Coinbase Misses Q3 Revenue Target as Users Fall to 7.4 Million

Coinbase reported third-quarter revenue of $1.20 billion, missing the $1.233 billion analysts expected, according to company filings. Monthly Transacting Users fell to 7.4 million from 9.3 million a year earlier, a decline of roughly two million active customers in twelve months. The company blamed overall market conditions on its earnings call. The shortfall is modest — about 3 percent — but the user metric is the harder one to explain away.

The quarter was not uniformly weak. Subscription and services revenue reached $570 million, and adjusted EBITDA came in at $332.9 million, extending a run of fifteen consecutive profitable quarters on that measure. Coinbase's share of crypto trading volume rose to 10.7 percent, its fourth straight quarter of gains. The exchange is winning business even as the broader market quiets, which suggests competitive position rather than demand is the story.

Two smaller segments crossed visible thresholds. The prediction markets business passed $200 million in annualized revenue. Coinbase One, the subscription product, hit a record number of subscribers, though the company did not disclose the absolute figure.

The company also disclosed buying 643 Bitcoin worth $1.5 billion for its balance sheet in the quarter. That purchase, roughly $2.3 million per coin on average, deepens Coinbase's direct exposure to Bitcoin's price — a position that compounds the trading-revenue dependence it says it wants to reduce.

Why is Brian Armstrong selling shares?

Separately, filings reported on October 30 show CEO Brian Armstrong has adopted a plan to sell up to 8.17 million Class A shares. He set up the plan in August under SEC Rule 10b5-1, which allows executives to schedule sales in advance and thereby deflect insider-trading concerns. Sales could run from November 16 through October 2027, subject to stock price conditions.

Co-founder Fred Ehrsam and President Emilie Choi have similar plans, bringing the executive total to about 13.6 million shares. Armstrong has done this before: VanEck analyst Matthew Sigel previously tracked about $545.7 million in Armstrong sales over nine months starting in April 2025. Armstrong has said such sales are part of his personal risk management, not a signal about the company. That claim is standard for 10b5-1 plans; it is also unverifiable from the outside.

What happened to the stock?

COIN fell roughly 15 percent on the day, but the earnings report may not be the main cause. On October 29, Binance disclosed a security breach it estimates at $6.3 billion — the largest crypto theft on record. Around $3 billion in assets has been frozen so far, with industry partners assisting.

Binance says it has $6.34 billion in reserves available to cover losses, which leaves a thin cushion of roughly $40 million against the current estimate. Deposits were unaffected, and the exchange expects to resume withdrawals within 48 hours. The hackers are allegedly linked to North Korea, though Binance has not attributed the attack to any group. The exchange says it found no evidence of a leaked wallet private key. All figures remain preliminary, and estimates vary slightly across outlets — a caveat worth holding onto before treating $6.3 billion as settled fact.

The market reaction was immediate. Bitcoin fell roughly 4.5 percent to below $77,000. Strategy (MSTR) shares dropped nearly 10 percent. Strive (ASST) fell more than 12 percent at points during the session. Coinbase stock is now down more than 55 percent year to date, meaning the sector-wide shock landed on an equity already trading at less than half its January value.

In plain terms: Coinbase missed on revenue and users, its CEO has lined up more than a year of scheduled selling, and an industry-record breach did the rest. Whether the 10b5-1 sales begin on November 16, and whether Binance's $6.3 billion estimate holds after forensics, are the two dates and numbers to watch.