Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) founder and CEO Brian Armstrong turned the company’s Q3 2025 earnings call into a lottery of sorts for crypto traders on prediction markets.
Launched by Brian Armstrong in 2012, Coinbase is the leading crypto trading exchange in the U.S. which serves over 100 million users today. The company went public on Nasdaq in 2021 and became the first crypto company to find a spot on the S&P 500 index in May this year.
As reported earlier, Coinbase published its Q3 earnings on Oct. 30 and beat analyst estimates. It reported $1.5 in earnings per share (EPS) for Q3 as compared to an estimated $1.05. Coinbase earned a quarterly revenue of $1.86 billion, against the estimated $1.8 billion.
Later in the day, senior Coinbase executives and investors gathered for the earnings call that went viral within hours after Armstrong dropped five iconic words toward the end.
Armstrong teases crypto traders with five words
Armstrong surprised the crypto trading community when he dropped five words that he saw the prediction market was counting on Coinbase to say during the call.
“I was a little distracted because I was tracking the prediction market about what Coinbase will say on their next earnings call, and I just want to, you know, add here the words “Bitcoin,” “Ethereum,” “Blockchain,” “Staking” and “Web3″ to make sure we get those in before the end of the call.”
The moment quickly went viral on X. “What a wild time to be alive,” said a Kalshi user, @0xTyrael. Armstrong responded that it was a spontaneous moment after a team member dropped a link in the chat.
Crypto entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano called Armstrong a “legend” for dropping words people were betting on him to say.
Besides the viral segment, the earnings call focused on Coinbase’s performance and future plans.
‘Everything Exchange’
Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas said that over the course of 2025, it has made a significant investment in headcount to capitalize on different opportunities and accelerate the vision of the Everything Exchange.
Armstrong said the Everything Exchange is “really central to the next chapter of what we’re building.” He said the company will share more details at its product showcase on Dec. 17.
“And I’d say that Everything Exchange is really a perfect complement to all the other features that we’ve built into Coinbase including DeFi borrow lend, USDC, global payments, Coinbase Card – people really love that product – Base is having really strong momentum. And so I think these are all going to come together. Our goal long term is to be the number one financial app, and that’s what we’re working on.”
Stablecoins and payments key growth areas
Armstrong said the majority of global payments will eventually shift to stablecoins because they allow you to send money across the world in under one second for less than $0.01.
“And no other payment rail can match this.”
Policy developments like the GENIUS Act will drive further stablecoin adoption, he said.
“In Q3, Coinbase customers held on average, $15 billion of USDC on platform, making us the largest contributor to USDC’s all-time high $74 billion market cap.”
Armstrong said global institutional payments are what Coinbase is targeting.
“We’re building payments for businesses. Coinbase businesses account for small, medium-sized businesses. We’re adding various products and services in there around invoices and how to pay contractors and vendors. A lot of it is cross-border, but even within country, it’s powerful.”
Acquisitions for further expansion
Coinbase acquired Deribit, the world’s largest crypto options trading exchange, and the two platforms collectively drove over $840 billion in total derivatives volume during Q3.
Haas said Deribit is already the options market leader, accounting for over 75% market share.
“Notably, this is all non-U.S., and so there is a path to grow the market for options in the U.S. that is going to be a multi-quarter roadmap of bringing both the regulatory licenses and product to bear in the U.S., but we think that’s a huge opportunity for us.”
Coinbase recently acquired Echo, an onchain capital-raising platform. Armstrong said Echo is a really innovative company that they decided to acquire.
“And we’re trying to make it easy for anyone to raise money. And then the beauty of combining it with Coinbase is that – we have now over $500 billion of assets.”
Q4 outlook
“The fourth quarter is off to a strong start,” said Haas. She also laid out Coinbase expectations for October.
* Transaction revenue: $385 million
* Subscription and services revenue: $710 million-$790 million
* Tech, development and G&A expense: $925 million-$975 million, driven by acquisitions and headcount growth
* Sales and marketing expenses: $215 million-$315 million
Coinbase stock jumps
On Oct. 31, the COIN stock closed at $343.78, up more than 4% in the last 24 hours.
So far this week, the stock closed lower every single day; the latest uptick reflects a hopeful sentiment of the traders.
