- Brian Armstrong says that retail users have increased their BTC and ETH holdings, according to the Coinbase data.
- Armstrong’s post followed Coinbase’s Q4 2025 report as Bitcoin and Ethereum suffered steep monthly losses.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, said that retail investors are strongly resilient, as they are actively buying Ethereum and Bitcoin despite broader monthly price drops.
The crypto market has been struggling, with Bitcoin down around 2% in the last 24 hours and trading at $68,841, bringing its monthly fall to about 28%. Ethereum has also suffered steeper losses, plunging 5.42% on the day to $1,971 and extending its monthly loss to nearly 40%, as of writing, as broader crypto market sentiment remained weak.
Amid this turbulence, on February 15, Brian Armstrong wrote on X, “Retail users on Coinbase have been very resilient during these market conditions, according to our data: They’ve been buying the dip – we’ve seen a native unit increase for retail users across BTC and ETH. They have diamond hands – vast majority of customers had native unit balances in Feb equal to or greater than their balances in December.”
However, Armstrong did not disclose the underlying data or provide specific figures to support the claim. He pointed “diamond hands” trend, where investors hold or even add to their crypto positions despite market downturns, which indicates a more long-term-focused group of everyday traders.
With that, Armstrong’s comments received mixed reactions among the crypto community. While some see persistent buying and holding as evidence of retail conviction, others are unconvinced. One post noted, “That doesn’t make them resilient—that means they’re taking huge drawdowns,” suggesting that holding through strong market decreases may reflect significant unrealized losses rather than strength.
While Armstrong’s post came after Coinbase’s Q4 2025 report revealed a $667 million quarterly net loss, which was largely due to crypto investment portfolio markdowns as asset prices fell. Despite the losses, retail traders continued to increase their BTC and ETH balances.
Where his latest post is seemingly to justify Coinbase’s performance amid an unstable market while simultaneously noting that the retail market is transitioning from short-term trading to long-term accumulation.
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