Coinbase Trading Volumes By User Type and Crypto Asset

Crypto asset. Pixabay image.

This article presents the trading volume of Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN).

The trading volume is one of the key business metrics of Coinbase, which it uses to evaluate its business performance, identify trends, and make strategic decisions.

In this article, we will look into Coinbase’s trading volume categorized by users, namely consumer and institutional. In addition, we also look at Coinbase’s trading volume categorized by crypto assets, consisting of bitcoin, ethereum, USDT, etc.

For other key statistics of Coinbase, you may find more resources on this page: Coinbase key stats.

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Definitions

To help readers understand the content better, the following terms and glossaries have been provided.

Traving Volume: Coinbase defines trading volume as the total U.S. dollar equivalent value of spot-matched trades transacted between a buyer and seller through its platform during the period of measurement.

In addition, according to the company’s annual reports, Coinbase’s trading volume also represents the product of the quantity of assets transacted and the trade price at the time the transaction was executed. Coinbase believes the trading volume reflects liquidity on its order books, trading health, and the underlying growth of the cryptoeconomy.

For the twelve-month period ended on Dec 31, 2025, no crypto assets other than Bitcoin and Ethereum individually represented more than 10% of Coinbase’s Trading Volume and no crypto assets other than Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP individually represented more than 10% of Coinbase’s transaction revenue, according to the 2025 annual report.

USDT: USDT, which stands for Tether, is a type of cryptocurrency known as a stablecoin. Its value is meant to mirror that of the U.S. dollar, offering the benefits of digital currency without the same level of volatility found in other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Essentially, 1 USDT is designed to be equivalent to 1 USD, aiming to maintain a 1:1 value ratio with the dollar. This stability is achieved by backing USDT with equivalent reserves of traditional fiat currencies, such as dollars, held by the issuing company, Tether Limited.

USDT operates on various blockchain networks, providing a bridge between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies and offering a more stable means of transaction and value storage in the digital currency space.

Crypto Asset Volatility: Crypto Asset Volatility represents Coinbase’s internal measure of crypto asset volatility in the market relative to prior periods. The volatility is based on intraday returns of a volume-weighted basket of all assets listed on Coinbase’s trading platform.

These returns are used to compute the basket’s intraday volatility which is then scaled to a daily window. These daily volatility values are then averaged over the applicable time period as needed.

Consumer Trading Volume: Consumer trading volume in the crypto market refers to the total quantity of cryptocurrency trades executed by retail investors over a specific timeframe. This includes individual traders’ buying and selling activities across various cryptocurrencies and trading platforms.

Consumer trading volume is an important metric in the crypto space as it provides insights into the level of retail participation, market liquidity, and investor sentiment within the cryptocurrency market. High trading volumes often indicate strong interest or activity among individual investors, which can lead to increased market movements and volatility.

Conversely, low trading volumes might suggest reduced retail participation or caution among individual traders. This metric is crucial for understanding the crypto market dynamics from the perspective of the general public or retail investors.

Institutional Trading Volume: Institutional trading volume in the crypto market refers to the total quantity of cryptocurrency transactions executed by institutional investors. These investors include hedge funds, pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance companies, among others, who trade large quantities of cryptocurrencies either for investment purposes or as part of their asset management strategies.

Unlike retail investors, who typically trade smaller amounts, institutional investors have the capacity to move the market with their trades due to the large volumes they handle. Their activity is closely watched as it can provide insights into market trends and potential shifts in the crypto landscape.

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FAQs

To help readers understand the content better, the following FAQs have been provided.

How does Coinbase boost its trading volume?

Coinbase employs several strategies to boost its trading volume. These strategies include:

1. Expanding the range of products and services: Coinbase continuously explores and adds new cryptocurrencies and financial products, such as Coinbase Earn, staking rewards, and more sophisticated trading tools. This attracts both new and experienced traders looking for diverse trading opportunities.

2. Improving user experience: By focusing on a user-friendly interface, mobile app availability, and customer support, Coinbase makes it easier for new users to start trading and for existing users to trade more efficiently. A positive user experience encourages higher trading activity.




3. Marketing and partnerships: Engaging marketing campaigns and strategic partnerships help Coinbase to expand its user base. By collaborating with other fintech companies and leveraging social media, Coinbase can attract new users, which in turn increases its trading volume.

4. Educational resources: Providing educational materials and resources about cryptocurrency trading and investment encourages new traders to start trading and helps existing traders to make more informed decisions, potentially leading to increased trading activity.

