Coinbase Wants To Become An 'Everything Exchange' As Crypto Speculation Slows And Traders Shift To Prediction Markets, Gold And Oil

Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) is leaning harder into prediction markets, derivatives and commodities trading as speculative crypto activity slows, with executives pitching the company as an "everything exchange" after reporting weaker-than-expected quarterly results on Thursday.

Shares of the crypto exchange fell about 5% in premarket trading on Friday after a surprise first-quarter loss and missed Wall Street estimates on revenue.

‘Something’s Always Up, Something’s Down’

Executives spent much of the earnings call emphasizing newer businesses that they say can reduce the company's dependence on volatile crypto trading cycles.

"Something's always up, something's down … that's the nature of trading, so it's important we're diversifying," Chief Executive Brian Armstrong said on the call.

Coinbase said prediction markets — launched in partnership with Kalshi earlier this year — reached an annualized revenue run rate of $100 million in March, just two months after launch. Its retail derivatives business is now generating more than $200 million in annualized revenue, executives said.

The company also said trading volumes in non-crypto contracts such as gold, silver and oil rose more than fourfold from the previous quarter.

Crypto Speculation Slows

The push comes as trading in smaller, speculative crypto tokens weakens sharply.

Coinbase executives said overall crypto market capitalization and trading volumes both fell more than 20% quarter-over-quarter, while volatility in "long-tail assets" hit historic lows.

"We transformed Coinbase from a primarily spot-focused crypto platform into a place where you can now trade any asset class," Armstrong said.

Earlier this week, Armstrong also announced plans to cut roughly 14% of Coinbase's workforce, citing both the crypto downturn and artificial intelligence reshaping how the company operates.

"We are adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast, and AI-native," Armstrong wrote in a memo to employees published on X.

The strategy reflects a broader shift across the crypto industry as exchanges seek steadier revenue streams beyond the boom-and-bust cycles of bitcoin and meme-token trading.

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