Tako Founders Club Weekly Founder Spotlight | Base Founder Jesse
Founder's Club (https://app.tako.so/community/trend/founders-club) is a space for founders to interact, share insights, and build connections. It also provides an opportunity for users interested in emerging and trending projects to engage in direct conversations with founders.
Within the Base ecosystem, due to the lack of a timely Chinese communication channel, the Chinese-speaking community has always felt somewhat detached. Therefore, in the sixth edition of the "Founder's AMA," we invited @Base Founder @jessepollak to engage directly with Chinese-speaking users. The conversation was divided into two parts: 1) Jesse answered representative questions from the community, with over 80 questions collected for this session; 2) Jesse conducted a real-time text Q&A session on Tako on April 25th at 10:30 am.
Below is a summary of the first part of the discussion. The AMA was hosted by Julie (@juliethetako).
Q1 Julie
This question is from Mable (@mablejiang): You mentioned previously that you hoped to do more in Asia. Could you share your development plans in Asia?
(Related questions were also asked by: @Xuegaogx, @DeFiGuyLuke, @0x35_kaori, @mablejiang, @0xNought, @PANewsCN, @Moose777, @jacktod_, @0xginana)
Jesse: Last autumn, I spent a few weeks in Asia and had conversations with some developers. This reaffirmed my belief that we need to do more in this region.
Recently, we hired a country lead in the Philippines, and there are currently open country lead positions in Indonesia and Singapore, with more positions to be available in the future. We also plan to engage in closer collaborations with developers in China. I understand the importance of localization for the Chinese market, so we will provide more communication channels and resources for Chinese-speaking developers, creators, and users. Stay tuned for more information later this year.
Q2 Julie
This question is from Star (@starzqeth): Solana has a clear positioning, what is Base's positioning? It feels like doing a bit of everything, but none as thorough as Solana.
(The following users also inquired about related questions: @Whdysseus, @Michael_Liu93, @leoding0806x, @framenum, @mablejiang, @hoidya_, @taowang1, @Moose777)
Jesse: Base is a global on-chain economy, and we are making Base accessible to everyone through the execution of the 2025 strategy (see link below), while always staying true to our core values (Stay Base). Specifically, this means:
· Building powerful and open tools to help anyone build world-class on-chain applications.
· Nurturing a vibrant ecosystem that connects open on-chain applications to expand the Base user base.
· Creating a robust on-chain account that provides seamless fund, identity, and governance services.
· Making Base the center of the on-chain economy, with a highly liquid, always-on global capital market.
· Decentralizing, scaling, and accelerating Base to enable everyone worldwide to participate in the on-chain economy.
I understand the challenge you mentioned about meeting everyone's needs is indeed difficult, but I believe that if we can execute along these directions, it should be achievable. Lastly, I have great respect for the Solana team, and bringing a billion people onto the chain is certainly not something any single entity can accomplish.
https://base.mirror.xyz/gFOLgyrs8jtX4Eqt4Kh6ikWhB3tqrhQoKfddeqZIECs
Q3 Julie
This question is from Wu Shuo (@wublockchain): What do you think is the biggest challenge and dilemma for Ethereum currently? Have these challenges already affected its overall ecosystem development? What key breakthroughs has Base made in the Ethereum ecosystem? From which perspectives can Base help Ethereum solve existing problems?
(The following users also inquired about related questions: @ai_9684xtpa@PANewsCN@ZKSgu@0xcryptoHowe@Benjieming1Q84)
Jesse: @brian_armstrong often says, "Things are never as good as they seem, nor as bad as they seem." Recently, there has been a lot of negative news about ETH's price, which I believe is mostly noise. I am more focused on using @base to address what I see as key issues and to make sure everything on-chain "runs smoothly":
· Fast and Cheap: Transactions on Base have remained at less than one cent for over a year. We recently released Flash Blocks on the testnet, bringing transaction speeds down to 200 milliseconds. Fast and cheap.
· Secure and Easy: The smart wallet has removed much of the complexity, helping users unfamiliar with cryptocurrency to easily get started, and it only requires operation in a browser without the need for additional extensions or app installations. We can also ensure everything runs smoothly through subsidizing gas fees and recovery features.
· Developer<>User Flywheel: Many people initially get involved for a specific token, then want to explore more functionalities but don't have a clear next step. We are introducing Farcaster and miniapps into @CoinbaseWallet, seamlessly integrating everything and driving the expansion of this flywheel.
Stay humble, keep building.
Q4 Julie
This question is from @yjy616: Base has seen many original meme projects emerge, and even some community-driven "cultural events" have gained good traction. In Jesse's view, are memes and native culture an important part of Base's differentiation? How will the Base team further support the development of grassroots meme culture, especially in non-English-speaking communities?
(The following users also asked related questions: @0xPickleCati @0xNought)
Jesse: Yes, memes are definitely a part of our culture and a key factor that sets Base apart strategically from other platforms. I once gave a lecture explaining why I believe memes are so crucial in this process. But in simple terms, I think memes, just like in Web2, are an essential user onboarding tool. And the meme builders on Base have brought us our most potent cultural force. Special thanks to @clankeronbase, @apedotstore, @ClizaSystems, and other platform and community efforts; their contributions have made all of this possible.
Additionally, I have recently been discussing "Content Coins." Just as a social media post may be just an image or may turn into a viral meme, a content coin is also a simple post without its value expected. I believe that much content will evolve into memes, and many memes will also create content! @1_crypticpoet has a great article explaining how these interact.
Q5 Julie
This question is from @anymose96: How to understand Base is for everyone, and why was the official reference token minted so quickly?
Jesse: First of all, let's clarify: Base is for everyone is a post released by Base on Zora, not a formal token. We have been publishing content on Zora for years and are very interested in their Content is Coined new model.
Why did we do this? Because unlocking tokens provides a powerful tool for creators to earn income through creativity and paves the way for more experimental attempts. There has been a lot of discussion about this, with everyone debating whether it is a good or bad thing. My view is that people are accustomed to a traditional understanding of tokens, and this approach is new and different. We anticipated some criticism and indeed found it a bit daunting. If we could do it over, I would have @base make more statements and clarifications from the beginning.
Looking ahead, we will continue to mint coins because we believe everyone should bring their content to the chain. Our goal is to lead by example through action and experiment in public. If you want to learn more, you can listen to this great podcast by clicking here to view the Zora link
Q6 Julie
This question is from @jacktod_: base's future plan is to attract more web2 users to join web3. I have also seen the team engaging in various degrees of communication around the world, spreading knowledge, etc. What is the main purpose of getting users on-chain? Is it mainly at the level of everyday consumption, or is it more focused on defi, gamefi?
