of interest. First, let’s discuss a topic everyone is watching—regulation.

Question 1: About the Clarity Act (from Goldman Sachs’ James Yarrow)

Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer

Regarding the Clarity Act, we are confident it will go through full chamber review this month, followed by a vote in early summer, with legislation signed into law by late summer.

This timeline benefits from significant progress on a key issue—reward policies. Just last week, Senators Tillis and Brooks announced a compromise on stablecoin rewards. We don’t declare victory yet, but appreciate their efforts. The legislative process is ongoing, and voices will continue to be heard. Like any Washington compromise, not everyone will be satisfied, but the direction—preserving activity-based rewards while banning passive bank-like yields—is, in our view, a feasible and sustainable path.

The details matter, but from the language released, we believe rewards will be protected, and key elements of our current plans will be preserved.

As for future business impact, many rules remain to be written after legislation passes, so it’s too early to judge. But we can say confidently that we are building a participation- and utility-based business model, which will benefit us and our customers regardless of the final framework.

More broadly, we should not overlook the macro perspective—Clarity will create significant opportunities for the entire industry, our customers, and Coinbase, especially in our ability to develop new products and services within a clear regulatory framework. This is unprecedented and will be advanced on an annual basis, not case-by-case. It’s the goal we’ve pursued through years of effort, investment, and passion. We look forward to continuing to push for its passage in the upcoming legislative review and subsequent stages.

Question 2: Impact of Clarity Act passage on ecosystem (from JP Morgan’s Ken Worthington, addressed to Brian)

Brian Armstrong, CEO

The significance of the Clarity Act goes far beyond stablecoins and rewards. As Paul said, it will open up opportunities in tokenization, distinguishing commodities and securities, defining roles of exchanges and custodians, DeFi, and self-custody wallets.

I see it similar to the effects after the GENIUS Act—precedents in stablecoins led to hundreds of major US companies announcing stablecoin integrations in the following months. Once Clarity passes, we expect many companies to announce crypto integrations—whether for on-chain financing, offering crypto services to clients, or deeper integration via Coinbase Developer Platform.

This will unlock large institutional capital flows into the industry. We hope every company will embed crypto-driven finance, just as they use the internet or AI today, and Coinbase can serve them.

Question 3: Will changes in stablecoin yield policy affect revenue-sharing agreement with Circle? (from Citigroup’s Paul Christianson)

Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer

The contract terms with Circle are fixed and, as Alicia emphasized, automatically renewing. We expect our partnership with Circle to continue under the same terms. The legislative details are not finalized, so it’s premature to judge fully, but we believe the outcome will be aligned with our expectations, and the partnership will continue as before.

Alesia Haas, CFO

I’d add that revenue sharing is tied to overall USDC supply and adoption, not materially affected by any reward language.

Question 4: Risks of non-technical staff pushing code with AI (from X platform user)

Brian Armstrong, CEO

I should have been clearer in my initial remarks: we encourage product managers, designers, and other non-technical staff to use AI agents to draft code, which is becoming easier. But all code still undergoes manual review before deployment, with multi-level checks for the most sensitive systems.

AI agents can speed up code execution, involve more people in coding, and further improve quality and security standards. The recent models from Anthropic, for example, can identify over 99% of security vulnerabilities that most human engineers miss. It’s akin to autonomous driving—already safer than human drivers. One day, non-technical code written and AI-reviewed could go live directly, but that day is not here yet. Coinbase will continue rigorous testing in this frontier, and when AI performance in specific scenarios surpasses human standards reliably, automation will be the responsible choice.

Alesia Haas, CFO

I’d add that our investments in quality and integration testing are outpacing the growth in pull requests, reflecting our ongoing commitment to platform quality.

Question 5: Competition environment and market share growth (from Cantor Fitzgerald’s Ramsey El-Assal, to Emily)

Emilie Choi, President & COO

In Q1, Coinbase’s crypto trading volume market share hit a record high. Despite a 20%+ QoQ decline in overall crypto trading volume, our global market share in spot and derivatives grew, roughly 5x since Q1 2023. When markets are tough, users prefer trusted platforms, which is why we’ve achieved 12 consecutive quarters of native unit net inflows.

