Half a year has passed, are second-tier US crypto exchanges doing well?
Source: Foresight News
By Eric
Original title: Half a year has passed, how are second-tier crypto exchanges in the US doing?
Halfway through 2026, the crypto market didn't experience the rebound that many were looking forward to.
Bitcoin fell by more than 30% in the first half of the year. At one point, it fell below $60,000, and the industry's spot trading volume shrank by more than 20% for two consecutive quarters.
The highly anticipated CLARITY Act ran aground in the Senate, and expectations of deregulation were delayed.
Coinbase portrayed this chill with a report card that lost more than $750 million in half a year.
As the leading cryptocurrency exchange in the US, this is still the case, and second-tier exchanges are having an even worse time.
According to recently disclosed financial reports for the second quarter, although some second-tier exchanges have achieved performance growth,
However, market share continues to be compressed.
Gemini survives with founder's blood transfusion
First, let's talk about the worst one.
Gemini's total revenue for the second quarter was 45.5 million US dollars, up 37% year on year, but exchange revenue fell 38% year on year.
With only $12.5 million left, spot trading volume shrank 66% from $113 billion in the same period last year to $3.8 billion.
Revenue growth was supported by side businesses such as credit cards, collateral, and OTC. Of these, credit card revenue was $16.2 million, up 231% year over year.
Gemini had a net loss of US$107.7 million in the second quarter, with a cumulative loss of US$217 million in the first half of the year.
The platform's assets fell to $8.4 billion from $182 billion a year ago.
What is even more troublesome is that the credit card business has taken a leap forward. The identity fraud cases discovered in the first quarter continued to ferment in the second quarter.
A trading loss reserve of $2010 million was accrued in a single quarter.
The contraction came quickly and violently. On February 5, Gemini announced its withdrawal from the UK, EU, and Australian markets.
It is tantamount to abandoning the overseas territory that has been in business for many years. Employees were cut 40% from the high in the third quarter of 2025, leaving only 402 people at the end of the quarter.
Marketing expenses were cut 45% year over year. In May, the Winklevoss brothers paid out of their own pockets.
Through its funds, $100 million was injected into the company at a price of $14 per share. The founder's premium increase sounds like a vote of confidence.
However, the market's signal is that this company is no longer able to finance money externally.
This life-saving money, which was paid in bitcoins, then experienced a drop in currency prices, and another impairment was added to the book.
It directly dragged the adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter to negative $74 million, which is worse than the first quarter.Stock prices are the most honest voting instrument. Gemini went public for $28 in September last year, reaching a high of $45.89 on the first day.
Today, it has fallen from a higher point of more than 88%, a decrease of 56% during the year. Citi cut its target price to $4 in April to maintain its sales rating.
Bullish, statements hijacked by Bitcoin
Bullish's situation is a bit more complicated. In addition to the exchange, this company also has CoinDesk media,
Index licensing and consensus meetings have a relatively diverse revenue structure.
Bullish's second-quarter adjusted revenue was $92.6 million, up 62% year over year.
Among them, subscription and service revenue set a record of 62.7 million dollars. Morgan Stanley and Grayscale all used CoinDesk's index to distribute products.
Adjusted net profit for the second quarter was US$14.3 million, reversing losses year over year. Looking at these numbers alone, Bullish seems like the most decent one in the second tier.
But the IFRS-caliber report tells a different story. The net loss for the second quarter was US$280 million, mainly due to Bitcoin stored in the company's treasury.
Fair value impairment of US$245 million was accrued in the second quarter alone.
Digital asset sales fell 44% year over year, indicating that the institutional trading business is also shrinking.
CEO Tom Farley's answer was to completely change the track.
In May, Bullish announced the acquisition of securities registration and transfer agent Equiniti at the Consensus Miami Conference.
The transaction volume is about 4.2 billion US dollars, and delivery is expected in early 2027. The goal is to complete the entire chain of tokenized securities from issuance and listing to trading and tracking.
On August 12, the company launched its own tokenized stock exchange, which was also approved by the Gibraltar regulator.
The story is a popular one, but the capital market isn't buying it right now.
Bullish went public with a $37 IPO in August last year, closing at $70 on the first day, and now the stock price is between $23 and $27.
