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Two listed crypto exchanges reported first-quarter earnings on Thursday, with Gemini and Bullish both showing adjusted revenue growth alongside headline GAAP losses driven by non-cash items.
Gemini (Nasdaq: GEMI) reported total revenue of $50.3 million for the quarter ended March 31, up 42% year-over-year. The growth was driven almost entirely by its services business: services revenue and interest income climbed 122% to $24.5 million, with credit card revenue up nearly 300% to $14.7 million as cumulative cardholders passed 123,700 over the trailing four quarters. Managed card receivables more than tripled over the same period, reaching $217 million. Exchange revenue fell 27% to $17.2 million as total spot trading volume dropped to $6.3 billion from $13.5 billion in Q1 2025, reflecting weaker crypto market conditions.
Net loss was $109 million, a 27% improvement from $149.3 million in Q1 2025. Total operating expenses rose 73% to $144.5 million, though excluding $24.2 million in stock-based compensation and $6.5 million in severance from its Q1 reduction in force, the underlying salaries and compensation base rose only 6% year-over-year to $34.8 million. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $59.9 million. Cash and equivalents ended the quarter at $215.6 million.
Alongside the results, Gemini announced a $100 million strategic investment from Winklevoss Capital Fund, the vehicle of CEO Tyler Winklevoss and President Cameron Winklevoss. The fund acquired 7,142,857 Class A shares at $14 per share, with the consideration paid in bitcoin. The purchase price was more than 2.5 times where GEMI closed on Wednesday at $4.92. “We believe the market has significantly undervalued Gemini, and that this investment will allow us to set up the company for its next phase of growth,” Tyler Winklevoss said. “Gemini has achieved several major product and regulatory milestones that position us well to evolve from a crypto company into a markets company.”
Those milestones include a Derivatives Clearing Organization license received from the CFTC on April 29, which allows Gemini to handle settlement, risk management, and collateral internally without relying on third-party clearinghouses. The company also launched Agentic Trading in April, described as one of the first agentic trading tools available through a regulated U.S.-based exchange, allowing customers to connect AI agents directly to Gemini’s API to place trades and manage risk autonomously. Gemini Predictions, the company’s in-house prediction markets product launched in December 2025, surpassed 100 million contracts traded across more than 20,000 traders, with April volume up 78% month-over-month.
Bullish (NYSE: BLSH) reported adjusted revenue of $92.8 million for the same period, up from $62.4 million in Q1 2025. Adjusted EBITDA rose to $35.1 million from $13.2 million, and adjusted net income was $20.3 million compared to $2.1 million a year earlier. On a GAAP basis, the company reported a net loss of $604.9 million, up from $348.6 million in Q1 2025 – driven primarily by non-cash impairment losses on digital assets held on its balance sheet as crypto prices fell during the quarter. Adjusted transaction revenue, which strips out mark-to-market effects, came in at $38 million, down from $42 million as digital asset sales fell to $51.8 billion from $80.2 billion.
CEO Tom Farley pointed to the exchange’s derivatives business as its main growth driver. Bullish traded $11.6 billion in options market volume in Q1, growing its open interest share to 14% of the global Bitcoin options market and claiming the number two position globally for Bitcoin options. The exchange hit a single-day volume record of $858 million in April. Bullish also filed last week for U.S. DCM and DCO licenses.
“We’re pleased with our Q1 results and we’re even more excited about what comes next,” Farley said. “With the proposed acquisition of Equiniti, we will have all three elements required to become a powerhouse leading the blockchain era: end-to-end tokenization services, a unified transfer agent ledger, and broad blue-chip issuer relationships.”
The Equiniti deal, announced May 5, values the UK-based registrar and investor services firm at $4.2 billion, structured as approximately $2.35 billion in newly issued Bullish ordinary shares and the assumption of $1.85 billion of Equiniti debt. Bullish is targeting a January 2027 close. CoinDesk Indices also announced a partnership with Morgan Stanley on its recently launched Bitcoin ETF.
Both exchanges are pursuing U.S. derivatives licenses simultaneously – Gemini having received its DCO license, Bullish having just filed. The parallel moves reflect a broader convergence in strategy: spot-focused crypto exchanges are adding derivatives infrastructure, prediction markets, and agentic trading tools in an attempt to broaden revenue beyond the cyclical trading volumes that have defined the sector.
