Coinbase’s debut on the S&P 500 signals mainstream adoption, but regulatory and security challenges show the road ahead remains complex.
Coinbase ended 2025 with a series of major achievements, including joining the S&P 500, securing approval from European regulators and surpassing $1 billion in crypto-backed lending.
The year also marked significant business and product developments, from record-breaking acquisitions to broader access to on-chain assets, cementing the exchange’s position as a leading full-stack crypto platform.
Record growth and global expansion
In a January 6 post on X, Coinbase mentioned last year’s milestones, including becoming the first crypto-native company listed on the S&P 500, cementing the place of digital assets in mainstream financial portfolios.
The exchange also completed ten acquisitions, including Liquifi Finance, Echodot.xyz, and Deribit, which was incidentally the largest acquisition in crypto history, expanding its offering from token launch support to secondary trading.
On the regulatory front, Coinbase has received approval under the European MiCA framework, allowing it to offer regulated crypto services across the EU with a single license. The US operations also evolved, with the company being re-established in Texas.
Institutional trading grew as the exchange introduced 24/7 CFTC-regulated futures, US-style perpetuals and cross-margin trading, while retail users gained access to crypto-backed loans of over $1 billion in Bitcoin collateral, now also including Ethereum loans.
The company’s product expansion included trading Solana DEX within its app, giving 100 million users access to millions of tokens on the fast-growing blockchain. Additionally, token sales returned to retail with fair allocation models, the Coinbase One Card launched with Bitcoin rewards, and Base, the platform’s social, trading, and payments app, was rolled out globally.
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2025 also brought legal victories. The SEC voluntarily dismissed its case against the exchange, ending lengthy litigation that many in the industry saw as a major regulatory hurdle.
Increasing ambitions are accompanied by persistent security problems
Despite its commercial successes, Coinbase faces continued criticism over its security and user protection. Following CEO Brian Armstrong’s 2026 roadmap announcement, crypto researcher Taylor Monahan argued earlier this week that user security was still not a priority, citing more than $350 million in avoidable losses by 2025.
She referenced a 2024 incident in which a Coinbase Commerce contract was linked to a suspicious outflow of $15.9 million, an issue highlighted at the time by researcher ZachXBT. Critics say the exchange’s rapid growth and launch of new products, including prediction markets and expanded trading, have at times outpaced its security infrastructure.
The company is also involved in new legal battles. Last year, it filed lawsuits against Illinois, Michigan and Connecticut, challenging the state’s attempts to classify prediction market contracts as illegal gambling. Coinbase argued that these products fall under the exclusive federal jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The move came just ahead of the planned January 2026 rollout of event-based contract trading through a partnership with CFTC-regulated platform Kalshi.
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