Coinbase (COIN.US) FY26 Q2 Earnings Call: Subscription model transformation is driving revenue structure diversification.

Recently, Coinbase (COIN.US) held its FY26Q2 earnings call. This quarter, the number of paid subscribers to Coinbase One reached a historic high, while Bitcoin-related trading revenue fell from over half of the company's total revenue to 12%. The company is simultaneously advancing revenue diversification on both the trading fee and non-trading fee subscription and service fronts. If the subscription model becomes widely adopted, transitioning users from one-off payments to Coinbase One subscriptions would result in a structural shift in revenue within the P&L. Coinbase stated that while the company's crypto trading volume has declined, the number of Coinbase One members is increasingthis truly demonstrates the value of the subscription product. Moreover, these customers are often the stickiest, trying out the most products and services. Therefore, this represents another important growth driver, as it is believed that the subscription product can continuously promote member growth and engagement on the platform. At the same time, with the launch of new products (such as prediction markets), customers participating in these new offerings have brought in incremental spot trading volume. Regarding cooperation with Circle, the company has met the renewal conditions of the Circle contract and will continue to collaborate with Circle to promote the growth of USDC and expand this ecosystem. Company executives believe that Bitcoin will return with strong momentum, as it continues to traverse these cycles. At any point, the trading business has things that are rising and falling, which is part of the "all-in-one exchange" strategyit's essential to keep the shelves stocked and maintain inventory, so that when a particular category heats up in a given week, there is stock available. Q&A Q: If the CLARITY Act ultimately fails to pass the Senate, what does it mean for Coinbase and ordinary consumers? Will the company become more cautious in the ambiguous space between the CFTC and SEC? A: First, Im personally quite optimistic that the bill will get to a full Senate vote. A lot of last-minute negotiations are happening, which, in my opinion, shows that everyone is putting in the effort to push it over the finish line. Senate staff and senators themselves have already spent thousands of hours on this and have come up with a fairly sound product; like all good negotiations, there are always many details to finalize at the end. The deadline formed during the August recess or the forcing mechanism is actually a good thing, as it often brings parties to the negotiating table at the last moment. There have already been a lot of calls made this week. Of course, after the full Senate vote, there are still more steps to go through, and one can never say 100%, but I remain generally optimistic. I must also thank the advocates of Stand With Crypto, who have sent over a million emails and calls to their lawmakers. As for what would happen if the bill does not passI believe in that scenario, it would essentially be business as usual for Coinbase, for several reasons. First, many of the things required by the CLARITY Act we are already doing as a best practice. More importantly, both chairpersons of the SEC and CFTC have publicly stated that, regardless of whether CLARITY passes, they are prepared to set forth clear rules. I dont speak for them, but I think they are currently in a wait-and-see mode, awaiting the outcome of CLARITY; if the bill fails for some reason, they will issue their own rules to allow companies like Coinbase to continue operations and gain more certainty. Therefore, we still believe that the passage of the bill would be better in a marginal sense, as it could provide continuity across different administrations, allowing all to make longer-term investments. However, the ones who would truly be harmed by the failure of CLARITY would be American consumers; Coinbase itself would be fine. Q: Why is Coinbase joining Open USD (OUSD)? Some believe OUSD is a significant threat to USDC; is participating in a competitive stablecoin platform to increase leverage in negotiating contracts with Circle? A: First, regarding our cooperation with Circle: we have already met the renewal conditions for the Circle contract, so it will be extended on the original terms. I want to clarify this point for the market to eliminate any ambiguity. We will continue to work with Circle to promote USDC growth and expand this ecosystem. As for why we are participating in OUSDthe short reason is that we are a multi-stablecoin platform. We want to offer all the stablecoins that our customers want to use and, where possible, reach good economic arrangements with them. We have a very good partnership with Circle and USDC, which from an economic standpoint is arguably the strongest; but we want to ensure we can reach economic deals with every mainstream stablecoin in the market and support them. In fact, we have already supported other stablecoins, such as PayPals PYUSD and Tethers USDT. Therefore, we are excited about this Open USD alliance and will continue to invest in it. I believe this will only create additional business and revenue opportunities for us, positioning us as a multi-stablecoin platformnot to mention the derivative scenarios like FX trading. Q: Is the company's recent public appearances and the appointment of the Base App head aimed at reconnecting with crypto-native users? What is the thinking behind it? A: We have various groups using Coinbase, and the community building on the Base chain may be broader, so we are working hard to connect with all these groups. The user base of Coinbase is actually quite diverse: the largest globally systematically important banks are developing on our infrastructure; we also see AI agents opening wallets on our architecture; we have clients from fintech companies and payment service providers; there is a large retail customer base; and there are both casual traders and professional traders. Of course, there is also the crypto-native community you mentioned, which is an important group we actively seek to connect with. This group is more internet-native, and sometimes I need to put in effort to understand their jargon and community norms. But we have many excellent people on our team who can engage with these different groups more effectively than I can. The head you mentioned, who recently joined, comes from that community, which is very good. I will also continue to participate in various podcasts that reach out to different groups, including the crypto-native community. Q: Why have there been multiple departures from the executive team this quarter? Why have these changes occurred so closely