Key Takeaways

  • Bitcoin trading generates only 12% of Coinbase revenue today, while 88% now comes from non-Bitcoin trading.
  • Coinbase is building an "Everything Exchange" designed to combine tokenized stocks, commodities, prediction markets, and derivatives on one unified cross-margin platform.
  • The company's international equity product uses 1:1 custody-backed securities rather than synthetic derivatives or debt instruments.
  • The distribution strategy targets roughly 4 billion people worldwide who lack access to US brokerage accounts or traditional banking.
  • The tokenization roadmap extends past public stocks to include private credit, treasuries, and commercial bank deposits on global settlement rails.

The 88% Shift Away from Bitcoin

Brian Armstrong built Coinbase on Bitcoin, but Bitcoin is no longer the primary driver of the business. “Actually 88% of our revenue is from non Bitcoin trading at this point,” Armstrong explained to Elad Gil.

Coinbase is shifting its platform into what Armstrong calls the Everything Exchange. The objective is simple: place every liquid financial asset into a single cross-margined trading interface. Instead of forcing users to juggle distinct accounts across multiple regional brokers, commodity desks, and crypto apps, Coinbase wants users to trade tokenized equities, prediction markets, commodities, and perpetual futures from one shared pool of collateral.

Armstrong sees this unification as the logical end state of market structure: “Every asset class is coming on chain. It's now possible to trade everything in one place with good liquidity and good cross margin.”

1:1 Backing Replaces Synthetic Exposure

Earlier attempts across the crypto sector to offer US equities relied on synthetic tokens, contracts for difference (CFDs), or opaque debt structures. Those models regularly broke during extreme volatility or faced immediate regulatory shutdowns.

Coinbase chose a direct custody route for its international product. “It's the first truly tokenized stock product. It's not a synthetic or derivative or some debt instrument,” Armstrong said. “It's actually a security and it's one to one represented by the actual security held in custody.”

Holding the underlying security in custody changes the counterparty risk profile. It gives international investors a direct claim on real shares while allowing transactions to settle on blockchain rails. Traditional US stock exchanges close at 4 PM Eastern and rely on multi-day settlement windows. Tokenized securities trade continuously with real-time settlement.

Unlocking 4 Billion Under-Brokeraged Users

The domestic US brokerage market is mature and saturated with zero-commission apps. The massive growth vector exists outside the United States. Armstrong pointed out that “there's like something like 4 billion people in the world who don't have access to any brokerage or US investment account.”

In many emerging economies, local currencies face severe inflation and domestic stock exchanges offer thin liquidity. Distributing tokenized securities directly to self-custody wallets allows an engineer in Lagos or a founder in São Paulo to hold Apple or Nvidia shares without needing a foreign bank account.

Armstrong views public equities as the entry point for a much larger migration of real-world assets onto blockchain infrastructure: “And then I think you just go on down the list like private credit and treasuries and bank deposits. Like everything's going to get tokenized and it's just going to mean that financial services is going to have modern rails to run on.”

What to Do With This

Audit your application's payment and settlement layer this week. If you serve international clients, calculate the exact percentage of your transaction fees and settlement delays caused by legacy correspondent banking. Map out the technical requirements for accepting or settling invoices in onchain dollar assets or tokenized treasuries for your next cross-border product flow.