Coinbase Global NASDAQ: COIN executives said the company’s efforts to diversify beyond spot cryptocurrency trading helped support revenue in the third quarter, as growth in prediction markets and derivatives offset lower crypto spot-market activity.
During a live Q&A session following the company’s third-quarter 2026 earnings release, Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas said spot crypto trading volume declined 10% from the prior quarter. However, Coinbase’s prediction-markets product, launched in February, surpassed $200 million in annualized run-rate revenue during the quarter.
“The growth in Prediction Markets offset the decline in overall spot trading, and we delivered flat revenue quarter-over-quarter,” Haas said.
Haas said prediction markets and derivatives together accounted for about 25% of Coinbase’s transaction revenue, while subscription and services revenue represented roughly 49% of total net revenue. She said the company views prediction markets and derivatives as incremental products rather than replacements for spot trading.
Bitcoin, collateral and institutional demand
Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong said Coinbase remains bullish on Bitcoin and recently bought its 18,000th Bitcoin for its corporate balance sheet. He said a developing use case for the cryptocurrency is as collateral in decentralized finance and trading markets.
“A lot of our customers who were early in Bitcoin, they do not want to ever sell their Bitcoin, but they do want to use it as collateral,” Armstrong said.
He pointed to Base, Coinbase’s blockchain network, where customers can use Bitcoin as collateral to obtain financing and conduct additional trading. Armstrong said this dynamic could improve liquidity for decentralized exchanges.
Haas added that the company saw significant Bitcoin exchange-traded fund inflows during the quarter. She said institutional adoption has contributed to lower Bitcoin volatility and positioned the asset as a potential diversification component within investment portfolios.
Stablecoin distribution and tokenized equities
Coinbase said it remains committed to expanding the use of USDC, the stablecoin it co-founded with Circle, while also supporting other regulated stablecoins on its platform, including PYUSD and OUSD.
Haas described Coinbase’s role in the USDC relationship as focused on distribution, customer relationships, infrastructure and integrating the stablecoin into transaction flows across its products. She cited the use of USDC as collateral on Coinbase’s derivatives exchange and its deployment on Base for payment functions through the Coinbase Developer Platform.
According to Haas, Coinbase captures about 50% of the economics associated with USDC and holds about 30% of total USDC in circulation as assets on its platform. She said USDC holdings on the platform have grown significantly across recent quarters.
“We are both incentivized to grow total USDC market cap and deeply embedded in the overall network of stablecoin usage around the world,” Haas said of Coinbase and Circle.
On tokenized equities, Haas said Base sequencer fees are currently the most direct source of monetization. Longer term, she said Coinbase sees opportunities in increasing the utility, liquidity and network effects surrounding tokenized assets.
Coinbase has recorded $3 billion in tokenized-equity trading volume on Base since the launch of the product for non-U.S. customers, Haas said. Armstrong added that Coinbase’s tokenized equities are structured as securities that provide features including dividend participation, redemption for underlying assets and, in development, voting rights.
AI agents and the “everything exchange” strategy
Armstrong highlighted Coinbase’s push into artificial intelligence-enabled financial services through Coinbase for Agents, a product designed to connect third-party AI agents to Coinbase accounts. He said agentic trading volume has been growing about 20% week over week, though it remains small compared with the company’s overall trading activity.
The product includes an MCP application programming interface and supports functions involving crypto, equities, prediction markets and payments. Armstrong said Coinbase intends to provide AI agents with financial-account controls and permissions for spending, payments, borrowing and trading.
“We really want to make Coinbase the most AI-enabled financial account out there for trading and payments and borrowing,” Armstrong said.
He said the company’s strategy is to create an “everything exchange” that brings trading, payments, lending and other financial services into a single account. Coinbase believes its ability to serve retail consumers, institutions, businesses and developers can create operating leverage by allowing it to introduce products across multiple customer categories.
Armstrong also said Coinbase is integrating Deribit, the crypto options platform it acquired, into its broader product offering. The company is creating what he called a unified regulated global exchange spanning perpetual futures, options and futures, and is making Deribit available to both U.S. and international users. He said Coinbase also plans to relaunch its advanced trading platform under the Coinbase Pro brand.
Security and regulatory outlook
Addressing questions on cryptographic security, Armstrong distinguished between risks posed by AI and those posed by quantum computing. He said he was not particularly concerned that AI would break elliptic-curve cryptography, citing decades of unsuccessful efforts to undermine the encryption method.
Quantum computing represents a longer-term concern, he said, and Coinbase has begun work to make its custody services post-quantum. Haas said Coinbase acquired a team of cryptography specialists in 2022 and is monitoring both quantum and AI-related security developments.
Armstrong said he expects to spend more time focused on customers and products in 2027, following a period in which Coinbase was heavily involved in policy matters in Washington. He said the regulatory environment has improved, citing the GENIUS Act and cooperation between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
About Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN)
Coinbase Global, Inc operates a digital-asset financial infrastructure and technology platform. Through its Coinbase platform, the company enables individuals and institutions to buy, sell, store, transfer and use cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. Its services are designed to support both retail customers and institutional participants in the digital-asset economy.
The company offers cryptocurrency trading, custody and staking services, as well as subscription products and institutional solutions.
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