together? Are there any strategic changes on the human resources, legal, and institutional business fronts? A: From a strategic standpoint, there have been no changes. What I want to emphasize is that one of the things I am most proud of about Coinbase is that we have a very deep talent pipeline and a solid succession planning process. There are many long-standing employees in the company, and personnel changes at various stages are normal; what excites me is that we have a group of exceptional talents who have been with the company for a long time and are ready to take on these roles. I believe that this is our advantage, and I look forward to seeing what they will accomplish. I would also like to emphasize my excitement about our talent pipeline. The individuals youve encounteredleaders who will soon lead human resources and new legal functions, etc.have all been cultivated by the outgoing leaders. Therefore, we have high expectations for this next generation of talent, and these changes are all individual-level decisions, without any strategic signals that need to be interpreted. Q: The company has previously emphasized that customers choose Coinbase not because it is the cheapest, but because it is the most trusted, and over 90% of agentic stablecoin trading volume is settled on Base. However, AI agents lack brand loyalty, optimizing only for cost and latency. As their share increases, can the "trust" moat translate to them? Will agentic commerce structurally push Coinbase towards price competition? A: Im glad youre thinking about how we will serve both AI agents and human customers simultaneously; this is a question Ive been contemplating as well. In short, my answer to your question is: I believe the concerns of AI agents are likely to be quite similar to those of humans. Pricing is indeed one factor, with Base providing sub-cent costs and settlements within a second, making it very competitive from that perspective. However, I also believe that AI agents will choose reliable, secure, liquid, compliant, and consistently available infrastructuremuch like they might choose AWS or some cloud vendor for different types of infrastructure. So, to sum it up, I think trust will still be very important in that world. We will roll out the red carpet for AI agents, ensuring we can serve them properly. Q: Coinbase has launched a plethora of new products since December 2025, significantly speeding up product iteration. How does the team drive cross-product adoption and use these new products as entry points to bring new users onto the platform? What are the thoughts on the allocation of marketing expenses? A: Our overall strategy starts with providing secure custody for customer assets and encouraging asset retention on the platform. We find that when customers store their assets with us, they trade with us. So, at the growth marketing level, were really looking at which products are meeting market demand and where the active engagement of retail customers comes from. Currently, we are seeing good results from growth marketing in prediction markets, crypto trading, and some newly launched derivative products. Typically, we see that the payback period for growth marketing is about a year, but recent performance has exceeded this benchmark. We also observe some early signs: customers participating in these new products (like prediction markets) have concurrently brought in incremental spot trading volume. Therefore, we havent seen any self-cannibalization; rather, early data shows that with cross-selling and more customers adopting more products on the platform, we are gaining incremental trading. To reiterate, asset retention is at the core of this strategy. When customers trust usbeing the most trusted brand in the crypto industry, holding more crypto assets in custody than any other companyif they are willing to store their assets with us, then every time they come back to the platform for the product they're using today, we have the opportunity to showcase other offerings. Over time, they will adopt more products, and the more products they use, the more assets they retain, and the better the user retention. Therefore, we have established various incentive mechanisms to encourage this: for example, the more assets you retain on the platform, the higher the rates you can get on the Coinbase One card. Through this tiered design, we incentivize users to retain more assets on the platform over time. Q: Bitcoin-related trading revenue has fallen from over half of the companys total revenue to 12%. What other income categories is the company currently focusing on? What progress has been made in the direction of agentic commerce? A: We are simultaneously advancing revenue diversification on both trading fees and non-trading fees related to subscriptions and services. On the trading fee side, we can see that prediction markets and perpetual contracts have been well adopted, our overall trading volume share is increasing, and we have also launched stock trading; additionally, there are some previously discussed products within sight, such as stock options trading. Therefore, I believe income diversification within trading fees will continue to occur. By the way, I think Bitcoin will return with strong momentum; it is constantly traversing these cycles. The trading business consistently has things that are rising and falling at any point in time, which is part of the "all-in-one exchange" strategyyou must keep the shelves stocked and maintain inventory so that when a certain category heats up in a given week, you have stock on hand. On the non-trading fee side, subscriptions and services have also maintained good growth over the past few years, which has made our business more predictable. I want to highlight a point that may be overlooked: this quarter, the number of Coinbase One paid subscribers reached a historic high. This occurred in a clearly declining marketwe are seeing crypto trading volume decline, but the number of Coinbase One members is increasingthis truly demonstrates the value of the subscription product. Moreover, these users tend to be our stickiest customers as they explore the most products and services we offer. Therefore, this is another important growth driver; we believe that through subscription products, we can continuously promote membership size and engagement on the platform. As for agentic finance or AI-Fi, I think its still in a very early stage. I would say Coinbase has made early strides: from the perspective of agentic finance, we see the majority of transactions happening in USDC, Base, and X402, with the Coinbase Developer Platform becoming a valuable resource for developers in this area. However, it is still early overall, so we dont have specific numbers or forecasts to share at this time. Q: The