Jesse: Every day, I think about how to bring a billion people onto the chain, and the reality is, we cannot achieve this goal just by attracting those who are already interested in cryptocurrency. We need to expand this "cake," and to do that, I believe the answer is all the methods mentioned above. Our mission is to build a global on-chain economy that includes everyone.
Payments are a great example that showcases how on-chain technology can improve people's lives. I witnessed this firsthand last year while traveling globally, seeing how forex and international payments are so crucial for people to access the global economy. Stablecoins in local currencies and fast, low-cost on-chain payments have solved many real-world issues for people: they are almost instant, unlike traditional payments that take days, and the fees are as low as less than a cent (USD-denominated) instead of 3% or $50 or even more.
On-chain finance, social, entertainment, music, art, games, content... all these areas can improve people's lives by transferring control to developers and creators, rather than being centralized in the hands of large corporations.
Q7 Julie
This question is from @adJAstra: Do you think Coinbase Wallet will evolve into the ultimate platform for handling all on-chain transactions, especially in terms of app distribution and promotion? How far are we from this vision?
Jesse: It's coming soon! We have been rebuilding @CoinbaseWallet from scratch over the past few months, with the goal of making it 10 times faster while shifting the focus to solving the issues of discovery and distribution.
Once someone has purchased their first token, the next steps are not really intuitive in terms of what they can do next or what apps they might be interested in trying. Therefore, we are integrating Farcaster social feeds with mini-apps directly into @CoinbaseWallet and enabling users to easily discover on-chain experiences within the app without having to leave.
In this video, I detailed this point: Link. We will share more updates next week at Farcon!
Q8 Julie
This question is from @TechFlowPost: We see Base or yourself often interacting with Zora. What is the reason the team or you personally are bullish on Zora? What is Zora's unique positioning and ecosystem value within the Base ecosystem?
(The following user also asked a related question: @framenum)
Jesse: I am very bullish on on-chain social media as it has the potential to drive viral adoption, and Zora is a great example of this (if you haven't tried the app yet, download it now).
In traditional social platforms, centralized companies control content and users. In on-chain social media, creators own their content and can earn income when they share (beyond just likes). Posts on Zora are automatically minted, and creators receive a portion of transaction fees. In this way, on-chain social media disrupts the traditional model by returning control to creators.
Over the past week or so, I have witnessed firsthand how powerful this model is in attracting new users to the space. You can use Zora without knowing about cryptocurrency and earn from your own posts. I believe we need more apps like this to help onboard billions to the blockchain.
Looking forward to seeing more creative initiatives from other developers in this space!
Q9 Julie
This question is from @PANewsCN: In Base's recently released 2025 roadmap, the goal of achieving 25 million users, 25,000 developers, and 1 billion on-chain transactions within the year was proposed. What strategies and measures does Base plan to take to achieve these growth goals, and how are the priorities of these goals ranked?
(The following user also asked a related question: @Cyrus_G3)
Jesse: These are what we call "big, bold, audacious goals." If we hit 100% of our goals, it means we didn't think big enough, so I challenge our team to set even larger goals. If we want to onboard a billion people to the blockchain, these are the strategies we must take.
So, what are we doing to achieve this goal?
We are increasing our investment in more powerful and open developer tools. We are particularly focused on developers because they will build the on-chain applications that will attract billions of users.
We are rebuilding @coinbasewallet from the ground up to make it 10 times faster, more user-friendly, and to enhance content discovery through the addition of Farcaster social dynamics. We are also integrating mini-apps to allow users to experience them within the app without leaving.
We are continuing to decentralize, scale, and speed up Base because we believe that building a truly global economy can only be done by creating a decentralized, open platform. In the first phase, there will be a capacity of 250 mgas/s and faster blocks. More details can be found in the blog post below: Click here to view the blog post
Q10 Julie
This question is from @0xLuo: What directions do you hope developers on Base will focus on? What important products or categories do you currently feel are missing in the ecosystem?
(The following users also asked related questions: @Xuegaogx @hoidya_ @0xcryptoHowe @Moose777 @PANewsCN @TeddyinEden @Nazarick_eth)
Jesse: We have just launched Base Batches (basebatches.xyz), which covers four main themes: AI, stablecoins, mini-apps, and consumer applications. I am very excited to see developers build more projects in these areas, as there are really a lot of opportunities. If you are a developer looking for support from zero to one, feel free to join Base Batches!
Q11 Julie
This question is from @Benjieming1Q84: Is Farcaster considering full adoption by Chinese users? If Farcaster is not considering this, how will base/coinbase wallet cover different regions and languages?
(The following user also asked a related question: @adJAstra@jacktod_)
Jesse: I know that Warpcast is not currently localized for Chinese users, but I am thrilled to see clients like @tako accelerating efforts to fill this gap. However, if we want the Chinese community to fully embrace this network, there is still a lot of work to be done.
This is very important to me and is one of the reasons I am hosting this AMA, hoping to interact more directly with the Chinese community. Currently, I do not have specific features or timelines to share, but my team is recruiting country leads across Asia, with a particular focus on Chinese speakers. We are dedicated to building a more inclusive global network.
Base is for everyone—this means we will invest more effort in the localization of Base, Farcaster, and the entire community in the future.
Q12 Julie
This question is from @adJAstra: What is the roadmap for Coinbase Wallet integrating Farcaster? How will user behavior change when users access social content or mini-apps through Warpcast via Coinbase Wallet instead of c directly?
Jesse: We are rebuilding Coinbase Wallet from the ground up, with plans for full Farcaster social dynamics, as well as mini-apps that can be interacted with directly in the feed. This will start rolling out soon!
I believe that the strength of adding this feature to Coinbase Wallet is that we can support it within the existing user context. This will not only provide more distribution channels for apps but also help users discover apps they may be interested in. I think this will bring more user engagement for developers like you, and I am very excited about it.
Q13 Julie
This question is from @kongxairdrop: Does Base have plans to issue its own token in the future?
(The following users also asked related questions: @almalq.eth @aaron183Aaros@CryptoPainter_X)
Jesse: We do not have plans to issue a new network token. Base uses ETH as the native asset to pay for Gas fees. My current focus is on building an excellent product that can serve developers (those creating applications), as well as users and businesses (those using these applications) effectively.
Q14 Julie
This question is from @CryptoPainter_X: Although Base has promised a multi-signature structure to ensure immunity from Coinbase's influence, in the Chinese-speaking community, the "incubated by CB" label and the naming of "Base" seem to have been equated to some extent early on. I would like to ask, in the future, how does Base plan to achieve comprehensive independence on both a technical and social level and completely shed this label that has long influenced its development?
