Coinbase has achieved a milestone in the crypto industry by becoming the only full-service prime brokerage, offering a comprehensive suite 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 traditional Wall Street standards, with the added component of staking in the crypto space. D'Agostino noted that in traditional equities and fixed income markets, only a select few firms, such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, qualify as full-service prime brokers, while smaller brokers often lack the full range of services.
In the crypto industry, Coinbase has emerged as the sole provider of a native, full-service prime brokerage, with its flagship platform, Coinbase Prime, offering a bundled suite of services that enables 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 institutional platform processes approximately $236 billion in quarterly trading volume, supporting over 470 assets across 20-plus blockchains. Beyond trading and custody, Coinbase operates a $1 billion lending book and has the industry's largest listed derivatives footprint through its Deribit integration. Its staking business spans 10 to 20 tokens at institutional scale, including dedicated products through Coinbase Asset Management.
D'Agostino emphasized that no other firm is currently providing all of these services in one place, and that the gap in the market has persisted due to the relatively small size of the crypto industry. However, he expects that as the industry grows, banks and incumbents will increasingly partner with existing players rather than trying to build their own capabilities from scratch.