Coinbase's "Everything" Vision Collides With Weak Q2

Olivia Capozzalo & Camila Russo
August 01, 2025

Happy Friday, Defiers!

Today’s big story:

Coinbase outlined plans to become an “everything exchange,” but a disappointing Q2 rained on the bullish vision

In other news:

The acceleration of crypto public treasury companies could “become structurally fragile,” per a new Galaxy Digital report
After the SEC revealed Project Crypto, Coinbase said it wants to bring “all assets on-chain” for its U.S. users
Grayscale debuts its latest crypto trust — and it’s far below the top-20 crypto assets
Visa adds more stablecoins and protocols to its settlement network
A U.S. court overturns the 2023 insider trading conviction of an OpenSea exec
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Today’s Big Story

Coinbase’s “Everything Exchange” Vision Collides With a Not-As-Bullish Q2

The week Brian Armstrong pitched Coinbase as the one-stop shop for all assets—stocks, perps, prediction markets, even Chase reward points—the market reminded him that shiny roadmaps don’t pay the bills just yet.

Bullish announcements

Tokenized-stocks reveal. Vice-president Max Branzburg told CNBC the firm will “bring all assets on-chain” and launch U.S. trading of tokenized equities, derivatives and prediction markets “in the coming months.” The move positions Coinbase against Robinhood and Kraken in the race to wrap Wall Street inside ERC-20s.
Perpetual futures go live. A July 21 debut of Coinbase Perpetuals plants a regulated CEX flag in a market long dominated by offshore venues and Hyperliquid’s DeFi rails.
JPMorgan partnership. Two days later, Chase promised its 80 million customers a direct bank-to-wallet link, the option to fund trades with credit cards, and the ability to convert Ultimate Rewards into USDC—all routed through Coinbase.

The cold shower

Hours after the press blitz, Q2 earnings landed. Transaction revenue slipped again to $764 million, while adjusted net income cratered 89% to $33 million. Retail volumes were “muted,” management said, even as Bitcoin sat near ATHs. Shares fell 7% in after-hours trading.

Subscription and services lines—staking, custody, stablecoin interest now a record $332 million—kept the quarter out of the red, but they can’t mask the core problem: fewer trades, lower take. Tokenization may expand addressable markets, yet it won’t immediately close the gap between user excitement and fee capture.

What tokenization really fixes (and what it doesn’t)

Revenue mix. Wrapping stocks in tokens could kick-start volumes at higher take-rates than commoditised BTC/ETH trades, if regulators accept smart-contract settlement.

Cross-sell flywheel. Chase’s rewards-to-USDC bridge is a stealth on-ramp to Coinbase Commerce, nudging 80M households toward on-chain payments and reinforcing the firm’s fastest-growing revenue line.

Liquidity moat. Perpetuals and prediction markets expand the order book, but liquidity will fragment unless Coinbase links order flow across venues or mirrors order books on-chain.

Yet none of these levers matter unless retail comes back. Tokenized Apple shares and NBA finals prediction markets still need traders—and a reason to choose Coinbase over Robinhood, Binance, or a fee-free DEX.

Regulatory tailwinds and a product super-cycle put Coinbase in pole position to become the coveted “everything app” of on-chain finance. That ambition is now priced into the stock, but the exchange still needs to deliver on the execution.

This post was first published in our RWA and stablecoins-focused weekly newsletter, Real World. Subscribe to get next week’s!

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Top News in the Past 24 Hours

Galaxy Digital Warns Crypto Treasury Firms Create ‘Structurally Fragile’ Market The research arm of Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital is cautioning that the fast rise of crypto treasury companies could potentially make the market “structurally fragile,” comparing it to the 1920s investment trust boom.
Coinbase Unveils ‘Everything Exchange’ Bringing Tokenized Stocks to US Users The largest U.S. crypto exchange, Coinbase, told media yesterday that the firm will begin offering tokenized stocks, derivatives, prediction markets and early-stage token sales to U.S. customers in the coming months, aiming to create — like many of its competitors globally — a one-stop shop for everything crypto.
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