In brief
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said that the exchange is aiming to scale up its offerings in stablecoins and payments in 2026.
- Armstrong also declared that Coinbase is aiming to become the biggest financial app in the world, and that it wants to expand blockchain adoption globally.
- Industry commentators suggest that such aims may be unrealistic within a single year, but that Coinbase has a key role to play in onboarding newcomers to crypto.
Crypto exchange Coinbase is aiming to scale up its stablecoin offerings and increase onchain adoption worldwide in 2026, according to CEO and founder Brian Armstrong.
In New Year’s Day tweet, Armstrong declared that the company’s overarching aim is to make Coinbase “the #1 financial app in the world.”
The post unpacked how Coinbase aims to move closer to this goal in 2026, with the company focusing on scaling stablecoins and payments, while also expanding its presence globally in crypto, equities, prediction markets and commodities.
Armstrong also affirmed that the exchange will be making “major investments” in automation and product quality, and that it will harness its Ethereum layer-2 network Base and Base App to “bring the world onchain.”
The post follows a similar New Year’s Eve update from David Duong, Coinbase’s Global Head of Investment Research, who argued that regulatory clarity and institutional adoption “are converging to make crypto part of the financial core.”
Duong also highlighted the role of spot crypto ETFs, stablecoins and tokenization in driving growth and adoption, suggesting that these factors will combine in 2026 “as ETF approval timelines compress, stablecoins take a larger role in delivery-vs-payment (DvP) structures, and tokenized collateral is recognized more broadly across traditional transactions.”
These remarks also come a couple of months after Coinbase posted better-than-expected Q3 financial results, which reported a 26% quarter-on-quarter increase in revenue, at $1.9 billion.
September also brought news that the exchange is considering launching a native token for Base, although it clarified that there is no definite timeline for any such potential launch.
How achievable are Coinbase’s goals?
While Coinbase did have a positive 2025, some industry commentators suggest that Brian Armstrong’s latest tweet may have been intentionally hyperbolic, and should be taken perhaps more as a long-term strategy than as goals for this year.
“Coinbase’s aims are directionally sound but overstate near-term feasibility; true adoption hinges on solving real problems, not just moving users onchain for its own sake,” said Anndy Lian, an intergovernmental blockchain advisor and currently the Chief Digital Advisor at the Mongolia Productivity Organization.
Speaking to Decrypt, Lian agreed that Coinbase is a “critical onramp” for retail and institutions, but that its stated aim of ‘bringing the world onchain’ oversimplifies the drawn-out process of adoption.
Coinbase’s strengths lie in infrastructure such as custody and fiat rails, rather than “building these vertical applications,” he said, adding that the exchange’s aims “are realistic only if they enable others’ use cases—not lead them.”
Having said that, Lian’s prediction for the wider cryptocurrency industry is that there will be a reemphasis on “user-centric utility” in 2026.
“After the speculative excesses of previous cycles, 2026 will prioritize relatable, non-speculative applications,” he explained, pointing to examples such as travel platforms using crypto for seamless cross-border rewards, supply chain tracking for ethical sourcing, and healthcare data interoperability via permissioned chains.
Lian also suggested that 2026 will see enterprise adoption mature in finance (e.g. tokenized assets), healthcare (e.g. secure patient records) and supply chains (e.g. provenance verification), but that, ultimately, success depends on interoperability and regulation.
Coinbase has been contacted for comment.
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