Webull Corporation (NASDAQ: BULL) wrapped up its
first full year as a publicly listed company with record revenue and customer
metrics across the board, though a sharp rise in spending, particularly on
marketing, kept quarterly profits under pressure.
The retail brokerage reported full-year revenue of $571
million, up 46% from the year before, driven by a 59% jump in trading-related
income. Net deposits hit $8.6 billion for the year, nearly doubling from $4.5
billion in 2024, a figure the company attributed to aggressive customer
acquisition campaigns.
Customer assets reached an all-time high of $24.6 billion by
the end of the fourth quarter, up 81% year-over-year.
Profit Turns Positive, but the Math Gets Complicated
After posting a net loss of $22.7 million in 2024, Webull
swung to a full-year net income of $24.8 million in 2025, an improvement of
$47.5 million. Adjusted net income, which strips out stock compensation,
currency swings and one-time items, came in at $84.2 million, up $76.3 million
from the prior year.
The fourth quarter told a somewhat different story. While Q4
revenue rose 50% year-over-year to $165.2 million, net income attributable to
the company fell sharply to $3 million from $10.8 million in the same period a
year ago.
The culprit was a 128% spike in marketing and branding
expenses during the quarter, from $23.4 million to $53.3 million, as the
company pushed hard to attract new deposits. Operating expenses as a whole rose
55% year-over-year in Q4, faster than revenues.
“We reported another quarter of strong financial
performance, particularly in our equities and options businesses, which
contributed to a significant full-year revenue increase,” said H.C. Wang,
Chief Financial Officer of Webull.
“We’re seeing robust returns on our… investment in
marketing, innovation and addressable market expansion and are confident that
we are positioning Webull to deliver lasting shareholder value.”
Trading Volumes Climb Across the Board
Active trading metrics reinforced the revenue narrative.
Daily average revenue trades (DARTs) hit 1.2 million in Q4, up 55%
year-over-year, while equity notional volume surged 87% to $239 billion in the
quarter. Options contract volume rose 38% to 154 million contracts in Q4, and
topped 550 million for the full year, a 19% annual increase.
Funded accounts, unique customers with money in a Webull
brokerage account, grew 8% year-over-year to just over 5 million. Registered
users on the broader platform climbed 15% to 26.8 million. Quarterly retention
rates held above 96%, which the company cited as evidence of platform
stickiness despite the competitive retail brokerage landscape.
For context, eToro reported $868 million in net contribution for 2025 with
3.8 million funded accounts, illustrating how differently two competing
retail platforms can look even when both are growing.
Webull’s funded account base is now comfortably larger,
though its revenue base remains well below eToro’s.
Global Push Spans Four Continents
Webull spent much of 2025 planting flags in new markets. The
company officially launched brokerage services in the Netherlands, giving it a
foothold inside the European Union, a move covered in depth when Webull launched its European operations with a new Dutch office
and license last September. The company has since obtained regulatory
licenses in four additional EU markets, though it has not yet launched publicly
in all of them.
In Asia, Webull entered into a distribution arrangement with
Meritz Financial Group, one of South Korea’s largest financial institutions, to
bring U.S. equity market access to Korean investors. The company also expanded its CQG futures infrastructure partnership to
Singapore, following similar deals in Hong Kong and Malaysia, building out
a shared technology backbone across Asia-Pacific. Outside the U.S., Webull now
counts more than 760,000 funded accounts, with Asia-Pacific customer assets
surpassing $3 billion.
In Australia, Webull launched cryptocurrency trading with
access to up to 240 digital assets, powered through a partnership with Coinbase
Prime. The company also officially relaunched crypto trading in the U.S.,
integrating its Webull Pay wallet directly into the main app.
Earlier in 2025, Webull’s UK operation added London-listed shares and cut U.S.
stock commissions to a flat $0.10 per trade as price competition
intensified across retail brokerage markets.
The company’s stock debuted on Nasdaq in April 2025 after
merging with blank-check company SK Growth Opportunities Corporation. Shares fell more than 70% from their initial post-listing high,
and the company’s per-share metrics remain complicated by a significant
expansion in share count following the conversion of preferred stock at the
time of listing.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
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