Crypto’s weak trading conditions are hitting Bullish, Gemini, BitGo, and Galaxy where it hurts most. The core businesses that once thrived on volatility are now grinding through lower volumes, bigger losses, and a lot more talk about “the future” than actual fee income.
- Trading remains weak across major crypto firms
- Non-trading revenue is becoming the survival play
- Tokenization, custody, stablecoins, and staking are the new battlegrounds
- BitGo and Galaxy are still fighting over a blown-up $1.2 billion deal
The latest quarterly results from several U.S.-based crypto companies make the same point in different ways: the market for plain-vanilla speculation is still lousy, and the firms that want to survive are trying to sell something sturdier than exchange volume alone. That’s clear from Bullish Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results and Gemini Space Station, Inc. Financial Statements and, which both show the same basic problem in slightly different packaging.
That means custody, settlement, tokenization, stablecoin infrastructure, prediction markets, staking, and other plumbing that can work even when traders are sitting on their hands. It’s a necessary pivot. It’s also a reminder that the old “number go up, fees go brrr” model only works when the market is awake.
Bullish is getting hit by a dead trading market
Bullish Global reported a net loss of $280 million for the three months ending June 30. That followed a loss of nearly $605 million in Q1, bringing first-half losses to $884.8 million, up from $240.4 million in the same period last year.
The trading numbers were just as rough. Bullish reported digital asset sales of $32.6 billion, barely half the amount it posted in Q2 2025. Its adjusted revenue came in at $92.6 million, up 62% year-on-year but slightly below the prior quarter. Adjusted transaction revenue was $29.9 million, up 24% from a year earlier but down 21.3% sequentially.
In plain English: Bullish is still making money from market activity, but the market itself is not cooperating. When crypto is hot, exchange businesses can look brilliant. When it cools off, the same model starts looking like a treadmill on ice.
The one bright spot was Bullish’s subscription, services & other revenue, which rose to $62.7 million. That category includes CoinDesk and related products and services, and it nearly doubled year-on-year. That matters because it shows Bullish is no longer relying entirely on trading fees to carry the business.
CEO Tom Farley was blunt about the backdrop:
“I’m not going to mince words. Crypto is a lousy environment for trading right now.”
That’s refreshingly direct. No fluff, no fake victory lap, no pretending the market is secretly thriving just because somebody minted another token with a cartoon logo.
Bullish is leaning hard into tokenization as its next growth path. The company said it traded a tokenized version of its shares on Bullish Exchange, settled against a U.S.-dollar backed stablecoin. Bullish said this was the first tokenized equity to trade on a Gibraltar Financial Services Commission-regulated exchange.
Tokenization means putting ownership rights in an asset, such as a share, bond, or fund interest, into blockchain-based tokens. The pitch is simple: faster settlement, easier transferability, and potentially lower back-office friction. That is not moonboy nonsense. If institutions buy in, it could become real market infrastructure.
Farley framed it as the next big shift:
“It may well turn out to be that that was the giant growth opportunity that none of us saw coming, as opposed to traditional crypto assets.”
“financial markets went electronic a generation ago. Tokenization is the next defining shift, and Bullish is building the infrastructure for it.”
Bullish also said its $4.2 billion acquisition of Equiniti is still on track to close in early 2027. That deal fits the broader strategy: if the future is issuance, listing, trading, and tracking of tokenized assets, then Bullish wants to own more of the stack instead of depending on a thinning spot market.
There’s a real case here. There’s also a lot of crypto history filled with grand infrastructure promises that never found enough users to matter. Tokenization is promising, but it still has to earn its keep in a market that is allergic to empty slogans.
Gemini’s revenue improved, but the burn is still real
Gemini Space Station reported a net loss of $107.7 million in Q2. That was better than its Q1 result and improved from the $133.2 million loss it posted in Q2 2025, but the company is still firmly in the red.
Revenue rose to $45.5 million, up more than one-third from a year earlier, though it slipped 9.5% from Q1. So yes, the top line is moving in the right direction. No, that does not mean the business is healthy yet.
The most concerning line item was transaction losses of $20.1 million, more than five times the year-earlier figure. Gemini said $16.1 million of that was tied to its token-backed credit cards. That’s not the kind of growth you throw a party for.
Gemini initially set aside $4.1 million for an “identity fraud event, ” then later disclosed that additional fraud patterns and affected accounts tied to the same Q1 origination cohort were found. In other words, the issue was bigger than first reported. That kind of thing can turn a promising product into a headache fast.
