Yes, you're not completely wrong, but there will be fewer people saying "I have $10k." In the current market conditions.
That's only part of the trading though. Volatility isn't measured in that way either, so as volatility goes down-- or stays the same as coin prices go down-- Coinbase still loses money. It's usually measure in the % of the coin traded. So volatility could remain stable at, say, 2% but when the dollar denominated market cap is 50% lower than it was 6 months ago then Coinbase is collecting 50% less in fees. In order for revenue to remain the same, volatility would have to double.
People that had $10k invested already and kept it in the market now have much less than $10k. They may still have 10 ETH depending on when they bought in, but when they trade those ETH Coinbase is making 75% lower in fees than if they traded them 12 months ago.
Coinbase simply cannot make the same revenue in dollar denominated fees when the dollar denominated value of those trades goes down, and it has gone down a lot.
that’s true, volume driven by money already in the system will fall due to prices going down.
volume driven by new money coming in will be reduced by the phenomenon i mentioned (price down, less hype, less money coming in).
So if we break volume down in 2 groups the first would experience what you’re saying and the second would experience what i’m saying. It’s the same with stocks but to a much lesser extent, especially because 401ks and institutions are required to buy no matter what
rather than “i wanna buy 1 bitcoin, regardless of price”.
atleast that’s how i think of things. in terms of dollars invested. not coins desired.
same with stocks. i say i wanna 5k in Coke stock, not 121 shares.