Coinbase Trading Revenue Under Pressure as Crypto Comes of Age
- Many crypto exchanges are seeing less business than in 2021
- Volatility more subdued this year than 2021 crypto bull market
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It’s been a landmark year for digital assets, but a move into the mainstream is making price swings less wild, diminishing a key attraction for many investors and poised to shake up growth of the biggest revenue source for exchanges such as Coinbase Global Inc.
Despite posting higher-than-forecast first-quarter revenue and profit, the largest US crypto exchange’s consumer trading volume was $56 billion, compared with a peak of $177 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021 at the height of crypto’s previous bull run. Bitcoin’s trading volume — which feeds Coinbase’s trading-fee revenue — has remained muted since the world’s largest cryptocurrency hit all time-highs in March following the introduction of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.