New York, Feb 18, 2026, 19:21 (ET) — Trading after the bell.
- Coinbase shares dipped late, capping off a choppy session.
- ARK Invest picked up more Coinbase shares, according to its latest daily trade disclosure.
- Friday’s U.S. core PCE inflation numbers are next on traders’ radar as they look for a fresh risk catalyst.
Coinbase Global, Inc. slipped around 1.2% to $164.05 in after-hours action on Wednesday. Earlier, shares moved between $163.29 and $173.89.
Coinbase remains a bellwether for risk appetite in the crypto space—whenever digital-asset prices get shaky, investors recalculate trading volumes and fee revenue almost instantly. That kind of sensitivity is front and center again as markets brace for a heavy slate of U.S. data.
Bitcoin slipped around 1.6% to near $66,461, weighing on the broader “crypto-linked” group. Robinhood barely budged, but shares of Strategy dropped about 2.7% late in the session.
ARK, led by Cathie Wood, stepped back into Coinbase, picking up another 41,453 shares valued at roughly $6.81 million, ARK’s daily trading logs revealed. That’s per Investing.com’s trade roundup.
Brian Armstrong, the chief executive, took to X to address investor concerns, calling Coinbase “a bit of a misunderstood company” and insisting it has “never been in a stronger position.” Over at Benchmark, analyst Mark Palmer described the shares as “levered crypto beta”—in other words, the stock tends to magnify whatever’s happening in the underlying crypto market, according to a note cited by DL News. DL News
Product and platform news surfaced for Coinbase as well. Base announced plans to drop Optimism’s “OP Stack”—the toolkit behind many Ethereum layer-2 projects—in favor of its own Base-managed stack, promising more frequent network upgrades and regular “hard forks.” Base Engineering Blog
Coinbase is rolling out broader support for its U.S. crypto-backed lending product, adding XRP, Dogecoin, Cardano, and Litecoin. According to the company, customers can borrow as much as $100,000 in USDC, the stablecoin tied to the dollar, by using Morpho, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, for collateral. There’s a catch, though—borrowers risk liquidation if the value of their collateral drops.
Coinbase swung to an unexpected quarterly loss last week, hurt by slumping transaction revenue as crypto trading volumes declined, Reuters reported. The company’s subscription and services segment, though, picked up, thanks to strength in stablecoin-related revenue.
The risk? Simple enough—when bitcoin slides, retail traders tend to pull back, taking a bite out of transaction fees right away. Stressed market conditions can trigger a wave of loan liquidations, too, which quickly turns that “borrow without selling” promise into a headache for users.
Macro factors are in the mix as well. Minutes from the Federal Reserve, out Wednesday, revealed that several officials are holding out for further improvement on inflation before considering more rate cuts—a stance that often ripples through high-beta market segments.
Friday, Feb. 20 brings the U.S. core PCE price index — the inflation measure the Fed tracks most closely, minus food and energy. Traders scanning for rate clues, and knock-on effects for crypto and Coinbase, won’t miss it.
