Coinbase Outperforms Nasdaq and Traditional Stock Exchanges

The rise of cryptocurrency trading is rapidly outpacing the growth of traditional financial markets, with Coinbase playing a leading role, especially after the boost in market sentiment following Donald Trump’s election win.

Jamie Coutts, Chief Crypto Analyst at Real Vision, pointed out that Coinbase is now among the top five global exchanges by revenue, raking in $5.75 billion over the past year. This impressive figure surpasses even some major traditional stock exchanges like Nasdaq and CBOE.

Coinbase commands a dominant 11% share of global exchange revenue, which is more than double that of decentralized exchanges (DEXs). As the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., Coinbase continues to set the pace for the industry.

While centralized exchanges (CEXs) like Coinbase remain at the forefront, DEXs are growing rapidly, now holding a 5% share of the market, outperforming traditional platforms such as HKEX and CBOE. According to Coutts, both CEXs and DEXs are expanding 2.5 to 4 times faster than traditional finance.

If the market capitalization of centralized exchanges were calculated based on Coinbase’s price-to-sales ratio, it could reach as high as $749 billion, surpassing traditional finance’s $610 billion.

Looking ahead to 2025, Coutts anticipates heightened competition as traditional finance begins to integrate crypto-related activities. He also suggested that decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms could eventually outpace even leading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum due to their ability to offer attractive returns.