Coinbase exchange (NASDAQ: COIN) reported second-quarter revenue, ended June 30, of $1.2 billion, falling short of analysts' forecast of $1.3 billion according to an LSEG (LSE: LSEG) survey. The loss was $1.36 per share, significantly worse than Wall Street's forecasted loss of 17 cents. Following this news, the company's stock price immediately fell, resulting in a decline of over 7% after market close.
This quarter marked the third consecutive quarter where the company missed forecasts for both sales and profits. Coinbase incurred a loss of $359.5 million, compared to a profit of $1.43 billion in the same period last year. Earnings per share decreased from $5.14 last year to a loss of $1.36 this year. Revenue also declined from $1.5 billion to $1.2 billion.
Coinbase Develops Subscription Products While Weak Trading Performance Continues to Impact Revenue Negatively
For much of the second quarter, Bitcoin remained within a narrow price range as the market was healthier than in the first quarter; however, spot bitcoin ETFs faced a prolonged period of outflows.
Coinbase then recorded a decline in activity across its two largest business segments: the company earned $599 million from transactions and an additional $555 million from subscriptions and services.
All these metrics fell short of forecasts and were lower compared to the previous year. The subscription share remained a larger portion of total revenue. For several years, Coinbase has aimed to reduce its reliance on trading fees.
Revenue from stablecoins amounted to $292 million, $17 million less compared to the same quarter in 2025. StreetAccount had expected revenue of $327.2 million. The disappointment stems from management's continued primary focus on services such as $USDC, Coinbase One, Base, and others, beyond spot trading.
Coinbase CEO Brian stated that Coinbase achieved a new record for its share in cryptocurrency trading and asserted that the company can operate in any market. In the earnings report, he said: "Coinbase is no longer betting solely on the price of bitcoin." Brian added: "All financial services are being updated through cryptocurrencies, whether it's trading, payments, or lending," and called Coinbase the company most suited to provide this infrastructure.
During the earnings call, Bryan Jung from Jung Media asked why Coinbase seems to be reconnecting with retail users and native crypto users after Brian appeared on Market Bubble and Coby took control of the Base app.
Brian from Coinbase said: "Yes, we have many different groups who love using Coinbase, and perhaps an even broader group is developing on the Base Chain. So, we try to connect with all of them. Actually, Coinbase is used by a fairly diverse group of people, right? The world's largest banks, like GSIB, are building their projects on our infrastructure."
Brian and Alesia Detail Coinbase's Plans to Support AI Agents and Develop $USDC
Austin Hankwitz from Grit Capital asked whether AI agents would care about Coinbase's reputation or simply choose the cheapest and fastest network. He noted that over 90% of agent-initiated stablecoin transaction volume goes through Base. Brian said price would matter, but not by itself. "AI agents will probably care about the same set of things as humans," he said.
As Brian put it, Base provides settlement for less than a cent in less than a second. Furthermore, Brian noted that automated clients will consider other factors as well, such as security, liquidity, legitimacy, reliability, and seamlessness. He compared this choice to choosing Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) AWS cloud infrastructure. "Trust will still be important in this world," he said, adding that Coinbase plans to welcome AI agents as its customers.
Eric Pan from Ericnomics asked where Coinbase expects growth now that revenue from bitcoin-related transactions has fallen from over half of the company's sales to 12%.
Brian said: "At any given moment in the market, there is always something rising and something falling. That's part of the Everything Exchange strategy. You need all shelves to be stocked to have inventory when the trend shifts one way or another any given week. And regarding non-trading fees related to subscriptions and services, we are also seeing good growth there over the past few years."
Coinbase wants there to be enough available products so clients can trade what is becoming popular at any given moment. He said the expanded range should distribute trading fee revenue across more assets and products. Subscription and service fees, in turn, are meant to make the company's revenue more predictable.
CFO Alesia Haas stated that the number of paid Coinbase One subscribers reached a record level during the quarter, despite declining crypto trading volumes. "This quarter, we saw a record high number of paid Coinbase One subscribers," she said. Alesia noted that these subscribers tend to use more of the platform's products, giving Coinbase another way to increase customer activity without relying solely on trading.
Ken Worthing from JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) questioned whether Coinbase's deal with Hyperliquid gives large $USDC holders too large a share in the economic benefit from this stablecoin.
Alesia stated that institutional investors can hold $USDC on Coinbase and earn rewards, and retail users can do the same via Coinbase One. She noted that Hyperliquid is treated like any other client, although its role in the perpetual futures and market-making space makes this relationship important.
Alesia stated that Coinbase is willing to share revenue because placing $USDC deeper within the Hyperliquid network can increase liquidity, usage, and distribution across the broader network.
Brian stated that the company will continue to fund this direction. He noted that $USDC already ranks first in stablecoin transaction volume and first among regulated stablecoins, but remains second to Tether in market capitalization when considering less regulated products.
end-content
