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10) Well ok then. So, mostly this is the "Coinbase fee". This isn't a % fee, it's a $ fee; in this case, $0.99. On a $8 trade. So that's 12% right there. The other 2.5%? Well, that's the spread.

SBF

@SBF_FTX

Jan 12, 2021

11) Ok, so now things start to line up more. If they traded $500m/day, and made $1.5b, that means that Coinbase made about 1% on their average trade. Which, presumably, is some blended rate between ~8bps on their "Coinbase Pro" trades, and 1-10% on their app trades.

SBF

@SBF_FTX

Jan 12, 2021

12) A lot of people complain about Coinbase downtime, or lack of features, or ratelimits, or withdrawals. I wonder if Coinbase even cares. Its 'pro' fees can't have been more than 10-20% of its revenue, really: 8bps*$500m*365 = $150m.

SBF

@SBF_FTX

Jan 12, 2021

13) Coinbase doesn't make money when people use its API, or go to prime.coinbase.com, or use their ratelimits. Coinbase makes its money when your high school classmate decides to buy their first $25 of BTC on the app.

SBF

@SBF_FTX

Jan 12, 2021

14) So: a) Coinbase does, actually, make real money! This isn't Bakkt 2.0. b) ftx.com/trade/CBSE/USD might be worth a lot. Maybe it shouldn't sell itself short. twitter.com/SBF_Alameda/st But there's another interesting question here. What happens when volumes skyrocket?

Quote Tweet

SBF

@SBF_FTX

Dec 25, 2020

1) IPOs, listings, and orderbooks: Why ftx.com/trade/CBSE/USD might be good for Coinbase

Show this thread

SBF

@SBF_FTX

Jan 12, 2021

15) For FTX, the answer is pretty simple. Just go to ftx.com/FTT. Last week, FTX had its first ever $2m buy/burn. Today, we're having a $3m buy/burn. More volume has exactly the expected effect.

SBF

@SBF_FTX

Jan 12, 2021

16) For Coinbase.... I'm actually pretty curious. Today, Coinbase has $5b of volume. That's a lot! It's also half of FTX.

SBF

@SBF_FTX

Jan 12, 2021

17) If this kept up for a year, would Coinbase make $300m? Or $15b? *Which* volume goes up? Is it

@AWice

? Or is it his high school classmate buying their first BTC? Is it

@cmsholdings

's bots, or Dan while he's bored in a meeting? Are they paying 1-10bps or 1-10%?

SBF

@SBF_FTX

Jan 12, 2021

18) I don't know! I wish I did. All I can offer is the following. Here are some graphs from FTX.

SBF

@SBF_FTX

Jan 12, 2021

19) On FTX: --Volume is up about 10x from a month ago --Active userbase is up about 1.5x So if FTX is any guide, most of the volume growth is the heavy duty traders; retail growth is smaller. Which would imply that Coinbase's revenue is up more like 50% than 500%.

SBF

@SBF_FTX

20) But maybe Coinbase isn't like FTX. Maybe Coinbase really did have 10m users load their app to buy $100 each of BTC yesterday, each paying about $3 in fees. That would be, at least from Coinbase's perspective, impressive.

12:16 PM · Jan 12, 2021Twitter Web App

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21) It would also, in the author's humble opinion, be ripe for disruption.

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333rd term abortion clinic

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and

i still shill coinbase to new US users. it has the easiest UI for boomers to set up and that’s still not easy for them sometimes. blockchain wallet app if they want to buy with cc and can handle a real wallet. make us a better app please 🙏

Alison | AlisonBob.eth

Replying to

and

Coinbase definitely has a lot of small users. My first $250 BTC was on coinbase, when the only way a 🇨🇦 could fund (outside of crypto transfer) it was via credit card & that was the max.

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and

Custody?

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and

Likely isn’t. Definitely have more retail flow than FTX. But as you said... that can change. Consumers are fickle.

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and

Maybe FTX isn’t like Coinbase ... but @blockfolio could be 😊🙃 [cash register sound]

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and

We would be interested in the ftx volume breakout retail vs institutional. I joined ftx this week, but I'm in the US so I don't get the cool toys. Wondering how much your arbitrage ops has to do with your volume.