company started offering Pre-IPO perpetual contracts to non-US users last month, with the first asset being SpaceX. What is the next product in the pipeline? When can we expect more private company assets? Is there a timeline for when this product will be made available to US customers? A: The early progress of Pre-IPO perpetual contracts is indeed encouraging, with robust demand from customers. Regarding the access for US users, that is already on the roadmap, and we will continue to push forward. I think it is important to allow people to access things that historically they could not, as it is an important part of the democratization of the financial system. So, we will continue to advance this from the perspective of US regulatory approval. Q: How do you view the evolution of the competitive landscape in the crypto space, especially with Robinhood expanding its crypto business and launching its own L2? How do you view the relationship between it and the Base ecosystem? A: We are seeing many different companies launching their own chains, which, to some extent, is normalin a growing market, you first see fragmentation, and over time, you usually see consolidation. This has historically been the case in industries like automotive and rail. Within the crypto industry, I think stablecoins have already demonstrated this: there was a period when it seemed every company had to launch their own stablecoin, with everyone believing they needed one. But the result is that despite all these new stablecoins being released, the market shares of USDC and Tether have been nearly unharmed over the past year, at most experiencing very minor declines. Therefore, what the community has found regarding stablecoins is that there are real network effects associated with them. For customers, cross-platform sending and receiving is an essential part of stablecoin utility; you would want to keep funds in the same stablecoin to avoid paying FX or exchange fees each time you use it. So, I guess we will see a similar situation in the world of blockchain. Stripe has launched one, Robinhood has launched another, with some being more focused on specific scenarios; whereas the largest chains, Ethereum and Solana, remain more general-purpose. Therefore, the interesting question now is when the consolidation phase will begin. Of course, Base, as the largest L2 on Ethereum, has been performing exceptionally well. It is one of the best liquidity markets for crypto spot trading like Bitcoin and Ethereum; I believe it is also currently leading in stablecoin transfer volume, with about $32 trillion in stablecoin transfers over the past 12 months. New scenarios like X402 are also primarily occurring on Base. So, I am very excited about Base; I think it is a remarkable innovation. We have publicly stated that Base has a gradual path to decentralization, and we hope it will become a neutral infrastructure for many companies to build upon. Up to now, we have made good progress at every stage of decentralization. I think we have about a two-year lead. We will continue to invest in Base to ensure everyone can build on it. Subsequently, it's likely that more companies will launch their own chains; the question is when the consolidation phase will come, and whether there will be a sort of M&A process in the world of blockchain. Historically, we have seen some small-scale examples, but who knows, we might become semi-experts in this field. Q: The collaboration with HyperLiquid seems to indicate that third parties with sufficient USDC can capture most of the economic benefits of USDC solely due to that position. How does the company protect the long-term economics of the network while continuing to invest in the USDC network and bring in new participants? A: Anyone can come to Coinbase to become a customer, hold USDC on our platform, and participate in rewards. We welcome institutional clients to do this; if youre a retail holder like a Coinbase One member, you can also earn rewards on the USDC you hold by participating in our products and services. So, in this regard, we dont see HyperLiquid as being particularly different. It is clearly a very important market participant within the entire perpetual contract ecosystem. We believe this partnership will bring broader network effects and greater adoption of USDCdeeply embedding USDC within a major participant that engages in a lot of market-making activities. Network effects in liquidity are crucial for stablecoins, underlying protocols, and even Base. Therefore, deeply integrating USDC into this ecosystem will further drive the growth and adoption of USDC across the ecosystemthat is our strategy. We believe this is the correct long-term strategy for stablecoins and are happy to share economic benefits to drive such network effects. To emphasize once again, we will continue to invest in USDC to expand it. It is, in fact, already number oneif you look at stablecoin trading volume, it is number one; it is also the largest regulated stablecoin globally. The only metric where it has not yet achieved the top position is when you aggregate regulated and under-regulated stablecoins by market cap or managed assets; in that case, it ranks second after Tether. So, I do believe it is necessary for us to continue sharing economic benefits and elevate USDC to the number one position in all these metrics, not just two out of three. Being the market leader brings disproportionately higher rewards, so we will continue to pursue this. Q: The number of Coinbase One subscribers has surpassed 1 million, reaching a new high. Members trade more and have a higher ARPU, but they enjoy zero trading fees, and the company can only generate retail trading revenue through the spread. So, does the revenue corresponding to each dollar of trading volume from members exceed or fall below that of non-members? Should investors view Coinbase One as profit-enhancing or take rate compressing? A: This is a good question, but I will give you a less-than-satisfactory answer: empirically, on average, Coinbase One subscribers trade more and have better unit economics, but edge cases always exist. What you will see is that revenue will not all be reflected in trading income, as these Coinbase One users are also staking and using the Coinbase One credit card; we generate revenue from these members through various avenues. What we see is that this is an accretive relationship because it raises the activity across the entire product stack. So, I believe that overall, this is net positive for our unit economics. We see better retention rates and better engagement metrics. However, if the subscription model becomes widely adopted, and users shift from point fee payments to Coinbase One subscriptions, you will indeed see a structural migration of revenue within the P&L.