Coinbase Global Inc Earnings - Q4 2025 Analysis & Highlights
Coinbase Global Inc. reported strong operational and financial performance in Q4 2025, driven by diversification across multiple revenue streams, record trading volumes, and strategic investments in emerging opportunities including the Everything Exchange, stablecoins, and Base Layer 2 infrastructure, while maintaining profitability and deploying capital opportunistically through share buybacks and bitcoin purchases.
Key Financial Results
Total revenue for 2025 was $7.2 billion, representing a 9% year-over-year increase.
Q4 2025 total revenue was $1.8 billion, down 5% quarter-over-quarter, reflecting softer market conditions with crypto market cap declining 11% quarter-over-quarter.
Q4 transaction revenue was $983 million, down 6% quarter-over-quarter.
Subscription and services revenue reached $2.8 billion for full year 2025, up 23% year-over-year and more than 5.5 times higher than the prior cycle peak in 2021.
Q4 subscription and services revenue was $727 million, down 3% quarter-over-quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA in Q4 was $566 million and adjusted net income was $178 million.
On a GAAP basis, Q4 reported a net loss of $667 million, primarily driven by a $718 million unrealized loss on crypto investment portfolio and a $395 million loss on strategic investments.
The company achieved its twelfth consecutive quarter of adjusted EBITDA profitability.
Q4 marked the ninth consecutive quarter of native unit inflows to assets on platform.
Business Segment Results
Coinbase now has 12 products generating over $100 million in annualized revenue, with half of those exceeding $250 million.
Derivatives volume hit all-time highs in Q4, with Deribit achieving another all-time high quarter.
Global trading volume and market share doubled year-over-year, reaching new all-time highs.
The Everything Exchange launched in Q4 with early signs of success, including record notional volume in gold and silver futures as crypto prices fell.
Base set a new transaction all-time high with AI agents adopting stablecoin wallets.
USDC reached an all-time high market cap of approximately $75 billion, with record USDC stored in Coinbase products.
Equities trading rolled out with almost 10,000 tickers live this month.
Prediction markets were rolled out to 100% of customers a few weeks ago with early encouraging signals.
Capital Allocation
Coinbase deployed $1.7 billion to repurchase shares, fully offsetting 2025 dilution from stock-based compensation.
The company secured an $815 million notional discount to the average price of stock-based compensation issued in 2025.
The board approved an additional $2 billion share repurchase authorization in January, to be deployed opportunistically.
Coinbase is buying bitcoin on a weekly basis and has modestly increased the size of weekly purchases to build positions in these price markets.
The company doubled the number of BTC native units held in its investment portfolio during 2025.
Coinbase completed 10 acquisitions and acqui-hires in 2025, including the largest crypto deal of all time with Deribit, and acquired Echo to enable more efficient onchain capital formation.
Industry Trends and Dynamics
Bitcoin remains the best performing asset class over the past decade despite recent price volatility.
Stablecoins are identified as the second killer app in crypto, with most still underestimating the potential of a digital dollar.
The GENIUS Act passed six months ago, with 150 companies announcing stablecoin integrations in the three months following the legislation.
Adoption continues to grow with regulatory clarity on the horizon described as more bullish than ever.
AI agents are adopting stablecoins for payment, with stablecoins expected to become the default payment method for AI agents.
About 0.5% of global GDP currently runs on crypto rails, with potential to reach 10% or 20% in the next decade.
Competitive Landscape
Coinbase stores more crypto than any other company, storing 12% of all crypto in the world, more than the next four competitors combined.
Coinbase is the most trusted brand in crypto and works with thousands of institutions, including five G-SIB banks and 150 government agencies.
Assets on platform have grown approximately 3x over the past three years.
Coinbase doubled its trading volume and market share year-over-year and is growing its share internationally as regulatory clarity has emerged around the world.
The company has deep crypto expertise manifested in unique products, including early offerings of DEX trading, DeFi borrow/lend, Base chain, and next-generation multiparty computation cold storage systems.
Macroeconomic Environment
Crypto markets remain cyclical with heightened volatility experienced as the year began.
The company has been through many market cycles and adoption continues to grow despite price fluctuations.
Lower average crypto price environment, lower interest rates, and lower staking protocol rewards rates are expected in Q1 compared to Q4.
Retail customers on the platform are net buyers at current prices, buying the dip despite market pullbacks.
Growth Opportunities and Strategies
The Everything Exchange is the top priority for 2026, providing one platform for all tradable assets including crypto, equities, prediction markets, and commodities.
Scaling stablecoins and payments is the second priority, with focus on expanding stablecoin utility through deeper product integrations and scaling payments infrastructure.
Bringing the world onchain is the third priority, including DeFi integrations in the Coinbase app, scaled adoption of the Base App with trading focus, and increased transaction volume on Base chain.
Coinbase is working on shipping tokenized equities as a major positive change to the financial system, with belief in a path to get there under crypto-forward SEC leadership.
The Everything Exchange will be expanded to more countries around the world.
The company is protecting the ability to pay rewards to customers using stablecoins to ensure regulated US stablecoins remain competitive with offshore or unregulated offerings.
Base is establishing itself as the onchain home for AI, with AI agents adopting stablecoin wallets.
The asset accumulation flywheel strategy focuses on being the most trusted brand in crypto, connecting more products into customer assets, and using monetization to invest back in brand and product development.
Financial Guidance and Outlook
For Q1 2026, subscription and services revenue is expected to be in the range of $550 million to $630 million, reflecting lower average crypto price environment, lower interest rates, and lower staking protocol rewards rates.
Technology and development plus general and administrative expenses are expected to be flat quarter-over-quarter in the range of $925 million to $975 million.
Sales and marketing expenses are expected to be flat to down quarter-over-quarter in the range of $250 million to $350 million.
Through February 10, the company generated approximately $420 million of transaction revenue in Q1.
Coinbase enters 2026 from a position of strength with a more diversified revenue base, scaled global platform, and balance sheet flexibility to continue investing through the cycle.
The company will continue buying bitcoin, continue share buybacks, and continue building.
Management does not attempt to predict future market direction but focuses on building great products and services while leaving investment decisions to customers.
Regulatory and Policy Environment
Management is optimistic about getting something through on the CLARITY Act in the next few months, with the crypto industry united in their asks.
The focus is on preserving benefits of crypto, preventing protectionism for incumbents, and creating a level-playing field.
The House draft of CLARITY received a strong bipartisan vote and did not have restrictions on stablecoin rewards, though some Senate amendments contemplated prohibiting rewards.
Prohibiting stablecoin rewards would actually make Coinbase more profitable, but the company does not want this outcome as it believes rewards are better for customers and for US competitiveness of regulated stablecoins.
Stablecoin rewards are already allowed under the GENIUS Act which became law five months ago.
Platform Reliability and Operations
Coinbase experienced a brief technical issue where some users experienced interruptions in their ability to buy, sell, and transfer crypto on retail and prime platforms, but derivatives and equities trading remained unaffected.
The issue was unrelated to trading volume or market conditions and has been resolved.
The company has made significant investments in its platform to mitigate outages historically driven by volume changes.
Coinbase ended the year with 4,951 full-time employees, up 3% quarter-over-quarter, continuing to invest in product development, customer support, and compliance infrastructure.
Balance Sheet and Liquidity
Coinbase ended the year with $11.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents and total available resources of approximately $14.1 billion including crypto assets held for investments and collateral.
The company remains in a very strong capital and liquidity position.