Jesse: Base is open and permissionless. Despite our incubation within Coinbase (similar to how many other networks are also incubated in labs), we have a deep commitment to decentralization. Why? Because we believe that only on a decentralized platform can a global on-chain economy thrive, promoting innovation, creativity, and freedom.
From the beginning, Coinbase and Base have adhered to principles of neutrality, ensuring users' sovereignty over their crypto assets, ensuring unbiased transaction ordering on Base, protecting the discretion of non-public data, and guaranteeing users the ability to withdraw from Base without restrictions. Over the past year, we have focused on achieving the first phase of decentralization, and soon we will share more progress on this front.
I also believe that we need to continue working to establish Base as an independent brand and ecosystem, distinguishing it perceptually from Coinbase while leveraging all the advantages that come from collaboration. We will soon have some exciting updates to share on this front :)
Q15 Julie
This question is from @0xLuo: What support can Base developers receive from the official team? For example, funding, exposure, guidance? What is the best way to obtain this support?
(The following users also asked related questions: @taowang1 @framenum)
Jesse: We are committed to supporting developers at various stages, whether you have just released your first on-chain experiment or are scaling a real business, we are here to support you.
I am very excited to introduce to everyone a brand new project — Base Batches, which is a global developer program aimed at providing developers with everything they need to grow — funding, exposure, mentor support, community resources, you name it.
It is divided into several stages: First, you join the Buildathon in your region (we hold events globally). If you excel, you have the opportunity to enter our incubator, where you will receive hands-on support from mentors, Base core team members, and outstanding partners. Next is Demo Day, where the top-performing teams will showcase to the judges, vying for up to $1 million in funding support.
This is not just a one-time event — we are building a long-term support system to help you from ideation to gaining traction, and then developing into a full-fledged company. We aim to support you at every stage.
Visit base.org/build now to join a batch!
Q16 Julie
This question is from @TeddyinEden: Base gives off a clean, mainstream, and brand-friendly vibe. What is your attitude towards projects that are more on the edge, provocative, or controversial? Can such projects find a place on Base?
(The following user has also asked a related question: @hoidya_)
Jesse: Base welcomes everyone from everywhere.
Lastly, thanks to all users who participated in asking questions! If your question was not addressed or if you have follow-up questions, you can join the live AMA session tomorrow, April 25th at 10:30 AM, to ask your question, and Jesse will answer in real-time!
Special thanks to: @0x35_kaori@0xHarryWeb3@0xLuo@0xNought@0xPickleCati@0xcryptoHowe@0xginana@Anonymous@Bamboocrycry@Benjieming1Q84@Candy@CryptoPainter_X@Cyrus_G3@DeFiGuyLuke@EEEEdison1992@KathySats@Michael_Liu93@Moose777@Nazarick_eth@PANewsCN@RaccoonHKG@TechFlowPost@TeddyinEden@Whdysseus@Xuegaogx@ZKSgu@aaron183Aaros@adJAstra@ai_9684xtpa@alacheng@alexin091@almalq@anymose96@framenum@hoidya_@jacktod_@joezhoublack@kongxairdrop@leo7_lau@leoding0806x@lurenbian@mablejiang@noneptr@otzgary@ps2025moon@sheabao@starzqeth@taowang1@wangzai5680@wublockchain@yjy616@silverfang88@jhaninvest@the_andydandy
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$COIN Joins S&P 500, but Coinbase Isn't Celebrating
On May 13, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Coinbase would officially replace Discover Financial Services in the S&P 500 on May 19. While other companies like Block and MicroStrategy, closely tied to Bitcoin, were already part of the S&P 500, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange whose primary business is in the index. This also signifies that cryptocurrency is gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream in the U.S.
On the day of the announcement, Coinbase's stock price surged by 23%, surpassing the $250 mark. However, just 3 days later, Coinbase was hit by two consecutive events: a hack where employees were bribed to steal customer data and a demand for a $20 million ransom, and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the authenticity of its claim of having over 100 million "verified users" in its securities filings and marketing materials. These two events acted as mini-bombs, and at the time of writing, Coinbase's stock had already dropped by over 7.3%.
Coincidentally, Discover Financial Services, being replaced by Coinbase, can also be considered the "Coinbase" of the previous payment era. Discover is a U.S.-based digital banking and payment services company headquartered in Illinois, founded in 1960. Its payment network, Discover Network, is the fourth largest payment network apart from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
In April, after the approval of the acquisition of Discover by the sixth-largest U.S. bank, Capital One, this well-established digital banking company of over 60 years smoothly handed over its S&P 500 "seat" to this emerging cryptocurrency "bank." This unexpected coincidence also portrayed the handover between the new and old eras in Coinbase's entry into the S&P 500, resembling a relay race scene. However, this relay baton also brought Coinbase's accumulated "external troubles and internal strife" to a tipping point.
Over the past decade, cryptocurrency exchanges have been the most stable "profit machines." They play a role in providing liquidity to the entire industry and rely on trading fees to sustain their operations. However, with the comprehensive rollout of ETF products in the U.S. market, this profit model is facing unprecedented challenges. As the leader in the "American stack," with over 80% of its business coming from the U.S., Coinbase is most affected by this.
Starting from the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, traditional financial capital has significantly onboarded users and funds that originally belonged to exchanges in a more cost-effective, compliant, and transparent manner. The transaction fee revenue of cryptocurrency exchanges has started to decline, and this trend may further intensify in the coming months.
According to Coinbase's 2024 Q4 financial report, the platform's total trading revenue was $417 million, a 45% year-on-year decrease. The contribution of BTC and ETH's trading revenue dropped from 65% in the same period last year to less than 50%.
This decline is not a result of a decrease in market enthusiasm. In fact, since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, the inflow of BTC into the U.S. market has continued to reach new highs, with asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity rapidly expanding their management scale. Data shows that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) alone has surpassed $17 billion in assets under management. As of mid-May 2025, the cumulative net inflow of 11 major institutional Bitcoin spot ETFs on the market has exceeded $41.5 billion, with a total net asset value of $1214.69 billion, accounting for approximately 5.91% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.
Institutional investors and some retail investors are shifting towards ETF products, partly due to compliance and tax considerations. On one hand, ETFs have much lower trading costs compared to cryptocurrency exchanges. While Coinbase's spot trading fee rate varies annually in a tiered manner but averages around 1.49%, for example, the management fee for IBIT ETF is only 0.25%, and the majority of ETF institution fees fluctuate around 0.15% to 0.25%.
In other words, the more rational users are, the more likely they are to move from exchanges to ETF products, especially for investors aiming for long-term holdings.
