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How Coinbase is Blurring the Line Between Wall Street and Web3 | Markets Outlook
00:09:07
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- [00:00]
A
Now, over 8,000 stocks and ETFs are available for Coinbase users in the US to trade. 24. 5. What this means for the future is we've got a really exciting roadmap of people being able to blend seamlessly across different asset classes, starting, of course, of course, with crypto, but also including placing predictions, making buys and sells of equities and so on. And so we are really excited about it. We call it the Everything Exchange.
- [00:36]
B
Coinbase is making a major push beyond crypto, rolling out 24 or 5 stock and ETF trading to U.S. customers and laying the groundwork for tokenized equities, a move that could reshape how retail investors access public markets. Joining us now to break this down is Coinbase Head of Consumer and Platform Business Development, Mark Choinofsky. Hello.
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A
Hello. How are you?
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B
I'm doing well. How are you doing today?
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A
I'm great. Thanks for having me here.
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B
All right. There's this new product.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Your users are going to have access to stocks within the platform. Laying the groundwork, like I said, for tokenized stocks in the future. Talk to me about what this means for Coinbase moving forward.
- [01:10]
A
Well, so just to lay the groundwork back in December, we announced that we were going to be rolling out equities on Coinbase. We announced a 1% rollout of it, and last week we gave it to all of our users. So now over 8,000 stocks in ETFs are available for Coinbase users in the US to trade. 24. 5. What this means for the future is we've got a really exciting roadmap of people being able to blend seamlessly across different asset classes, starting, of course, of course, with crypto, but also including placing predictions, making buys and sells of equities and so on. And so we are really excited about it. We call it the Everything Exchange. It's a concept that we rolled out back at our event in December. And 2020, 2026 is going to be a big year for Coinbase.
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B
All right, this rolled out just about a week ago. Talk to me about how folks have been using it and what's the interest been like?
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A
Interest has been great. People love having all of these different assets in one place on one platform. You know, we have so much liquidity that's been built on the Exchange with crypto, and that liquidity is really starting to find a home in different asset classes and being able to be more interchangeable. And so interest with one weekend has been great. And we're seeing really strong adoption across our user Base here in the U.S.
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B
now, there's a partnership with Yahoo Finance that I want to talk about that allows folks who are researching stocks to just go directly to the Coinbase platform and start trading them. Talk to me a little bit about that user experience and then the integration.
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A
Yeah, so we are really excited about our partnership with Yahoo Finance. Yahoo Finance is actually the number one personal finance destination online. So it's a really, really huge platform. Tens of millions of people come to Yahoo Finance every single day to research what assets they should be buying or selling or trading. And you know, you mentioned equities, but it's actually not just limited to equities. So people on Yahoo Finance who are looking at crypto as well as equities will now see a little link for people to trade that asset on Coinbase. So that is available on thousands of equities as well as crypto assets. And that link takes them right to Coinbase to make a buy or a sell. So what we're doing is we're integrating the act of discovery, which is really, really important for retail traders as they get to know and understand the different assets that they may be interested in with action. And so this is a really cool one of a kind partnership and we're thrilled to be working with Yahoo on it.
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B
I know Brian Armstrong has been talking about AI agents and I want to get your perspective on if you think AI agents will be using this workflow to trade on behalf of people in the future. Is that something you're thinking about when you're releasing products like this?
- [03:56]
A
Well, you know, AI is so interesting. I'm actually glad you asked that, Jen, because like, there are so many amazing use cases. When you think about how an AI agent could use stablecoins in crypto, Rails like AI is not meant for sort of antiquated payment Rails like credit cards and ach. So these are structures that have been around for, you know, 50, 60, 70 years. So AI agents really want to have a wallet. It is much easier to program an AI agent to act on your behalf and transact on your behalf or trade on your behalf with a wallet with stablecoins. And so we see a lot of really terrific use cases coming out. You know, we've actually invested and incubated and explained Row two, which is a stablecoin native payments protocol for agentic commerce. And so it's actually not limited to equities. Like this is going to be real and realistic for AI agents to be using across all sorts of different use cases. So really excited about that.
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B
Now we're sitting here at the New York Stock Exchange. Recently the exchange announced that it will be developing a 24. 7 tokenized stock trading platform. Is this meant to compete with platforms like that? And what's your value prop to to users when there are so different entities looking at offering trading stocks 24. 5 or 24 7?
- [05:15]
A
Yeah, so we are not really looking to compete with traditional brokerages. Our sweet spot is really the bridge between the crypto economy and the traditional fiat economy. And we don't actually see a lot of brokerages doing that. So that's the role that Coinbase has to play in the ecosystem. And so what we're working on is, you know, we have already mastered crypto as an asset class. But if you zoom out, crypto isn't just an asset class, it's a rail. And so when we think about bringing equities to Coinbase or prediction markets to Coinbase or, you know, you name it, any other asset class to Coinbase in the future, we think about it not just as another asset class next to crypto, but the potential for these asset classes to be built on, on chain, native crypto Rails. Things move a lot faster, things move a lot more cheaply. And this is something that is truly one of a kind sort of set of things coming together on an exchange in the US that we just haven't seen before. So when it comes to what other folks are developing, you know, we love that people are innovating in this space with us. As the sandbox grows bigger, the opportunity for everybody grows bigger, whether it is institutions, retail investors as well as entrepreneurs building in the space. But what we're really excited about is being that bridge from on chain to off chain, tradfi to crypto. And that's really the space that we play in.
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B
You mentioned just now the idea of Coinbase being this Everything app. Our last guest was talking about Base being one of the big value add ons for, for Coinbase. Talk to me a little bit about the vision for the Everything app, because when I hear that, my mind immediately goes to WeChat being like the Everything app for Chinese users. And they literally live on that. It's social platform, it's their trading platform, it's their communications platform. Is, is that what Coinbase has in mind when you talk about the Everything app? Is this the app we're going to be spending all of our time on? Is it going to replace apps like Facebook and other apps we use like that?
- [07:22]
A
So when you think about what's happening culturally today, Everything is getting more financialized, and that is what's led to the rise of crypto as an asset class. But it started to make markets out of culture. It's this concept which I think is really interesting, and that's like what mean meme coin trading is really all about. But there's also a surge in prediction markets, too, and that is also very much a cultural phenomenon as much as it is a financial phenomenon. So people are starting to really view what's happening around them, not just from, like, a social lens. And that is, like you said, you know, the wechats, the Facebooks, the Instagrams, that's like the social lens on life around you. But people are starting to look more at applying a financial lens to life around us and culture around us. And that's really the space that we feel. The Everything app from Coinbase can have a right to win and a right to add value to people's lives. And so that's what we're really excited about with our version of what an Everything app means. I realize the term is used a lot, and like you said, you know, WeChat really mastered it, and a number of other apps have mastered it, but what we're really looking at is this financialization aspect and giving people one place to very easily and safely, in a very trusted manner, take on this new culture that's. That's developing around us. And so that's what we're really excited about when it comes to the Everything exchange.
- [08:52]
B
Mark, thanks so much for joining me. It was a pleasure.
- [08:55]
A
Thank you. Pleasure.
- [08:57]
B
That was Coinbase head of consumer and platform business development, Mark Chojnowski.