Market share gains are driven by product innovation and derivatives platform expansion, including new derivatives features in Coinbase app and added non-crypto contracts. The Everything Exchange strategy has proven effective: retail derivatives annualized revenue exceeds $200 million; prediction markets hit $100 million in annualized revenue in March, all incremental to existing customer base. We believe these market share gains are sticky and will persist as conditions improve.

Question 6: Stablecoin infrastructure strategy (from William Blair’s Andrew Jeffrey, to Emily)

Emilie Choi, President & COO

We’ve built a faster, cheaper, global settlement layer and will fully leverage its value. Our tech stack includes: USDC as primary digital dollar, Base as settlement layer, payment API as enterprise integration layer, and X402 as open standard for next wave of agent commerce. We are the only company with an end-to-end integrated tech stack. We’re not just a network participant but a platform driving stablecoin adoption. The market opportunity is huge, and we believe we’re still in early days.

Question 7: X402 protocol and agentic commerce business opportunities (from Oppenheimer’s Reena Kumar, to Brian)

Brian Armstrong, CEO

X402 is an open protocol we incubated internally for agentic commerce. It allows agents to attach variable-sized payments to requests—whether for e-commerce checkout or interactions with other agents. It’s now governed openly under Linux Foundation, with contributions from Cloudflare, AWS, Stripe, Shopify, Google, and others, making it the leading open standard for agent commerce.

The main commercial value for Coinbase: first, 99% of Q1 X402 transactions settle in USDC, benefiting from our partnership with Circle; second, 90% of on-chain agent stablecoin volume occurs on Base, which is now the leading chain. Also, since X402 was incubated internally, we provide comprehensive APIs via Coinbase Developer Platform, enabling easy integration into any app supporting agents.

This exemplifies Emily’s full-stack approach—Coinbase is the only company with X402, Coinbase Developer Platform, Base, and USDC, forming the leading tech stack in agentic commerce.

Question 8: Progress and revenue contribution of the Everything Exchange (from Piper Sandler’s Patrick Moley, to Alicia)

Alesia Haas, CFO

As we mentioned, Everything Exchange is already making a tangible impact. Retail derivatives are on track for $200 million in annualized revenue; prediction markets, one of the fastest-growing new products, hit $100 million annualized in just two months since launch. Non-crypto assets like silver, gold, and oil contracts are also gaining traction, with volume up 4x QoQ—validating our decision to expand tradable assets.

We will share more progress next quarter. We won’t provide a product-by-product outlook but aim to continue increasing total trading volume market share, penetrate new asset classes, and deepen customer engagement.

Question 9: US crypto options trading progress (from Clear Street’s Owen Lau, to Alicia)

Alesia Haas, CFO

Our acquisition of Deribit last year provided the infrastructure for institutional and professional market makers to trade options. Integration is progressing well, with full integration expected by 2026, unifying spot, perpetuals, futures, and options on a single platform for deep liquidity and efficiency across asset classes. Milestones will be announced throughout the year.

For the US market, no specific timeline today, but we are actively advancing and optimistic about upcoming global developments.

Globally, derivatives trading in the US and internationally hit record highs this quarter, with institutional derivatives revenue offsetting seasonal declines in Deribit options activity.

Question 10: Market structure transformation amid pressure on crypto trading volume (from Citizens’ Devin Ryan, to Brian)

Brian Armstrong, CEO

That’s precisely why we’ve heavily invested in the Everything Exchange—diversifying tradable asset classes. Recent declines in spot crypto trading contrast with strong derivatives, prediction markets, and commodities futures. In any market, assets rise and fall—that’s the nature of trading. The Everything Exchange helps us diversify this cyclical risk.

Meanwhile, we’re expanding non-trading revenue—subscriptions and services now account for 44% of net income, providing a good balance.