According to multiple sources, several institutions, including VanEck and Grayscale, have submitted applications to the SEC for a Solana (SOL) ETF, with some institutions also planning to submit an XRP ETF proposal. Once approved, this may trigger a new round of fund migration. According to a report submitted by Coinbase to the SEC, as of April, the platform's trading revenue from XRP and Solana accounted for 18% and 10%, nearly one-third of the platform's fee revenue.
However, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs passed in 2024 also reduced the fees for these two tokens on Coinbase from 30% and 15% to 26% and 10%, respectively. If the SOL and XRP ETFs are approved, it will further undermine the core fee revenue of exchanges like Coinbase.
The expansion of ETF products is gradually weakening the financial intermediary status of cryptocurrency exchanges. From their original roles as matchmakers and clearers to now gradually becoming mere "on-ramps and off-ramps" for funds, exchanges are seeing their marginal value squeezed by ETFs.
On May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins gave a keynote speech at the Tokenization and Cryptocurrency Working Group roundtable. The theme of his speech revolved around "It is a new day at the SEC," where he indicated that the SEC would not approach enforcement and regulation the same way as before but would instead pave the way for cryptocurrency assets in the U.S. market.
With signs of cryptocurrency compliance such as the SEC's "NEW DAY" declaration, an increasing number of traditional brokerages are attempting to enter the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most representative cases is the well-known U.S. brokerage Robinhood, which began expanding its crypto business in 2018. By the time of its IPO in 2021, Robinhood's crypto business revenue accounted for over 50% of the company, with a significant boost from the Dogecoin "moonshot" promoted by Musk.
In Q1 2025 earnings report, Robinhood showcased strong growth, especially in revenue from cryptocurrency and options trading. Fueled by Trump's Memecoin, cryptocurrency-related revenue reached $250 million, nearly doubling year-over-year. Consequently, Robinhood Gold subscription users reached 3.5 million, a 90% increase from the previous year, with the rapid growth of Robinhood Gold providing the company with a stable source of income.
Meanwhile, RobinHood is actively pursuing acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024, it announced a $2 billion acquisition of the long-standing European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Additionally, Canada's largest cryptocurrency CEX, WonderFi, which recently went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announced its integration with RobinHood Crypto. After obtaining virtual asset licenses in the UK, Canada, Singapore, and other markets, RobinHood has taken a proactive approach in the compliant cryptocurrency trading market.
Furthermore, an increasing number of brokerage firms are exploring the same path. Futu Securities, Tiger Brokers, and others are also dipping their toes into cryptocurrency trading, with some having applied for or obtained the VA license from the Hong Kong SFC. Although their user bases are currently small, traditional brokerages have a natural advantage in user trust, regulatory licenses, and low fee structures. This could pose a threat to native cryptocurrency platforms in the future.
In April 2025, security researchers discovered that some Coinbase user data was leaked on the dark web. While the platform initially responded by attributing it to a "technical misinformation," it still raised concerns among users regarding its security and privacy protection. Just two days before Dow Jones Indexes announced Coinbase's addition to the S&P 500 Index, on May 11, 2025, Coinbase received an email from an unknown threat actor claiming to have obtained customer account information and internal documents, demanding a $20 million ransom to keep the data private. Subsequent investigations confirmed the data breach.
Cybercriminals obtained the data by bribing overseas customer service agents and support staff, mainly in "non-U.S. regions such as India." These agents abused their access to Coinbase's internal customer support system and stole customer data. As early as February this year, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X platform that between December 2024 and January 2025, Coinbase users lost over $65 million to social engineering scams, with the actual amount potentially higher.
Among the victims was a well-known figure, 67-year-old Ed Suman, an established artist in the art world for nearly two decades, having been involved in the creation of artworks such as Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture. Earlier this year, he fell victim to an impersonation scam involving fake Coinbase customer support, resulting in a loss of over $2 million in cryptocurrency. ZachXBT critiqued Coinbase for its inadequate handling of such scams, noting that other major exchanges have not faced similar issues and recommending Coinbase to enhance its security measures.
Amidst a series of ongoing social engineering incidents, although there has not been any impact on user assets at the technical level so far, it has raised concerns among many retail and institutional investors. Especially institutions holding massive assets on Coinbase. Just considering the U.S. BTC ETF institutions, as of mid-May 2025, they collectively hold nearly 840,000 BTC, and 75% of these are custodied by Coinbase. If we price BTC at $100,000, this amount reaches a staggering $63 billion, which is equivalent to the nominal GDP of two Iceland in the year 2024.
In addition, Coinbase Custody also serves over 300 institutional clients, including hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and endowments. As of the Q1 2025 financial report, Coinbase's total assets under management (including institutional and retail clients) reached $404 billion. The specific amount of institutional custodied assets was not explicitly disclosed in the latest report, but it should still be over 50% based on the Q4 2024 report.
Once this security barrier is breached, not only could the rate of user attrition far exceed expectations, but more importantly, institutional trust in it would undermine the foundation of its business. Therefore, after a hacking event, Coinbase's stock price plummeted significantly.
Facing a decline in spot trading fee revenue, Coinbase is also accelerating its transformation, attempting to find growth opportunities in derivatives and emerging assets. Coinbase acquired a stake in the options platform Deribit at the end of 2024 and announced the official launch of perpetual contract products in 2025. This acquisition fills in Coinbase's gap in options trading and its relatively small global market share.
Deribit has a strong presence in non-U.S. markets, especially in Asia and Europe. The acquisition has enabled Coinbase to gain a dominant position in bitcoin and ethereum options trading on Deribit, accounting for approximately 80% of the global options trading volume, with daily trading volume remaining above $2 billion.
Meanwhile, 80-90% of Deribit's customer base consists of institutional investors, with their professionalism and liquidity in the Bitcoin and Ethereum options market highly favored by institutions. Coinbase's compliance advantage, coupled with its already robust institutional ecosystem, makes it even more suitable. By using institutions as an entry point, it can face the squeeze from giants like Binance and OKX in the derivatives market.
Facing a similar dilemma is Kraken, which is attempting to replicate Binance Futures' model in non-U.S. markets. Since the derivatives market relies more on professional users, fee rates are relatively higher and stickiness is stronger, making it a significant source of revenue for exchanges. In the first half of 2025, Kraken completed the acquisition of TradeStation Crypto and a futures exchange, aiming to build a complete derivatives trading ecosystem to hedge the risk of declining spot transaction fee income.
