Coinbase has achieved a milestone in the crypto industry by becoming the only full-service prime brokerage, offering a comprehensive range of services including trading, custody, financing, derivatives, and cross-margining. According to John D'Agostino, head of strategy at Coinbase Institutional, the company's definition of a prime broker aligns with the traditional Wall Street checklist, with the added component of staking in the crypto space.
D'Agostino noted that only a handful of firms in equities and fixed income qualify as full-service primes, and that smaller brokers often piece together services from multiple providers. In contrast, Coinbase's institutional platform, Coinbase Prime, offers a bundled suite of services, allowing hedge funds and asset managers to trade, store, and finance digital assets under one roof. The platform holds over $350 billion in assets under custody and serves as custodian for more than 80% of U.S. bitcoin and ether ETF assets.
The company's recent rollout of cross-margining between spot and derivatives positions has further solidified its position as a prime broker. Coinbase's institutional platform processes roughly $236 billion in quarterly trading volume and supports over 470 assets across 20-plus blockchains. Beyond trading and custody, the company also runs a $1 billion lending book and has the industry's largest listed derivatives footprint through its Deribit integration.
D'Agostino expects banks and incumbents to partner with Coinbase rather than building their own crypto platforms, and views startups as a greater threat to the company's position than traditional Wall Street firms.