Coinbase Rolls Out Test of Fee-free Trading

Trading fees have historically make up the bulk of Coinbase’s revenue, but the exchange is trying to diversity its business lines

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • Coinbase doubles down on its efforts to diversify revenue streams away from trading fees
  • Those that qualify for the beta launch will be contacted by email

As Coinbase looks to distance itself from transaction-based revenue, the exchange has begun recruiting the first customers for Coinbase One, a subscription service that comes with $0 trading fees.

Perks of the subscription also include up to $1 million in account protection and 24/7 phone support. A spokesperson from Coinbase declined to reveal the price, which will be billed monthly.

Coinbase One is currently in its beta launch, the exchange said.

The exchange has historically reported trading fees as its main source of revenue, but it has been trying for months to diversify its profit streams. In May 2021, the revamped version of Coinbase Prime, the exchange’s prime brokerage service, launched.

In January 2022, Coinbase announced that it would be buying Commodity and Futures Trading Commission-regulated derivatives exchange FairX, offering another opportunity to diversify revenue.

Source: Coinbase

“The transaction revenue has historically may have the lion’s share of our revenue,” said Alesia Haas, chief financial officer of Coinbase, during the exchange’s 2021 fourth quarter earnings call. “We’re taking steps to diversify this revenue and also grow our non-transaction revenue streams.” 

Coinbase executives also braced shareholders for a quieter first quarter of 2022 on the earnings call, saying that they are expecting lower monthly transacting users and total trading volume in the first three months of the year.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (11).png

Research

We believe that Exponent is best positioned to dominate the Solana yield market – the fastest-growing sector in the ecosystem – with topline liquidity increasing at an annualized rate of nearly 600%. The founding team (ex-Squads, Kamino, Solana Foundation) cares deeply about product, security, design, and user experience and understands the foundation for building a great protocol. The team’s deep ties in Solana DeFi also present a significant strategic advantage, as evidenced by Exponent PTs being onboarded as collateral on Kamino, Drift, and Loopscale before its main competitor, RateX. In this regard, we view PT integrations in money markets as the most compelling avenue for Exponent to expand its market share and own its vertical.

article-image

Franklin Templeton’s Innovation Head Sandy Kaul says institutions will issue stablecoins and tokenized cash offerings to stay competitive

article-image

Surviving financial doomsday takes some preparation

article-image

Pump.fun’s launch partners include Kraken, Kucoin, Bitget, Bybit, Gate and MEXC

article-image

Monad Foundation’s Keone Hon said the team’s been “thinking about how to grow the onchain economy for some time”

article-image

Cuts to government R&D budgets may prove penny wise, bitcoin foolish

article-image

Still relatively little is known about the memecoin platform’s forthcoming token