With the surge of Memecoin in 2024, Binance, OKX, and various CEX platforms began massively listing small-market-cap, highly volatile tokens to activate active trading users. Due to the wealth effect and trading activity of Memecoins, Coinbase was also forced to join the battle, successively listing popular tokens from the Solana ecosystem such as BOOK OF MEME and Dogwifhat. Although these coins are controversial, they are frequently traded, with fee rates several times higher than mainstream coins, serving as a "blood-boosting" method for spot trading.
However, due to its status as a publicly traded company, this practice is a riskier endeavor for Coinbase. Even in the current crypto-friendly environment, the SEC is still investigating whether tokens like SOL, ADA, and SAND constitute securities.
In addition to the forced transformation strategies carried out by the aforementioned CEXs, they are also starting to lay out RWAs and the most talked-about stablecoin payment fields, such as the PYUSD launched through a collaboration between Coinbase and Paypal, Coinbase's support for the Euro stablecoin EURC by Circle that complies with EU MiCA regulatory requirements, or the USD1 launched through a collaboration between Binance and WIFL. In the increasingly crowded trading field, many CEXs have shifted their focus from just the trading market to the application field.
The golden age of transaction fees has quietly ended, and the second half of the crypto exchange platform game has silently begun.
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Key Market Intelligence on May 14th, how much did you miss out on?
1.Binance Alpha Launches HIPPO, BLUE, and Other Tokens
2.Believe Ecosystem Tokens See General Rise, LAUNCHCOIN Surges Over 250% in 24 Hours
3.Tiger Securities Introduces Cryptocurrency Deposit and Withdrawal Service, Supports Mainstream Cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH
4.Current Bitcoin Rally Possibly Driven by Institutions, Retail Traders Yet to Join
5.Binance Wallet's New TGE Privasea AI Participation Requires a 198 Point Threshold, with a Point Consumption of 15
Source: Overheard on CT (tg: @overheardonct), Kaito
PUMP: Today's discussions about PUMP focus on its new creator revenue-sharing model: the platform will allocate 50% of PumpSwap revenue to token creators, sparking varied reactions from users. Some criticize the move as insufficient or even misleading, while others view it as a positive step the platform is taking to reward creators. Meanwhile, PUMP faces market pressure from emerging competitors like LetsBONKfun and Raydium, which are rapidly gaining market share. Users also express concerns about PUMP's sustainability and potential regulatory risks in the U.S., with discussions extending to the platform's impact on the entire memecoin ecosystem.
COINBASE: Today, Coinbase became the first crypto company to join the S&P 500 Index, replacing Discover Financial Services, sparking widespread industry attention. The entire crypto community views this milestone as a significant development, signaling that crypto assets are further integrating into the mainstream financial system. The news has sparked lively discussions on Twitter, with many users pointing out that this may attract more institutional investors to enter the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency markets.
XRP: XRP became the focal point of today's crypto discussion, with its significant market movements and strategic advances drawing attention. XRP has surpassed USDT to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, sparking market excitement and discussions about its future potential. The surge in market capitalization and price is believed to be related to increasing institutional interest, deepening strategic partnerships, and its role in the crypto ecosystem. Additionally, XRP's integration into multiple financial systems and its potential as a macro asset class are also seen as key factors driving the current market sentiment.
DYDX: Today's discussions about DYDX mainly focused on the dYdX Yapper Leaderboard launched by KaitoAI. The leaderboard aims to identify the most active community participants, with a total of $150,000 in rewards to be distributed over the first three seasons. This initiative has sparked broad community participation, with many users discussing the potential rewards and the incentive effect on the DYDX ecosystem. Meanwhile, progress on the ethDYDX to dYdX native chain migration and historical airdrop events have also been topics of discussion.
1. "What Is 'ICM'? Holding Up the $4 Billion Market Cap Solana's New Narrative"
Overnight, the hottest narrative in the crypto space has become "Internet Capital Markets," with a host of crypto projects and founders, led by the Solana ecosystem's new Launchpad platform Believe, releasing this phrase. Together with "Believe in something," it has become the new slogan heralding the onset of a bull market. What exactly is the so-called "Internet Capital Market," will it become a short-lived hype phrase like the Base ecosystem's previous Content Coin, and what related targets are available for selection?2.《LaunchCoin Surges 20x in One Day, How Did Believe Create a $200M Market Cap Shiba Inu After Going to Zero?|100x Retrospective》
LAUNCHCOIN broke through a $200 million market cap today, with the long-lost liquidity and such a high market cap "Memecoin" almost bringing half of the on-chain crypto community CT into the fray. The community is crazily discussing this token, with half of it being FOMO and the other half being FUD. This token, originally issued by Believe founder Ben Pasternak under his personal identity, transformed into a new platform token after a renaming. From once going to zero to a $200 million market cap, what happened in between?May 14 On-chain Fund Flow
Within 24 hours, GOONC's market cap soared to 70 million, could GOONC be the next billion-dollar dog on the Believe platform?
Bitcoin has broken $100,000, Ethereum has surpassed 2500, and is Solana's hot streak about to make a comeback?
The current market is in a state of macro euphoria, with GOONC riding the wave today, skyrocketing 10x in just a few hours, reaching a market cap of tens of millions of dollars, trading volume soaring past 50 million, and rumors swirling that the developer may be from OpenAI (unconfirmed but intriguing enough).
A ludicrous and absurd Solana meme that some actually buy into.
GOONC is a meme coin that has sprouted from the "gooning" subculture, offering no technological innovation or practical use, its sole function being speculation.
It takes inspiration from an NSFW term "gooning," which refers to a person being deeply immersed in certain content (you know what), eventually entering a nearly religious-like trance.
In Reddit (such as r/GOONED, r/GoonCaves) and some counterculture media outlets (such as MEL Magazine in 2020), "gooning" has gradually transitioned from an adult label to a meme-addicted, digital content and virtual self-indulgence synonym, arguably the epitome of Degen spirit.
GOONC is playing around with this concept, packaging the addictive nature, uselessness, and irony of gooning into a tradable financial product. The project team has made it clear: "We do not solve blockchain problems, we only trade absurdity." Blunt but oddly genuine.
GOONC launched on May 13, 2025, using the meme coin launch platform Believe App's LaunchCoin module on Solana. This tool is highly Degen: zero technical barriers, a few clicks to create a coin, perfect for projects like GOONC that can come up with ideas out of the blue.
The mastermind behind GOONC is also quite something and is the most talked-about, with KOL @basedalexandoor on X platform (alias "Pata van Goon") personally involved. His profile even caught the attention of Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z, making onlookers unable to resist speculating if GOONC has a hint of OpenAI lineage.
While this 'OpenAI Endorsement' is currently just community speculation, it is definitely a good card to play to fuel hype. Saying "we are pure speculation" on one hand, while tagging a few "AI + a16z" on the other.
