When Coinbase goes public later this year, Brian Armstrong should give a big hat tip to CME on direct listing day. Coinbase wouldn't be anywhere near where it is today without CME's massive institutional Bitcoin futures market. A thread:
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~85% of Coinbase's revenue comes from its core crypto transaction business - taking a % of each trade executed on its exchange. Coinbase entices institutional volume with discounted fees to trade against its retail clients who pay full price - a classic dynamic among exchanges.pic.twitter.com/nPNOJTqrEk
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As of February 2021, Coinbase dominates crypto trading in the US. This wasn't always the case however - market share has slowly increased since late 2017 with gains coming from rival exchange Bittrex:pic.twitter.com/MDVy4WNxYT
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Coinbase's market share inflection point came at the same time that CME launched Bitcoin futures, which is not a coincidence. As CME's futures business has grown, Coinbase's share has grown in direct proportion:pic.twitter.com/IyxwXqYOQr
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CME's Bitcoin market is almost solely institutional. One contract equals 5 Bitcoin (~$250K notional), and traders have to post high amounts of margin given BTC's volatility. The contract is also cash-settled, meaning institutions don't have to touch physical BTC to trade it.
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A paper published in late 2020 argues CME's futures market leads Bitcoin price discovery. This isn't surprising - institutions are generally more informed, so their positions should impact the market more. HFT firms then arbitrage CME's futures market into the spot market.pic.twitter.com/lvaxjjBDGi
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Where does HFT arb CME's futures market? They'll go to the most liquid, established exchange with a clean record when it comes to hacks & manipulation. Coinbase far and away leads the pack. HFT offloads their trades to the retail crypto masses, paying discounted fees to do so.
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Without CME's futures market, institutions wouldn't be able to trade Bitcoin as freely or in the same kind of size, and HFT wouldn't have a clean way to arbitrage high-information trades. Volumes & market share on Coinbase would be nowhere near what they are today.
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I'll be doing a full write-up on Coinbase in this week's newsletter - sign up below so you won't miss it:https://frontmonth.substack.com/
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Replying to @HideNotSlide
takes a village, for sure, but there are a number of providers of BTC futs.pic.twitter.com/erXluaN0E7
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