Coinbase Posts $719M Q3 Profit, Mostly From Crypto It Kept

Coinbase earned $719 million in the third quarter, its first profit in three quarters, the exchange reported Thursday. Almost all of it came from coins it didn't sell.

About $715 million of that profit was a paper gain on crypto Coinbase holds as an investment. Strip that out, along with other investment gains, and adjusted net income was $77.7 million. Analysts had expected a loss of 15 cents a share, per Zacks data cited by Decrypt. Coinbase posted $2.51 per diluted share.

How the paper gain works

Accounting rules make Coinbase mark its own crypto to market each quarter. When prices rise between June 30 and Sept. 30, the gain lands in net income even though nothing was sold. When prices fall, it runs the other way. Ask the first quarter: the swing cost Coinbase $482 million in the first quarter.

The business underneath

Trading fees keep shrinking.

• Total revenue was $1.22 billion, flat from the second quarter and down 35% from a year ago.
• Trading revenue slipped 1% to $590 million. Crypto volatility hit multi-year lows, the company said.
• Subscription and services revenue rose 3% to $570 million, 49% of the total. Stablecoin revenue was $307 million.
• Prediction markets passed $200 million in annualized revenue.

Coinbase also trimmed its 2026 adjusted expense outlook by $100 million at the midpoint, to $4.15 billion to $4.3 billion. Shares closed at $160.59 before the release and barely moved after hours, Decrypt reported.

In our opinion: The profit is real, but most of it was the market's doing. The steadier story is stablecoin interest and prediction markets doing the work trading fees used to. Watch whether that holds if rates fall.