GOONC took off as soon as it launched. After its launch on May 13, 2025, its market capitalization skyrocketed to $22 million within 4 hours, with a trading volume exceeding $25.6 million in 24 hours. According to platform data, the first day of trading saw an astonishing +41,100% surge, soaring from $0.0000001 to $0.02, becoming a "missed-the-boat" situation.
GOONC quickly formed an active trading community post-launch, with a lot of discussion and trading signals appearing on X platform (such as the 292x return signal provided by DeBot). Liquidity pools on exchanges like Raydium and Meteora grew rapidly, supporting high trading volumes and price increases.
The real climax occurred between May 13 and May 14, with the market cap rising to $5.5 million in the morning and directly surpassing $55 million in the afternoon. By the 14th, it briefly approached a $70 million market cap, with the trading volume soaring to $59 million. Some community members even posted screenshots claiming an increase of +85,000%, creating a new myth out of the ruins.
As of 1:30 pm on May 14, the price stabilized around $0.039, with a total market cap and FDV both around $39.6 million, and a 24-hour trading volume of $5.43 million. Active platforms include XT.COM, LBank, Meteora, and others.
Although there was a slight pullback from the peak ($0.07), the coin's popularity remains strong. For a coin that relies purely on "irony + community + X post" to thrive, this performance is already at a stellar level.
Currently, the background of the token's development team is not transparent, increasing the potential risk of a rug pull. Rugcheck.xyz warns that the creator of the GOONC contract may have permission to modify the contract (e.g., change fees or mint additional tokens), posing certain security risks.
Community members speculate that the meteoric rise of GOONC may be the "last hurrah".
After Surging 40%, Has Ethereum Price Peaked Upon Exiting the Craze?
Whether you are an insider or an outsider, these days you must be familiar with the news about Ethereum. The reason is simple, causing Ethereum enthusiasts to sigh with emotion and almost throwing off-guard those who defend Ethereum, Ethereum, with a "3-day surge of 40%," climbed to the top of the Douyin Hot List.
As we all know, Ethereum launched the Pectra upgrade on May 7th. This most significant network upgrade since early 2024 integrates the Prague execution layer hard fork and the Electra consensus layer upgrade, significantly improving Ethereum's performance through 11 improvement proposals. The account abstraction feature (EIP-7702) allows users to flexibly manage wallets through social media accounts or multi-signature schemes, reducing the user threshold, attracting more users and developers. The staking mechanism optimization increases the validator ETH cap from 32ETH to 2048ETH and introduces a flexible withdrawal method, making it easier for institutions and individuals to participate in network security, enhancing the market's confidence in Ethereum's long-term value.
At the same time, Pectra optimized the interaction efficiency of Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism, making transactions faster and cheaper, leading to a surge in on-chain activity. As a crucial step for Ethereum's transition from "2G" to "5G," the Pectra upgrade not only enhances network vitality but also "recharges confidence" in the market, directly driving the price increase.
Related Reading: "Ethereum Skyrockets 22% in One Day, E Enthusiasts Rejoice"
It's not just Ethereum itself, as Wall Street also brought important bullish news.
The world's largest asset management company, BlackRock, proposed to the SEC allowing Ethereum ETFs for staking. This proposal is expected to elevate Ethereum ETFs from a mere investment tool to a bond-like "interest-bearing asset," bringing investors both capital appreciation and passive income, igniting market optimism about Ethereum's future potential.
Specifically, BlackRock has proposed to amend its S-1 filing to allow investors to create and redeem ETF shares directly with Ethereum instead of the U.S. dollar (i.e., in-kind redemption). This move, combined with its $2.9 billion BUIDL Fund launched in March 2024, aims to deepen the integration of traditional finance with blockchain. The BUIDL Fund is a tokenized fund operating on the Ethereum network, investing in traditional assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds. This setup is highly attractive to institutional investors, as they can not only benefit from Ethereum's price appreciation but also earn stable cash flow through staking.
Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock's Head of Digital Assets, stated in a CNBC interview in March 2025 that the addition of staking functionality will significantly enhance the appeal of the Ethereum ETF. He admitted that when the Ethereum spot ETF was launched in July 2024 without staking functionality, the market demand was lackluster, and staking could be the key to reversing this trend.
Meanwhile, the SEC's shifting stance on cryptocurrency regulation has also fueled this upward trend. During the tenure of the previous SEC chairman, the regulatory approach was tough, and staking was strictly viewed through the Howey test as a potential unregistered security. Therefore, when approving the Ethereum spot ETF in May 2024, staking functionality was explicitly prohibited.
However, with Trump back in the White House and Paul Atkins taking over the SEC, there has been a noticeable relaxation in crypto regulation. Apart from BlackRock, ETF issuers such as Invesco Galaxy, VanEck, WisdomTree, and 21Shares have also submitted applications for similar staking and in-kind redemption.
Related reading: "New Chairman Takes Office, SEC Transforms into 'Crypto Daddy' Within 48 Hours"
If staking ETFs are approved, the benefits are likely to go beyond price appreciation. The introduction of staking functionality could redefine the role of crypto assets, making them more similar to traditional financial products that provide returns and value appreciation, thereby driving Ethereum closer to mainstream finance.
Currently, the SEC still needs to address several decisions related to crypto ETFs, including whether to approve ETFs for Solana, XRP, Litecoin, and even Dogecoin. With the calls for an "altcoin season" growing louder, Ethereum's strong performance may just be the beginning of a larger crypto market frenzy.
In addition, the Trump family-related DeFi project WLFI is also bullish on this wave of rise, with frequent on-chain activities. According to on-chain data analyst @ai_9684xtpa's monitoring, a WLFI-related address is currently borrowing coins to go long on ETH, borrowing 4 million U from Aave to buy 1590 ETH at an average price of $2515 per ETH.
For this epic surge of Ethereum after half a year of silence, the community has indeed gained more confidence and hope, which has also led to a revival of the entire altcoin market. However, amidst the joy, there are also voices of pessimism. Below is a summary conducted by BlockBeats based on community discussions.
The optimists point out that the current market structure is similar to the eve of the bull markets in 2016 and 2020, predicting a life-changing surge in the next 3-6 months, where some altcoins may even achieve astonishing single-day gains of up to 40%.
@liuwei16602825 stated that this surge signifies the return of the bull market as a sure thing. There is no need to worry about a pullback. The driving force behind the surge uses a high-cost isolated operation, fearing a drop more than any retail investor and will definitely do everything to support the price.
Related Reading: "Ethereum Leads the Surge Triggering the 'Altcoin Season' Speculation, How Do Traders View the Future Market?"
