Coinbase Global, Inc.
Publicly traded American cryptocurrency company operating the largest U.S. crypto exchange, a NASDAQ-listed S&P 500 member.
Company Type
public
Founded
2012
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, USA (remote-first)
Stock
NASDAQ: COIN
Revenue
$7.2 billion (FY2025)
Employees
approximately 5,000
Primary Market
United States
About Coinbase Global, Inc.
What does Coinbase Global, Inc. own?
It owns the Coinbase exchange and its product tiers, Coinbase Wallet, the Base blockchain, Coinbase Prime institutional services, and Deribit, the crypto derivatives platform acquired in August 2025. It also holds a commercial partnership with Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin.
Is Coinbase publicly traded?
Yes. Shares trade on NASDAQ under the ticker COIN. The company listed directly in April 2021 and joined the S&P 500 in May 2025.
Who owns Coinbase Global?
Public shareholders own the economic majority. CEO Brian Armstrong holds supervoting Class B shares that give him majority voting control. Large index managers including Vanguard and BlackRock hold the biggest Class A positions.
How does Coinbase make money?
About 59 percent of net revenue comes from transaction fees on crypto trades. The rest comes from stablecoin income on USDC, staking, custody fees, interest, and Coinbase One subscriptions.
Where is Coinbase headquartered?
The company has no formal headquarters and has operated as remote-first since 2021. It is incorporated in Delaware and retains operational hubs in several U.S. and international cities.
Did Coinbase buy Deribit?
Yes. The acquisition closed in August 2025 for approximately $2.9 billion in cash and stock, making Coinbase the largest crypto derivatives platform globally by open interest.
History of Coinbase Global, Inc.
Brian Armstrong founded the company in June 2012, initially working alone after posting the idea on Hacker News. Fred Ehrsam joined as co-founder within months. The startup passed through Y Combinator's summer 2012 batch and raised seed funding that year, followed by a $5 million Series A led by Union Square Ventures in 2013 and a $25 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz later that year.
The company's early thesis was regulatory cooperation rather than avoidance. It obtained state money transmitter licenses, later a New York BitLicense in 2017, and positioned itself as the compliant American exchange while offshore competitors grew faster on volume. That compliance focus paid off during repeated industry crises.
Growth came in waves tied to crypto cycles. The 2017 bitcoin rally made Coinbase the top app in the U.S. App Store and pushed annual revenue above $1 billion. The 2018 crash cut volumes and headcount ambitions. The company expanded through acquisitions, buying Earn.com in 2018 (which brought Balaji Srinivasan as CTO for a year), Xapo's custody business in 2019, and analytics firm Skew in 2021.
Coinbase listed directly on NASDAQ on April 14, 2021, at a valuation near $100 billion intraday, the largest direct listing at that time. The timing proved difficult. The 2022 collapses of TerraUSD and then FTX crushed trading volumes. Coinbase cut roughly 20 percent of staff in January 2023 on top of earlier reductions and pivoted hard toward recurring revenue.
The 2024 to 2026 period delivered a recovery and strategic expansion. Spot bitcoin ETF approvals in January 2024 made Coinbase the custodian for most U.S. funds. The SEC dropped its enforcement lawsuit in February 2025. The company completed its $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit in August 2025, entered the S&P 500 in May 2025, launched prediction markets in February 2026, and bought back $2 billion of stock during 2026 while accumulating 18,000 bitcoin on its balance sheet.
Controversy, Regulation & Public Scrutiny
Coinbase has faced significant regulatory and security events. The SEC sued the company in June 2023 alleging operation of an unregistered securities exchange; the agency dismissed the case with prejudice in February 2025. The New York Department of Financial Services fined Coinbase $50 million and required a $50 million compliance investment in January 2023 for onboarding and monitoring failures. In May 2025, the company disclosed that criminals bribed overseas customer-support contractors to exfiltrate user data, then demanded ransom; Coinbase refused payment, offered a $20 million bounty, and estimated remediation and reimbursement costs of $180 million to $400 million. A former product manager was convicted in 2023 of wire fraud in the first crypto insider-trading case, after tipping his brother about upcoming token listings.
Brands Owned by Coinbase Global, Inc.
Coinbase Global, Inc. owns 1 brand in our database. Explore the ownership tree below — click categories to expand and see individual brands.
Coinbase Global, Inc.
public · Founded 2012 · San Francisco, California, USA (remote-first)
1
brands
Stock Information
Coinbase Global, Inc. Ownership: Pros & Cons
Advantages
- +Only S&P 500 crypto company, giving it index-fund demand and institutional legitimacy
- +$11.3 billion in cash and equivalents plus 18,000 bitcoin on the balance sheet
- +Fifteen consecutive quarters of positive Adjusted EBITDA through Q3 2026
- +Regulatory licenses that smaller rivals cannot easily replicate
- +Custody dominance in the U.S. ETF market creates sticky institutional revenue
Considerations
- -Results remain leveraged to crypto market cycles despite diversification efforts
- -Founder control through supervoting shares limits shareholder influence
- -Regulatory treatment of crypto continues to vary across jurisdictions
- -The 2025 data breach exposed third-party vendor risk in support operations
- -Fee compression from subscriptions and rivals may pressure transaction margins
Frequently Asked Questions About Coinbase Global, Inc.
What does Coinbase Global, Inc. own?
It owns the Coinbase exchange and its product tiers, Coinbase Wallet, the Base blockchain, Coinbase Prime institutional services, and Deribit, the crypto derivatives platform acquired in August 2025. It also holds a commercial partnership with Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin.
Is Coinbase publicly traded?
Yes. Shares trade on NASDAQ under the ticker COIN. The company listed directly in April 2021 and joined the S&P 500 in May 2025.
Who owns Coinbase Global?
Public shareholders own the economic majority. CEO Brian Armstrong holds supervoting Class B shares that give him majority voting control. Large index managers including Vanguard and BlackRock hold the biggest Class A positions.
How does Coinbase make money?
About 59 percent of net revenue comes from transaction fees on crypto trades. The rest comes from stablecoin income on USDC, staking, custody fees, interest, and Coinbase One subscriptions.
Where is Coinbase headquartered?
The company has no formal headquarters and has operated as remote-first since 2021. It is incorporated in Delaware and retains operational hubs in several U.S. and international cities.
Did Coinbase buy Deribit?
Yes. The acquisition closed in August 2025 for approximately $2.9 billion in cash and stock, making Coinbase the largest crypto derivatives platform globally by open interest.
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