The credit card business can still be useful, but it is not free money. If fraud, chargebacks, or underwriting problems creep in, the economics go sideways in a hurry. Crypto companies are learning, yet again, that payments are hard and margins can vanish when reality shows up.
Gemini is also trying to diversify around its exchange business. Transaction revenue was lower, retail exchange revenue fell, and Q2 trading volume dropped two-thirds year-on-year to $3.8 billion. At the same time, OTC revenue improved sharply, services revenue and interest income rose, and staking contributed more.
For readers new to the term, staking means locking tokens to help secure a blockchain network and earning rewards in return. It can be a solid business line, but it is still tied to crypto-native activity rather than broad mainstream adoption.
Gemini’s predictions product also contributed to revenue, but only modestly. Prediction markets let users bet on real-world outcomes, and they have real potential as a niche product. Still, they are not yet the sort of engine that rescues a company on their own.
Tyler Winklevoss said the company still has work to do and is building “a more resilient company.” That’s the right message, and also a pretty clear admission that the old model is too fragile to carry everything.
Gemini shares closed Thursday at $4.30, up 3.1% on the day, but the stock remains down nearly 57% year-to-date and more than 88% since its Nasdaq debut. Investors are not buying the story on faith. They want proof.
Gemini also made a more unusual move through Cypherpunk Technologies Inc, a former biotech firm it rebranded and loaded with Zcash, the privacy-focused token. The stock initially climbed to nearly $4, then closed Thursday at $0.65. Treasury bets can be flashy. They can also turn into chart sludge very quickly.
BitGo is betting on infrastructure, not hype
BitGo reported a $19 million net loss in Q2. That was an improvement from the previous quarter’s loss, but a reversal from its profit in Q2 2025. The broader picture is still mixed: more revenue and more clients, but also more pressure and more competition.
BitGo said it had 5, 833 clients as of June 30, up 26.2% year-on-year, with user growth reaching 1.2 million. That suggests real demand still exists for custody, settlement, staking, and stablecoin-related services even when speculative trading is weak.
CEO Mike Belshe said BitGo is focused on security, trading, stablecoins, settlement, and AI-powered infrastructure. The first four are easy to understand. The AI part is fuzzier, but the overall message is clear: BitGo wants to be infrastructure for the crypto economy, not just another venue chasing volume.
The company’s subscriptions & services segment brought in $27.5 million, while stablecoin-as-a-service generated $38.8 million. Stablecoin-as-a-service means providing the tools and infrastructure for clients to issue or manage stablecoins. It’s not flashy, but it can be useful if the regulatory setup keeps improving.
Staking revenue rose sequentially to $64.7 million, though BitGo said the take rate fell to 6% from 16.1% in Q1. That means the company handled more activity but earned less per unit. More volume, less margin. A classic tradeoff, and not always the fun kind.
Belshe said BitGo’s national trust bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has been a major part of its appeal. That makes sense. In crypto, regulatory credibility can be a real moat, especially for institutions that don’t want their custodian to look like a guy with a laptop and a Telegram account.
He also argued that the U.S. should allow yield for retail token holders and said the ban on issuer yield is wrong. The GENIUS Act, as referenced in these results, prohibits stablecoin issuers from offering yield to customers, while the CLARITY Act still leaves open questions about whether non-issuing platforms can offer rewards. That may sound like small policy fine print, but it matters a lot. Yield and rewards are not side features. They are central to how these products compete.
On August 1, Belshe even challenged Anthropic and offered a wallet with 100 BTC to Claude. That is either a bold security test or an expensive flex. Probably a bit of both.
“We still have all the Bitcoin … I think it is very safe. We have not had any significant threat.”
BitGo shares closed Thursday up 10.8% to $5.53, though the stock is still down 57% year-to-date. The market clearly liked something. It just hasn’t forgotten the broader bruising.
The BitGo-Galaxy dispute is still dragging on
The legal mess between BitGo and Galaxy Digital refuses to go away, which is fitting for a crypto M&A saga. Galaxy’s abandoned $1.2 billion acquisition of BitGo from 2022 is still in litigation, and the case is now back in Delaware Chancery Court after the Delaware Supreme Court revived it in 2024. The revived fight, covered in the Revived Merger Dispute Between BitGo and Galaxy Digital in, is a reminder that corporate blowups have long memories.