5. Security measures: Ensuring a high level of security builds trust among users. By investing in advanced security technologies and protocols, Coinbase reassures users that their assets are safe, which is crucial for encouraging trading on the platform.

6. Regulatory compliance: By adhering to regulatory requirements and seeking licenses in various jurisdictions, Coinbase can access new markets and attract users who are cautious about regulatory compliance, thus boosting its trading volume.

7. Liquidity improvement: Coinbase works on providing high liquidity, which allows users to execute trades quickly and at desired prices. High liquidity attracts high-frequency traders and institutional investors, significantly increasing trading volume.

By combining these strategies, Coinbase aims to enhance its platform’s appeal to a broad range of users, from novices to professionals, thereby increasing its trading volume.

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Insight & Summary of Coinbase’s Trading Volumes Categorized By Users and Crypto Assets

The following analysis consolidates the trends observed across Coinbase’s trading volumes for the 2019–2025 period.

• Total Volume: The Cycle in Sharp Relief Coinbase’s total trading volume mirrors the crypto market cycle with near-perfect fidelity. From $80B (FY2019) to $1,671B (FY2021 peak, +765.8% from FY2020), collapsing to $468B (FY2023, -43.6%), then recovering to $1,189B (FY2024, +154.1%) and holding at $1,221B (FY2025, +2.7%). The FY2025 growth deceleration to just 2.7% — after a 154.1% rebound in FY2024 — is the most significant data point for investors projecting FY2026: Coinbase’s trading volumes have plateaued near the FY2021 all-time high despite Bitcoin reaching record prices, suggesting that increased prices partially compensate for volume stagnation in dollar terms rather than indicating new user or activity expansion.

• Institutional vs Consumer: Institutional Dominance, Consumer Marginality The shift from institutional minority to institutional majority is the defining structural change across the dataset. In FY2019, institutional trading represented 56.3% of volume. By FY2023, this had expanded to 84.0% — the peak institutional share. By FY2025, institutional remains at 80.4%, with the FY2023–FY2025 average of 81.9% confirming that Coinbase is, in practice, primarily an institutional trading venue.

  Consumer trading has declined from 43.8% (FY2019) to 19.6% (FY2025), with the FY2025 absolute consumer volume of $239B roughly flat with FY2024 ($224B). The institutional dominance has important revenue mix implications: institutional traders typically operate on significantly lower fee rates than consumers, meaning institutional volume growth does not translate proportionally into revenue growth — which partially explains why FY2025 total revenue growth (+9.4%) outpaced volume growth (+2.7%).

  Consumer volume’s FY2023–FY2025 average growth of 50.1% versus institutional’s 35.5% is a positive relative trend but starts from a small base (consumer is only 19.6% of total volume in FY2025). For Coinbase to meaningfully improve its revenue yield on volume, re-engaging retail consumers — who pay higher fee rates — is a more impactful lever than growing institutional volume further.

• Bitcoin: Structurally Dominant but Declining in Mix Bitcoin’s share of crypto asset trading volume has compressed from 58% (FY2019) to 29% (FY2025), with the FY2023–FY2025 average of 32%. In absolute terms, BTC trading volume was $354B in FY2025, down -9.8% from FY2024’s $392B — the only major asset category to record a year-over-year absolute decline. The declining BTC mix is somewhat counterintuitive given Bitcoin’s price appreciation to record levels in FY2025: higher prices should mechanically inflate dollar volume. The mix compression suggests that traders are rotating activity proportionally more toward other assets — primarily the “Other Crypto Assets” category — even as absolute BTC trading remains substantial.

• Ethereum: Modest Share, Steady Participation Ethereum’s trading volume has grown from $11B (FY2019) to $195B (FY2025), with a FY2023–FY2025 average of $148B and average growth of 12.2%. ETH’s mix share peaked at 25% (FY2022) before declining to 16% (FY2025), with the FY2023–FY2025 average of 16%. The FY2025 ETH volume growth of +26.4% outpaced Bitcoin’s -9.8%, suggesting ETH is gaining relative engagement momentum even as its absolute mix share remains modest. Ethereum’s structural integration with Coinbase’s own Base network and staking offerings provides natural demand beyond pure price speculation.

• USDT: Volatile Utility Asset USDT appeared in Coinbase’s trading breakdown from FY2023 ($51B, 11% mix) before expanding to $143B (FY2024, 12% mix, +177.2%) and collapsing to $73B (FY2025, 6% mix, -48.7%). The dramatic FY2025 reversal — the steepest growth-to-contraction swing of any listed asset — reflects the cyclical nature of stablecoin trading utility: USDT activity peaks during high-volatility periods when traders cycle between stablecoin and risk-on positions, and declines when markets trend directionally. The FY2024–FY2025 average USDT growth of 64.2% includes both the FY2024 surge and FY2025 collapse, making it analytically misleading as a trend indicator.

• Other Crypto Assets: The Emerging Majority The “Other Crypto Assets” category — encompassing altcoins, DeFi tokens, layer-2 assets, and newer crypto instruments — has grown from 18% mix (FY2019) to 49% mix (FY2025), overtaking Bitcoin as the largest single category in FY2021 and widening the lead since. FY2025 “Other” volume of $598B at a FY2023–FY2025 average growth of 55.9% is the strongest sustained growth of any asset category in the dataset. This mix shift is significant for Coinbase’s business model: each new asset listing on Coinbase expands addressable trading activity, and the proliferation of Layer 2 tokens, AI-adjacent crypto assets, and meme coins has broadened the “Other” category substantially beyond what FY2019’s 18% base would have implied.

• Structural Takeaway: Coinbase’s trading volume profile has undergone three structural transformations between FY2019 and FY2025. First, institutional trading has achieved decisive dominance at ~80% of total volume, fundamentally changing the revenue economics of each incremental dollar of volume (lower fee yield per dollar from institutions versus consumers).

  Second, the crypto asset mix has decentralised away from Bitcoin — from 58% to 29% — toward the “Other” category, reflecting the proliferation of tradeable assets and a more heterogeneous crypto ecosystem. Third, stablecoin trading (USDT) has emerged as a new and volatile volume category that amplifies cycle peaks and troughs without a stable underlying trend.

  For investors, the FY2025 volume plateau ($1,221B, +2.7%) at historically high Bitcoin prices is the key concern: if Coinbase cannot convert favourable crypto market conditions into meaningful volume growth, the market-cap justification for Coinbase’s revenue multiple becomes dependent on fee yield improvement and product diversification rather than market-driven volume expansion. The consumer re-engagement challenge — recovering from 19.6% to a higher share of total mix — and the continued expansion of the “Other” asset category are the two most important volume-side opportunities for the medium term.

The table below combines all key Coinbase’s trading volume by user and crypto asset metrics into a single view for the latest three fiscal years.

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Consumer And Institutional Trading Volumes

The definition of Coinbase’s trading volume is available here: trading volume.

Coinbase’s trading volume is classified into two main categories: consumer and institutional. The definitions of consumer and institutional trading volume are available here: consumer trading volume and institutional trading volume.

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Consumer And Institutional Trading Volumes In Percentage

The definition of Coinbase’s trading volume is available here: trading volume.

The definitions of consumer and institutional trading volume are available here: consumer trading volume and institutional trading volume.

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YoY Growth Rates Of Consumer And Institutional Trading Volumes

The definition of Coinbase’s trading volume is available here: trading volume.

The definitions of consumer and institutional trading volume are available here: consumer trading volume and institutional trading volume.

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Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, And USDT Trading Volumes

The definition of Coinbase’s trading volume is available here: trading volume.

The definition of Coinbase’s USDT is available here: USDT.

In addition to being divided into consumer and institutional categories, Coinbase’s trading volume can be classified based on the different types of cryptocurrencies traded on the platform.

The major cryptocurrencies traded on Coinbase’s platforms with a minimum of 10% of total volumes are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and USDT, as shown in the chart above.

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Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, And USDT Trading Volumes In Percentage

The definition of Coinbase’s trading volume is available here: trading volume.

The definition of Coinbase’s USDT is available here: USDT.

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YoY Growth Rates Of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, And USDT Trading Volumes

The definition of Coinbase’s trading volume is available here: trading volume.

The definition of Coinbase’s USDT is available here: USDT.

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Credits and References

1. All financial figures presented were obtained and referenced from Coinbase Global, Inc.’s annual reports published on the company’s investor relations page: Coinbase Investor Relations.

2. Pixabay images.

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Disclosure

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist us in writing some of the text in this article. However, the data is directly obtained from original sources (usually the quarterly and annual reports) and meticulously cross-checked by our editors multiple times to ensure its accuracy and reliability.

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