Coinbase Global Inc at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : We have to read a lot of disclosures too, so I've gotten good at being quick. Okay. So maybe let's turn to regulation on that note. Maybe just a mark-to-market on the regulatory backdrop today. We've now seen three different drafts of the market structure bill, and they're a little bit different. So maybe what are the key items you're looking for in the Clarity Act? And maybe any perspective on when we might see this finalized?

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Makes sense. Okay. So we've also seen in recent weeks, a notable sell-off in crypto market cap. And on our math, industry trading volumes are down 27% quarter-to-date annualized. And might disagree with my numbers. And that's versus up roughly 25% through the first quarters of the year, three quarters of the year. Maybe you could just reflect on the activity you've seen across the platform. How has risk appetite changed? And maybe you could also, within that answer, comment a little bit on retail versus institutional. And then maybe also comment a little bit on what we're seeing on chain, such as DeFi projects.

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Recent events aside, maybe we can turn a little bit to your core business and in particular, retail spot trading. Can you talk a little bit about how the competitive environment -- or talk a little bit about the competitive environment and how that's evolved? And then maybe just thinking about monetization as more options enter space.

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Makes sense. So we'll touch on subscription services in a little bit, but I do want to just touch on a little bit more of the growth in the core business. And I think derivatives is one of the exciting growth areas within the core. And so maybe just an update on the growth of derivatives now that you've integrated the business with Deribit and having -- I guess having both businesses, what does that mean for growth? And then finally, I know there's a lot of questions, but how developed are the products you're building using Deribit's tech in the US?

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : So maybe just one more on derivatives, which is the revenue profile in the organic business. I think you just touched a little bit on the rebates. But maybe you could just contextualize for us how we should think about, I guess, the time period over which you would expect this to start to really contribute materially to results as you wind down those incentives. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 09, 2025 / 9:20PM, COIN.OQ - Coinbase Global Inc at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Fair enough. You actually brought up digital asset treasuries. I'd just love to just get your perspective on how you service those clients, where they touch your business. And obviously, there's been a little bit of disruption there. So does that change the way you're thinking about that client set?

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Okay. Perfect. So let's turn to subscription services. I look at the big areas of focus seem to be stablecoin, staking, lending and then base. And so maybe we go through each one of those in turn. Maybe let's start with staking. How do you think about penetration of staking? Are there other asset classes you're working on building out? And how should we think about the roadmap for staking?

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : You're a leader in crypto prime brokerage already. Maybe you could just help us think through the growth prospects in prime and what you still need to build there obviously more nascent product than retail trading, I think, across the industry. So do you think you have adequate financing capacity for this business today after the convert a few months ago? And how should we think about financing cadence going forward?

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Makes sense. Let's turn to the Layer 2 protocol base. Could you just remind us of your goals for the infrastructure layer? And I would note that I think you've continued to reduce fees on base over time. So how do you think about monetizing this versus making it decentralized?

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : You talked about payments a little bit. I'd just love to get your perspective on stablecoins and how that market develops. And you've already started to see a little bit of fragmentation in stablecoins. And I still think we haven't seen full clarity on what banks can do, what Big Tech can do in the space. So how do you think about stablecoin market structure, if I were to call it that? And then how do you think about your role in this? Obviously, you have USDC, you're very involved in USDC, but you started to see the proliferation of stablecoin service providers. So how do you think about the ways in which Coinbase can be involved in the stablecoin ecosystem?

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Okay. Maybe on the base app, can you just walk us through the key components that you're planning to build there first? And then how you think about scaling, rolling out new features and monetizing the app?

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Maybe dovetailing the app with Coinbase One. Maybe you could just talk a little bit about the subscription model that you're rolling out, your aspirations there and how you plan to drive the adoption.

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : So you brought up the Coinbase Card. So maybe we could just touch a little bit on that. Do you view that as a customer acquisition tool? How do you link it into -- or how do you embed that into bringing more customer engagement onto the platform?

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Okay. So I know there's more products coming in addition to all the ones we went through. So I'm not going to try to get into any of those, but I do just want to ask about tokenization at a high level. And more in the sense of how do you think about what tokenization of equities means for market structure? And then specifically, how do you think that the fact that the offerings are somewhat different and not necessarily interoperable that issue gets solved in terms of -- I guess the interoperability problem gets resolved.

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : I guess you can do both.

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : I think there are questions on both, honestly. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 09, 2025 / 9:20PM, COIN.OQ - Coinbase Global Inc at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : I look forward to it.

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Let's turn to investment. So on the last earnings call, you indicated that the sequential rate of operating expense growth was slow as compared to your 4Q '25 rate of growth. Maybe if there's any possibility if you could provide a little texture on the moving parts of the expense base. I'm not trying to forward guidance, but just how we should think about the different pieces of your expenses around investments versus run the business? Maybe that's a good way to put it.

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Is there any reason to think that as you migrate the business from being more trading to being more subscription services, that would have any impact on your margin profile? Or are you seeing similar margins obviously, adjusting for the cyclicality of -- across both of the keys.

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Makes sense. Okay. So we're almost out of time here. So maybe just as a wrap-up. So 2025 has been a transformative year for the industry and for Coinbase itself. You talked about all these products that you're rolling out, the diversification of revenue. So what should we be looking forward to in 2026? And what are you most excited about for next year?

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Okay. Well, with that, we're about out of time. So, Alesia, thank you so much.