It fell below the issue price by more than 30%, and fell by about 35% during the year. Zacks gave a selling rating after the earnings report.
eToro and Bakkt have semi-abandoned the crypto trading business
eToro handed over a good report card: net profit for the second quarter was US$229 million, up 9% year over year.
The adjusted EBITDA was $78 million, profit margin was 34%, and $1.2 billion in cash was lying on the account, and $87 million in shares were easily repurchased.
However, this financial trading platform, which is famous for cryptocurrency trading, is gradually returning to its old business.
eToro's net transaction contribution to the crypto business in the second quarter was only $11 million, including $2 million in depreciation of the company's holdings.
Meanwhile, traditional asset classes such as stocks, commodities, and foreign exchange contributed 142 million US dollars.
The year-on-year increase was 25%. In fact, in the first quarter, eToro product transactions accounted for 60% of commission revenue, and trading volume nearly quadrupled year over year.
The capital market also gave relatively fair treatment. eToro shares rose around 17.6% during the year, outperforming the S&P 500.
TD Cowen lowered the target price from $55 to $35 after the earnings report.
eToro announced in July that it would acquire brokerage firm TradeZero for up to $230 million, continuing in the direction of US retail brokerage firms.
The significance of eToro's sample is that it proves that the way for second-tier players is not to make the exchange better, but to stop being an exchange.
Bakkt sold its loyalty and trust business in 2025, all in crypto infrastructure and stablecoin payments,
The acquisition of DTR was completed in April and tells the B2B story of a regulatory license plus stablecoin settlement.
Bakkt's second-quarter revenue of US$170.1 million plummeted 70% year over year. And this revenue of 170.1 million corresponds to a cost of 169.3 million, and the gross profit is almost zero.
The total amount of cryptocurrency transactions handled by Bakkt in the first half of the year was only $4.1 billion.
However, management kept the $2.5 billion guideline unchanged throughout the year, which meant that the second half of the year would have to complete five times the amount in the first half.
If eToro gave the right answer, Bakkt is the complete opposite.
The planned new business is still not improving, and the cryptocurrency trading business, which accounts for the largest share, has almost bottomed out.
First-tier exchanges continue to seize share
Coinbase's first half was similarly bleak. Revenue for the first quarter was US$1.41 billion, down 31% year on year, with a net loss of US$394 million;
Revenue for the second quarter fell to $1.2 billion and lost another $360 million, falling short of Wall Street expectations for three consecutive quarters.
In May, Coinbase announced the layoff of 700 employees, or 14% of the total workforce.
But in the middle, there are two numbers worth paying attention to. In the first quarter, Coinbase's share of global crypto trading volume reached a record high of 8.6%;
In the second quarter, this figure was refreshed to 10.3%, rising for three consecutive quarters.
The total market volume is shrinking, and the share is rising, which means that the cost of contraction is being disproportionately passed on to second-tier players.
Gemini's spot volume fell 66%, and Bullish's digital asset sales fell 44%.
However, the decline in Coinbase's transaction revenue was significantly less than that of the industry as a whole.
The concentration of resources towards the head is becoming more and more obvious. Coinbase's second-quarter adjusted EBITDA is still $208 million.
It has been positive for 14 consecutive quarters. Stablecoin revenue is US$292 million in a single quarter, and it is predicted that it will generate an annualized revenue of US$100 million in less than half a year after being on the market.
With the same new business, Gemini predicts market revenue of $500,000 for the second quarter.
In a bear market, scale itself is a moat. Liquidity, brand, and ability to dilute compliance costs are all concentrated on the head.
epilogue
Putting the four financial reports together, the survival picture of the US second-tier exchanges in the first half of the year is very clear.
Trading volume is concentrated on Coinbase, and their main business revenue is collapsing at a rate of 40% to 70%;
The direction of transformation is surprisingly consistent: credit cards, predictive markets, stock trading, tokenized securities,
Stablecoin payments do everything, just don't expect spot fees.
eToro has proven that diversification works, and Bullish is betting on a tokenized future that will only be delivered in 2027.
Gemini withdrew from the mainland of the US and relied on blood transfusions from its founder, while Bakkt is using 70% of the revenue drop to support the stablecoin business.
If the crypto market doesn't pick up in the second half of the year, we may continue to see a continued decline in various numbers.
For second-tier exchanges, the topic of 2026 was never growth, but survival.
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