Coinbase holds more than 10% of the total crypto cap

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Coinbase holds more than 10% of the total crypto cap

By Sam Grant - min read
An image of Coinbase logo on a phone screen alongside BTC and ETH coins

Coinbase custody accounts for more than 10% of the entire crypto capitalisation according to a Messari report

Yesterday, Messari published a report that shows that the leading US exchange Coinbase controls 11% of the combined crypto-asset market capital. The report was compiled by Mira Christanto, a researcher at the crypto data aggregator. Messari’s data revealed that the bulk of this representation flew in during Q4 of last year when the volume of crypto assets held in the exchange skyrocketed.

The crypto data firm reports that the US-based exchange controlled more than a tenth of the entire crypto market capitalisation at the end of 2020. Coinbase provides its users with custodial services for more than 90 different assets. However, only about half of these can be traded by users.

The exchange held assets worth around $90 billion by the end of last year as per the Messari report. At the time, the total crypto asset market cap had surged to $780 billion.

A graph showing asset volume and respective crypto market share. Source: Twitter

Although the exchange provides custodial services for a broad spectrum of crypto assets, only a few stand out volume-wise. The report’s data revealed that the two leading cryptocurrencies by market cap (Bitcoin and Ether) represented 83% of the volume held in the exchange. The former, has in the last two years, solely accounted for 70% of the assets. Ether, which had a 9% representation in 2019, leapt higher to 13% last year.

The report also detailed that retail clients accounted for the bulk of trading revenues. Christanto noted that retail users contributed to a whopping 95% of the exchange’s trading revenues. Institutional clients, on the other hand, pay 30 times less than retail counterparts and make up for the rest. According to Christanto’s assessment, the pre-IPO evaluation stood at 7% of the overall crypto market cap which translates to $107 billion.

Elsewhere, The Block reported at the end of last week that the cumulative monthly trading volume in all centralised exchanges had surpassed $1 trillion. Coinbase, alongside Binance and Kraken, collectively represented over 80% of the February trading volumes. Binance, alone, processed over $667 billion that roughly translates to 66%. Coinbase took second place with a 10.6% contribution followed by Kraken that processed 5.3 % of the entire volume.