On practicality, there’s no “waiting period.” Stablecoins are exploding, prediction markets, tokenization, agentic commerce, and DeFi lending all show strong usage demand. These practical needs are here; we’re just in a transition phase where spot crypto dips while other assets fill the gap. As we diversify further, the overall trajectory will become more stable and upward.

Question 11: Is the recent restructuring driven by environment or AI transformation? (from KVCM’s Alex Markgraff, to Alicia)

Alesia Haas, CFO

Both factors at play; it’s hard to separate them. We face macro headwinds and are also shifting to an AI-native operating model. As mentioned, pull requests per engineer are up 78% YoY, and this trend will deepen, with more work handled by AI across functions.

Financially, this restructuring reduces costs by about $500 million compared to Q4 2025, reflected in our Q2 and full-year outlook. Full-year 2026 adjusted expenses are projected between $4.3–$4.6 billion, roughly flat with 2025 after excluding USDC rewards growth.

Question 12: Fee pricing strategy (from X platform user President Noble)

Alesia Haas, CFO

Our stance remains: customers choose us not because we’re the cheapest. We continuously experiment with different fee schemes. Customers prefer us because we’re trusted, user-friendly, with the largest custody scale, holding 80 licenses, and a global regulatory footprint. They can choose between core platform, Advanced, and Coinbase One, tailored to their needs, not just price.

Over the long term, as trading becomes more commoditized, fee reductions are expected—this is why we focus on revenue diversification. We already have 12 products with over $100 million annualized revenue, and a strong pipeline. While fee compression is a risk, we don’t see clear signs yet.

Brian Armstrong, CEO

I’d add that we offer good options for price-sensitive customers. Coinbase One subscription offers zero-fee trading; many users leverage this. Coinbase Advanced provides tiered pricing for professional traders, with very low basis points for high-volume clients. So, users seeking very low or zero fees have good choices on our platform.

Question 13: Decline in institutional trading revenue (from Needham & Co’s John Todaro, to Emily)

Emilie Choi, President & COO

The ups and downs between institutional and retail are always dynamic. Institutional trading revenue of $136 million declined 27% QoQ, aligned with macro trends. Lower volatility reduced hedging demand, especially as Deribit’s options activity peaked last quarter and then declined, impacting institutional revenue disproportionately. However, Deribit’s open interest market share remained stable, demonstrating business resilience.

On the underlying metrics, institutional engagement at quarter-end was still strong, with active lending clients up double digits QoQ, and average daily loan balances reaching a record $1.4 billion. Forty-five major financial institutions advanced from concept to production in Q1, actively exploring tokenization and other crypto applications. Institutional investors recognize crypto’s long-term utility and are actively positioning ahead of clearer regulation. We also have a robust pipeline, including staked ETFs and Prime custody, which will open new growth avenues.

Question 14: What excites Brian most in the next 1–3 years? (from X platform user)

Brian Armstrong, CEO

There’s a lot happening in crypto.

First, all asset classes are migrating onto the chain—stocks, prediction markets, commodities, FX, and tokenized real-world assets (currently about $30 billion, expected to reach $16 trillion by 2030). Trading efficiency will improve, and more value will flow on-chain.

Second, we are in a golden age of stablecoins. Payments can now be fast, low-cost, and global—less than a second, less than a penny, reaching anywhere in the world, almost instantaneously, like sending a WhatsApp message. This has never happened in payment history, and we’ll see more of the world’s GDP flowing through stablecoins.

Third, agentic commerce will be a catalyst. People increasingly rely on agents to do work, and agents need corresponding payment capabilities. We launched agentic.market, aggregating all AI agent-accessible services, where agents can pay transaction fees via X402 protocol, autonomously completing tasks for users.

This is an excellent era for building more efficient financial infrastructure for the world and AI agents—something I look forward to doing in the coming years.

Shan Aggarwal, Chief Business Officer & IR Head

That concludes today’s earnings call. Thank you all for participating in our Q1 update. We look forward to speaking again next quarter.