Coinbase had a great year in London, and dropped pay
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase had a measly 2025, globally, but still found it in his heart to raise pay. Things were a bit different in the UK: Coinbase had a great 2025 there, and paid its people less for it.
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Accounts for CB Payments Ltd., Coinbase’s primary UK subsidiary, were published yesterday. They showed that the firm booked €270m ($307m) in revenue in 2025, more than double the €132m ($150m) it earned in 2024.
The increase was entirely down to an explosion in transaction revenue – fees charged to customers for turning their crypto into some other crypto or dollars or whatever else. 2026 will likely be even bigger for the firm, as it received a MiFID license in the UK in July this year, allowing it to trade equities and derivatives alongside its crypto offering.
Profits on the other hand fell significantly, from around €7.8m ($8.9m) to €160k ($182k). Although expenses were generally up across the board, there was one in particular that exploded: its foreign exchange revenue, which went from a net €12m gain to a €69m loss. Coinbase’s filing blamed the loss on “volatility in exchange rates and greater exposure to USD,” although it also noted that “a 10% increase or decrease in current exchange rates throughout the year would not have had a material impact,” on its results, curiously.
Pay was another unfortunate bystander. Coinbase’s headcount increased, from 141 people in 2024 to 191 people on average in 2025, average pay at the firm dropped from €270k ($308k) to €228k ($260k), a 16% decrease.
2026 might be bigger for Coinbase, but it is not likely to be so tender. Coinbase announced back in May this year that it would cut around 14% of its workforce due to AI-related efficiency gains. Its 2025 filing noted that approximately 30 people would be impacted as a consequence, and the firm intended to pay out around €1.5m in severance payments as a result – or around €50k ($57k) each. “These changes are targeted,” the firm said, so that it can continue to “provide reliable services to its customers without interruption.”
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