Coinbase’s USDC Boom: From Side Hustle to Money-Printing Machine?

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Key Takeaways (Because Who Has Time for the Whole Story?)

  • Coinbase made $1.35B from stablecoins in 2025-basically, they’re printing money, but legally.
  • The GENIUS Act: Because Congress finally figured out how to spell “blockchain.”
  • Cutting retail rewards? More like “Sorry, not sorry” for higher margins.
  • Stablecoin volume hit $33T in 2025-because who needs banks when you have code?

In 2025, Coinbase raked in $1.35 billion from stablecoins, which is 19% of their total revenue. That’s right, they’re basically the cool kid at the crypto party, and USDC is their +1. Thanks to their BFF partnership with Circle, the issuer of USDC, they’re swimming in high-margin cash. And now that the GENIUS Act is here (yes, that’s an actual law, not a Marvel movie), the party’s just getting started. Coinbase execs are like, “Watch us multiply this revenue by two to seven times. Boom.”

If USDC becomes the Starbucks of global payments (but without the overpriced lattes), Coinbase’s stablecoin revenue could go from “nice” to “OMG, they’re buying a private island.” All thanks to the GENIUS Act, which basically gave stablecoins a hall pass to the big leagues.

Speaking of the GENIUS Act, it’s like the rulebook for stablecoins: 1:1 backing with fancy assets like cash and Treasuries, and token holders get first dibs if things go south. It’s like a financial safety net, but with more blockchain. For Coinbase, this is the wind in their sails-or more accurately, the rocket fuel for their profits.

Oh, and here’s the kicker: regulators might say “no more rewards” for retail stablecoin holders. But Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is like, “Cool, we’ll just keep more of the interest income. Thanks, bye.” Margins? About to get fatter than a Thanksgiving turkey.

Stablecoins: From Crypto’s Redheaded Stepchild to Financial Prom Queen

Remember when stablecoins were just for crypto traders? Yeah, that’s adorable. Now they’re the backbone of global payments, like the popular kid who finally got a glow-up. In 2025, stablecoin transactions hit $33 trillion-that’s more than the GDP of most countries. By 2026, market cap could hit $1 trillion. Tether’s still the big kid on the block with $187 billion, but USDC is the one everyone wants to sit with at lunch, processing $18.3 trillion in transactions.

From Crypto Trading to Financial Superhighway

In 2026, stablecoins went from “What’s that?” to “Can’t live without it.” Institutions are ditching old-school systems like SWIFT for on-chain “atomic settlement”-because who has time for multi-day delays? Business-to-business payments? $226 billion in 2025. Banks are trying to keep up with tokenized deposits, but stablecoins are like, “Sorry, we’ve got cross-chain interoperability. You don’t.”

And then there’s “Agentic Finance,” where AI runs the show, using stablecoins as its currency. It’s like Skynet, but with fewer robots trying to kill us and more money being moved around. The future is here, folks, and it’s stable.

Coinbase: From Crypto Exchange to Financial Overlords

For Coinbase, stablecoins aren’t just a side gig anymore-they’re the main event. With nearly one-fifth of their revenue coming from this, they’re less of a crypto exchange and more of a financial infrastructure powerhouse. If USDC keeps growing like it’s on steroids, Coinbase’s stablecoin income could go full supernova. Their bet on USDC? Probably the smartest thing they’ve done since, well, ever.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. Do your own research, and for the love of all that’s holy, don’t blame us if you lose your life savings on meme coins.

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2026-02-25 10:17