At the center is a fight over whether Galaxy owes BitGo a $100 million breakup fee. The claim was dismissed in 2023, then revived on appeal and sent back for further proceedings. In May, both Mike Belshe and Mike Novogratz testified before Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick.
Galaxy’s own framing blamed BitGo for not delivering satisfactory documentation in time. Belshe fired back that Galaxy telling the world BitGo could not pass an audit was “incredibly damaging to BitGo’s reputation.” He also accused Galaxy of withholding information about law enforcement inquiries tied to its role in the Terraform Labs collapse.
That Terraform exposure matters. Galaxy later reached a $200 million settlement with the New York Attorney General’s office in 2025 over its role in that mess. The whole fight is a reminder that crypto companies do not get to escape boring old corporate law just because they run on blockchain rails.
Novogratz, quoted by Bloomberg, said:
“the entire time, I was pushing to get this deal done”but that SEC head Gary Gensler made it difficult.
Galaxy’s Q2 loss was $85 million, improving from Q1, and much of the pain was tied to declines in the value of its BTC treasury. That’s the dirty little secret of treasury-heavy crypto businesses: the upside looks heroic when prices rise, and the downside shows up in big ugly marks when prices fall. Mark-to-market accounting cuts both ways.
Why the shift away from trading keeps getting louder
The same pattern shows up across these companies. Spot trading is weak. Retail speculation is soft. The easy money from exchange volume is thinner. So the firms are trying to become something else.
That is why Bullish is talking about tokenized securities. It is why Gemini is leaning into prediction markets, OTC, staking, credit cards, and services. It is why BitGo keeps talking about custody, stablecoins, settlement, and infrastructure. When the market stops feeding on speculation, the serious players start selling the rails instead.
The broader data points in the same direction. Glassnode has shown BTC spot exchange volume falling to lows not seen in seven years. Coinbase reported spot volume down 24% in its Q2 report, and Robinhood said crypto trading volume fell 35% year-on-year. This is not a one-company problem. It’s a sector-wide cold shower.
The optimistic read is that this forces crypto firms to build businesses that actually do something useful. Custody, tokenization, stablecoin rails, and settlement are boring, but boring is often where the durable revenue lives.
The darker read is that some of these pivots are more polished desperation than real transformation. Both can be true. The best companies may emerge as legitimate infrastructure providers. The weaker ones may just keep slapping new labels on the same fragile model and praying the next bull market saves them from themselves.
Key questions and takeaways
-
Why are these crypto firms under pressure?
Because trading activity is weak, and their core exchange businesses depend on volume, spreads, and retail speculation. When the market goes quiet, fee income drops fast. -
What is Bullish betting on instead of spot trading?
Bullish is pushing tokenized securities, issuer-sponsored token infrastructure, and a broader market stack. The Equiniti acquisition is meant to help it build issuance, listing, trading, and tracking into one platform. -
Is Gemini’s business improving?
Partly. Revenue rose year-on-year and losses improved, but transaction losses jumped sharply and the company still needs new business lines to matter. The recovery is real, but fragile. -
Why does BitGo keep talking about custody and stablecoins?
Because those are the parts of crypto that look more like infrastructure than speculation. In a weak trading market, custody, settlement, and stablecoin services are more likely to produce durable revenue. -
What is the BitGo-Galaxy dispute really about?
It’s about the abandoned 2022 acquisition, the claimed breakup fee, and the reputational and disclosure fallout around audit concerns and Galaxy’s Terraform-related exposure. -
Are tokenization and prediction markets real growth paths?
Tokenization has the stronger institutional case because it fits regulated finance. Prediction markets are promising, but they are still a niche and not a rescue plan on their own.
The main takeaway is simple: the companies that survive this stretch are likely to be the ones building useful financial infrastructure, not the ones waiting for another speculative sugar high to rescue the quarter.
BitGo, Bullish, Galaxy, Gemini struggle as crypto winter
Statement on Tokenized Securities
BitGo Announces First Quarter 2026 Financial Results
Grayscale, Gemini, BitGo Eye Wall Street IPOs as Bitcoin
BitGo and Republic Partner to Tokenize Private Equity
BitGo CEO Predicts Bitcoin Surge in 2025 Due to Regulatory
Further reading
A few extra resources that add more context to the pressure facing crypto firms right now:
