Platforms like Coinbase make their revenue when people use them to trade bitcoins, rather than being tied to the value of bitcoins themselves. Industry analysis has trade volume at above the $25 billion margin on a daily basis going back to November of last year, around the same time as the aforementioned bitcoin boom that was so profitable for Coinbase. By charging fees usually between .25 and 1 percent on both ends of each transaction, you can see how the profits begin to add up. During that same Thanksgiving holiday, Coinbase was reported to have added 100,000 new users over just three days. Another bitcoin exchange called Kraken was taking in 50,000 new users a day at the tail end of the year, and some platforms have had to bar new users due to increased demand. Coinbase’s success has led to a surge in interest from investors in shares of the company, but Coinbase released a statement about its policy against selling shares in this manner: On the $1 billion figure, Coinbase declined to comment.
