Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs said it is “selectively constructive” on brokers and crypto companies heading into 2026, arguing that a robust retail environment and continued regulatory progress should support growth.
“We expect the confluence of traditional retail brokerage and crypto trading to continue in 2026, driving increasing competition, potentially affecting market share and product prices,” analysts led by James Yaro wrote in Monday’s report.
The bank upgraded crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) to buy from neutral and raised its price target to $303 from $294, implying more than 30% upside. Shares were 4.3% higher in early Monday trading alongside a rally in crypto prices on Sunday evening.
The bank downgraded eToro (ETOR) to neutral from buy and cut its price target to $39 from $48. The stock was 1.2% lower at $35.27 in premarket trading.
Yaro and team continued with Buy ratings on Robinhood (HOOD), Interactive Brokers (IBKR) and Figure Technology (FIGR).
Coinbase’s scale and brand strength are seen as key drivers of revenue growth over peers and market share, Yaro said. He predicted a 12% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue for COIN through 2027 compared to 8% for peers, supported by best-in-class customer acquisition costs.
Yaro and the team also highlighted recent product launches across brokerage, banking, wealth and tokenization, saying they enhance the firm’s competitiveness and position it to scale structurally growing areas such as prediction markets.
At the same time, the bank is bullish on Coinbase’s expanding subscription and services business, which now accounts for about 40% of revenue, and expects it to grow steadily and reduce earnings volatility as crypto use cases expand beyond trading.
“While it continues to offer healthy growth, competition is intensifying across its core market and products, potentially driving higher customer acquisition costs and prices and impacting planned expansion in the US,” the analysts said of eToro in their downgrade.
Read more: Citi still believes in crypto stocks despite bitcoin getting shaken up to end the year