The bears mainly believe that this surge is different from the bull market of 2021, as the current market lacks the confidence of large-scale retail investors entering and holding positions for the long term, with funds rotating too quickly.
@market_beggar observed that a Bitfinex E/B whale has started to close positions and believes that if this whale maintains its high-speed position-closing operation for the next few days, it can be inferred that the whale no longer sees the upside potential of ETH, preparing to take profits and exit. The closing time will be a key focus going forward.
@FLS_OTC stated that there are still many uncertainties at the macro level, and the liquidity cannot support a major bull market. At this stage, it is a "last hurrah," not a complete reversal, and will continue to remain in a short position.
@off_thetarget believes that after ETH transitioned from POW to POS, it lost the "gold standard" of mining machine power cost support. The staking economic model led to a breakdown in value anchoring. Additionally, the L2 ecosystem (such as Starknet, zkSync, etc.) suffered from liquidity fragmentation, failing to establish an effective capital inflow mechanism, causing the collapse of the split disc pattern. Furthermore, the ETH community's excessive pursuit of technical narratives divorced from real-world needs resulted in a weak ecosystem growth. Therefore, he believes that ETH's intrinsic value system has crumbled, and the price is bound to plummet to the 800-1200 range, with a decisive short position at 1800.
@Airdrop_Guard, based on the core logic of the "High Probability Trading Strategy," where three sets of underlying logic different trading systems (such as volume depletion, price supply-demand, long/short position funding rate, etc.) simultaneously issue a short signal at the same point (2580), creating a high-probability trading opportunity. He emphasizes that these systems must be based on different algorithms and logics (rather than mere technical indicator overlays). The current ETH trend aligns with the short conditions in multiple independent dimensions of his trading system, hence the decision to short.
Overall, Bitcoin still maintains over 54% market dominance, and institutional funds' continued preference for it may limit the altcoin's upward potential. The market's future direction will depend on multiple factors, such as Bitcoin's price trend, global macroeconomic conditions, and whether funds can effectively rotate from Bitcoin to the altcoin sector.
Although Ethereum's recent leadership in the market has brought about optimistic sentiment, investors still need to remain rational as different sectors of altcoins are likely to show divergence in trends. Whether this round of Ethereum's rise will usher in a true altcoin frenzy may require more time and conducive conditions.
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$COIN Joins S&P 500, but Coinbase Isn't Celebrating
On May 13, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Coinbase would officially replace Discover Financial Services in the S&P 500 on May 19. While other companies like Block and MicroStrategy, closely tied to Bitcoin, were already part of the S&P 500, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange whose primary business is in the index. This also signifies that cryptocurrency is gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream in the U.S.
On the day of the announcement, Coinbase's stock price surged by 23%, surpassing the $250 mark. However, just 3 days later, Coinbase was hit by two consecutive events: a hack where employees were bribed to steal customer data and a demand for a $20 million ransom, and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the authenticity of its claim of having over 100 million "verified users" in its securities filings and marketing materials. These two events acted as mini-bombs, and at the time of writing, Coinbase's stock had already dropped by over 7.3%.
Coincidentally, Discover Financial Services, being replaced by Coinbase, can also be considered the "Coinbase" of the previous payment era. Discover is a U.S.-based digital banking and payment services company headquartered in Illinois, founded in 1960. Its payment network, Discover Network, is the fourth largest payment network apart from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
In April, after the approval of the acquisition of Discover by the sixth-largest U.S. bank, Capital One, this well-established digital banking company of over 60 years smoothly handed over its S&P 500 "seat" to this emerging cryptocurrency "bank." This unexpected coincidence also portrayed the handover between the new and old eras in Coinbase's entry into the S&P 500, resembling a relay race scene. However, this relay baton also brought Coinbase's accumulated "external troubles and internal strife" to a tipping point.
Over the past decade, cryptocurrency exchanges have been the most stable "profit machines." They play a role in providing liquidity to the entire industry and rely on trading fees to sustain their operations. However, with the comprehensive rollout of ETF products in the U.S. market, this profit model is facing unprecedented challenges. As the leader in the "American stack," with over 80% of its business coming from the U.S., Coinbase is most affected by this.
Starting from the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, traditional financial capital has significantly onboarded users and funds that originally belonged to exchanges in a more cost-effective, compliant, and transparent manner. The transaction fee revenue of cryptocurrency exchanges has started to decline, and this trend may further intensify in the coming months.
According to Coinbase's 2024 Q4 financial report, the platform's total trading revenue was $417 million, a 45% year-on-year decrease. The contribution of BTC and ETH's trading revenue dropped from 65% in the same period last year to less than 50%.
This decline is not a result of a decrease in market enthusiasm. In fact, since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, the inflow of BTC into the U.S. market has continued to reach new highs, with asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity rapidly expanding their management scale. Data shows that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) alone has surpassed $17 billion in assets under management. As of mid-May 2025, the cumulative net inflow of 11 major institutional Bitcoin spot ETFs on the market has exceeded $41.5 billion, with a total net asset value of $1214.69 billion, accounting for approximately 5.91% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.
Institutional investors and some retail investors are shifting towards ETF products, partly due to compliance and tax considerations. On one hand, ETFs have much lower trading costs compared to cryptocurrency exchanges. While Coinbase's spot trading fee rate varies annually in a tiered manner but averages around 1.49%, for example, the management fee for IBIT ETF is only 0.25%, and the majority of ETF institution fees fluctuate around 0.15% to 0.25%.
In other words, the more rational users are, the more likely they are to move from exchanges to ETF products, especially for investors aiming for long-term holdings.
According to multiple sources, several institutions, including VanEck and Grayscale, have submitted applications to the SEC for a Solana (SOL) ETF, with some institutions also planning to submit an XRP ETF proposal. Once approved, this may trigger a new round of fund migration. According to a report submitted by Coinbase to the SEC, as of April, the platform's trading revenue from XRP and Solana accounted for 18% and 10%, nearly one-third of the platform's fee revenue.
However, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs passed in 2024 also reduced the fees for these two tokens on Coinbase from 30% and 15% to 26% and 10%, respectively. If the SOL and XRP ETFs are approved, it will further undermine the core fee revenue of exchanges like Coinbase.
The expansion of ETF products is gradually weakening the financial intermediary status of cryptocurrency exchanges. From their original roles as matchmakers and clearers to now gradually becoming mere "on-ramps and off-ramps" for funds, exchanges are seeing their marginal value squeezed by ETFs.
On May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins gave a keynote speech at the Tokenization and Cryptocurrency Working Group roundtable. The theme of his speech revolved around "It is a new day at the SEC," where he indicated that the SEC would not approach enforcement and regulation the same way as before but would instead pave the way for cryptocurrency assets in the U.S. market.
