Brian Armstrong, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, gave the crypto community a sneak peek into what the future of Coinbase would look like while on stage at Techcrunch Disrupt this week.
The popular cryptocurrency exchange, which lets users trade fiat to crypto and serves as the entry point for most new entrants into the cryptocurrency space, is set to add support for more cryptocurrencies and tokens in the future.
Armstrong predicted the current trend of tokenization is likely to continue with almost every organization creating their own tokens in the future. He said:
It makes sense that any company out there who has a cap table… should have their own token. Every open source project, every charity, potentially every fund or these new types of decentralized organizations [and] apps, they’re all going to have their own tokens.
According to Armstrong, Coinbase plans to make it easy for individuals throughout the world to swap their local currencies for crypto. He believes the ecosystem’s growth will see it grow from 40 million users to over one billion in the future.
We want to be the bridge all over the world where people come and they take fiat currency and they can get it into these different cryptocurrencies.
What this means is that could potentially be hundreds of tokens listed on Coinbase in “years,” and even “millions” in the future. The company currently has 5 listed cryptos, far less than other top exchanges like Binance and Bitfinex. Coinbase has been slow to add more tokens due to regulatory issues concerning the listing of security tokens in the U.S.
The exchange is, however, now looking to add said tokens. The CEO revealed that they believe most of the new tokens could would be listing will be seen as security tokens. To achieve this purpose, the exchange recently acquired Keystone capital, a FINRA-registered broker-dealer based in California.
The acquisition of Keystone capital gives Coinbase the option of using it as an additional trading platform, specifically for security tokens. This would eliminate problems with authorities as it would list the tokens in a regulatory-compliant manner.
If Coinbase does list hundreds of tokens in the future, it could end up being on the same level as large traditional stock exchanges like Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Per Armstrong, the number of people in the crypto ecosystem could hit one billion in the next five years.
