Coinbase Performance Diminished by Brian Armstrong’s Publicity Move

Coinbase’s earnings were exceptionally impressive in the third quarter, soaring by over 400% compared to the same timeframe last year.

However, on Crypto Twitter, it is not the financial results that are making waves… it’s the action taken by CEO Brian Armstrong at the conclusion of a call with analysts. He stated:

“I was a little distracted because I was tracking the prediction market about what Coinbase will say on their next earnings call. I just want to add here the words Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchain, staking and Web3 — to make sure we get those in before the end of the call.”

Bets had been placed on what would be mentioned across Polymarket and Kalshi, with tens of thousands of dollars wagered. Thanks to Armstrong, anyone who voted “yes” would have realized a significant profit.

Coinbase CEO trolled @Polymarket
During the Q3 earnings call, Brian Armstrong executed a performance that enabled Polymarket participants to profit
At the end of the call, he initiated a “mention market” on Polymarket — a market where users were wagering on which words he would articulate… pic.twitter.com/0Re6KxRQ25

— Alexey Stark (@AIexey_Stark) October 31, 2025

This situation highlights one of the major issues with Polymarket: if an individual in a position of authority becomes aware that bets are being placed on their actions, it could influence their conduct. (It is crucial to emphasize that there is no implication of insider trading here — and it is unlikely that Armstrong has profited from this incident.)

While some found humor in the situation, referring to the entrepreneur as a “legend,” others have openly questioned whether this constitutes market manipulation. Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran expressed his discontent, stating:

“If I were the CEO of an exchange with CFTC-regulated products, I would simply not purposefully manipulate the outcome states of prediction markets on other CFTC-regulated exchanges during an earnings call… and then post about it on Twitter.”

Coinbase Shares Experience Positive Surge

Returning to the primary focus: Coinbase’s results for the third quarter of 2025. Net income for the three months ending in September reached a robust $432.6 million — significantly exceeding the $75.5 million from the same period in 2024. This translates to $1.50 per share, well above the $1.10 projected by some analysts.

Revenue also surpassed expectations at $1.8 billion, with $1 billion of this attributed to transactions as trading volumes surged — with users returning to the platform to take advantage of Bitcoin and Ether reaching new all-time highs.

In a letter to shareholders, Coinbase disclosed that it continues to expand the range of cryptocurrencies available for trading on its platform — now representing 90% of the industry’s total market capitalization.

During the notably controversial earnings call, Armstrong proclaimed it was a “great quarter” — and that Coinbase’s core business is “incredibly strong.” He also emphasized that the exchange performed well during the market downturn on October 10, which saw billions of dollars in liquidations as Binance faced technical issues.

“We actually operated very well without disruption. And we didn’t have any downtime or degraded latency around market data or anything like that. So that was a result of a lot of investment we’ve made over the last year or two in doing load testing … several major exchanges experienced extended outages during that time and we didn’t have any.”

Armstrong reiterated his goal of transforming Coinbase into the “Everything Exchange” — and remains steadfast in his belief that all assets will eventually transition on-chain. He also confirmed that a special presentation is scheduled for December 17th, where Coinbase will unveil the products it has been developing in the latter half of this year.

Coinbase’s share price rose during Friday’s trading session on Wall Street — increasing by 8.8% at the time of writing. COIN has also surged by 75.8% over the past six months, and is now double its value from a year ago.

Nevertheless, the significant challenge now is what will occur next. The financial performance of leading exchanges can often vary dramatically from one quarter to another, as they depend on top assets exhibiting bullish trends. With BTC on the verge of closing this month down 2.7% — marking its first October loss since 2018 — Coinbase may find it difficult to maintain these impressive revenues.

Nonetheless, some analysts still perceive potential upside for Coinbase’s stock, with one setting a target of $421 per share, an increase of approximately 19% from current levels.

The post Coinbase Results Overshadowed By Brian Armstrong Stunt appeared first on Cryptonews.