With signs of cryptocurrency compliance such as the SEC's "NEW DAY" declaration, an increasing number of traditional brokerages are attempting to enter the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most representative cases is the well-known U.S. brokerage Robinhood, which began expanding its crypto business in 2018. By the time of its IPO in 2021, Robinhood's crypto business revenue accounted for over 50% of the company, with a significant boost from the Dogecoin "moonshot" promoted by Musk.
In Q1 2025 earnings report, Robinhood showcased strong growth, especially in revenue from cryptocurrency and options trading. Fueled by Trump's Memecoin, cryptocurrency-related revenue reached $250 million, nearly doubling year-over-year. Consequently, Robinhood Gold subscription users reached 3.5 million, a 90% increase from the previous year, with the rapid growth of Robinhood Gold providing the company with a stable source of income.
Meanwhile, RobinHood is actively pursuing acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024, it announced a $2 billion acquisition of the long-standing European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Additionally, Canada's largest cryptocurrency CEX, WonderFi, which recently went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announced its integration with RobinHood Crypto. After obtaining virtual asset licenses in the UK, Canada, Singapore, and other markets, RobinHood has taken a proactive approach in the compliant cryptocurrency trading market.
Furthermore, an increasing number of brokerage firms are exploring the same path. Futu Securities, Tiger Brokers, and others are also dipping their toes into cryptocurrency trading, with some having applied for or obtained the VA license from the Hong Kong SFC. Although their user bases are currently small, traditional brokerages have a natural advantage in user trust, regulatory licenses, and low fee structures. This could pose a threat to native cryptocurrency platforms in the future.
In April 2025, security researchers discovered that some Coinbase user data was leaked on the dark web. While the platform initially responded by attributing it to a "technical misinformation," it still raised concerns among users regarding its security and privacy protection. Just two days before Dow Jones Indexes announced Coinbase's addition to the S&P 500 Index, on May 11, 2025, Coinbase received an email from an unknown threat actor claiming to have obtained customer account information and internal documents, demanding a $20 million ransom to keep the data private. Subsequent investigations confirmed the data breach.
Cybercriminals obtained the data by bribing overseas customer service agents and support staff, mainly in "non-U.S. regions such as India." These agents abused their access to Coinbase's internal customer support system and stole customer data. As early as February this year, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X platform that between December 2024 and January 2025, Coinbase users lost over $65 million to social engineering scams, with the actual amount potentially higher.
Among the victims was a well-known figure, 67-year-old Ed Suman, an established artist in the art world for nearly two decades, having been involved in the creation of artworks such as Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture. Earlier this year, he fell victim to an impersonation scam involving fake Coinbase customer support, resulting in a loss of over $2 million in cryptocurrency. ZachXBT critiqued Coinbase for its inadequate handling of such scams, noting that other major exchanges have not faced similar issues and recommending Coinbase to enhance its security measures.
Amidst a series of ongoing social engineering incidents, although there has not been any impact on user assets at the technical level so far, it has raised concerns among many retail and institutional investors. Especially institutions holding massive assets on Coinbase. Just considering the U.S. BTC ETF institutions, as of mid-May 2025, they collectively hold nearly 840,000 BTC, and 75% of these are custodied by Coinbase. If we price BTC at $100,000, this amount reaches a staggering $63 billion, which is equivalent to the nominal GDP of two Iceland in the year 2024.
In addition, Coinbase Custody also serves over 300 institutional clients, including hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and endowments. As of the Q1 2025 financial report, Coinbase's total assets under management (including institutional and retail clients) reached $404 billion. The specific amount of institutional custodied assets was not explicitly disclosed in the latest report, but it should still be over 50% based on the Q4 2024 report.
Once this security barrier is breached, not only could the rate of user attrition far exceed expectations, but more importantly, institutional trust in it would undermine the foundation of its business. Therefore, after a hacking event, Coinbase's stock price plummeted significantly.
Facing a decline in spot trading fee revenue, Coinbase is also accelerating its transformation, attempting to find growth opportunities in derivatives and emerging assets. Coinbase acquired a stake in the options platform Deribit at the end of 2024 and announced the official launch of perpetual contract products in 2025. This acquisition fills in Coinbase's gap in options trading and its relatively small global market share.
Deribit has a strong presence in non-U.S. markets, especially in Asia and Europe. The acquisition has enabled Coinbase to gain a dominant position in bitcoin and ethereum options trading on Deribit, accounting for approximately 80% of the global options trading volume, with daily trading volume remaining above $2 billion.
Meanwhile, 80-90% of Deribit's customer base consists of institutional investors, with their professionalism and liquidity in the Bitcoin and Ethereum options market highly favored by institutions. Coinbase's compliance advantage, coupled with its already robust institutional ecosystem, makes it even more suitable. By using institutions as an entry point, it can face the squeeze from giants like Binance and OKX in the derivatives market.
Facing a similar dilemma is Kraken, which is attempting to replicate Binance Futures' model in non-U.S. markets. Since the derivatives market relies more on professional users, fee rates are relatively higher and stickiness is stronger, making it a significant source of revenue for exchanges. In the first half of 2025, Kraken completed the acquisition of TradeStation Crypto and a futures exchange, aiming to build a complete derivatives trading ecosystem to hedge the risk of declining spot transaction fee income.
With the surge of Memecoin in 2024, Binance, OKX, and various CEX platforms began massively listing small-market-cap, highly volatile tokens to activate active trading users. Due to the wealth effect and trading activity of Memecoins, Coinbase was also forced to join the battle, successively listing popular tokens from the Solana ecosystem such as BOOK OF MEME and Dogwifhat. Although these coins are controversial, they are frequently traded, with fee rates several times higher than mainstream coins, serving as a "blood-boosting" method for spot trading.
However, due to its status as a publicly traded company, this practice is a riskier endeavor for Coinbase. Even in the current crypto-friendly environment, the SEC is still investigating whether tokens like SOL, ADA, and SAND constitute securities.
In addition to the forced transformation strategies carried out by the aforementioned CEXs, they are also starting to lay out RWAs and the most talked-about stablecoin payment fields, such as the PYUSD launched through a collaboration between Coinbase and Paypal, Coinbase's support for the Euro stablecoin EURC by Circle that complies with EU MiCA regulatory requirements, or the USD1 launched through a collaboration between Binance and WIFL. In the increasingly crowded trading field, many CEXs have shifted their focus from just the trading market to the application field.
The golden age of transaction fees has quietly ended, and the second half of the crypto exchange platform game has silently begun.
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