Coinbase Aims to Be Top Financial App, Scales Stablecoins in 2026

In a New Year’s Day declaration, Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong framed 2026 as a pivotal year for the company’s evolution. The overarching mission is to make Coinbase “the #1 financial app in the world.” To achieve this, Armstrong outlined a multi-pronged strategy focusing on scaling the company’s stablecoin and payments operations. This expansion is not limited to crypto; Armstrong stated Coinbase aims to grow its global presence across traditional asset classes like equities, prediction markets, and commodities.

The plan involves “major investments” in automation and product quality. A key technological lever will be the company’s Ethereum layer-2 network, Base, and its associated Base App, which Armstrong intends to use to “bring the world onchain.” This vision of widespread onchain adoption was echoed by David Duong, Coinbase’s Global Head of Investment Research. In a separate year-end update, Duong argued that regulatory clarity and institutional adoption “are converging to make crypto part of the financial core.” He highlighted spot crypto ETFs, stablecoins, and tokenization as critical growth drivers, predicting their convergence in 2026 as ETF approvals accelerate and stablecoins gain prominence in delivery-vs-payment structures.

Armstrong’s ambitious roadmap follows a period of robust performance for the exchange. In Q3 of 2025, Coinbase posted better-than-expected financial results, reporting revenue of $1.9 billion—a 26% increase quarter-on-quarter. This financial strength provides a foundation for the planned investments. Furthermore, the company has explored launching a native token for its Base network, though it has clarified there is no definitive timeline for such a move.

However, industry commentators suggest Armstrong’s vision, while directionally sound, may overstate near-term feasibility. Anndy Lian, an intergovernmental blockchain advisor and Chief Digital Advisor at the Mongolia Productivity Organization, told Decrypt that the aim of ‘bringing the world onchain’ oversimplifies a drawn-out adoption process. “Coinbase’s aims are realistic only if they enable others’ use cases—not lead them,” Lian stated. He praised Coinbase as a “critical onramp” for retail and institutional users but noted its core strengths lie in infrastructure like custody and fiat rails, rather than in building vertical applications.

Lian’s analysis suggests Armstrong’s tweet might be intentionally hyperbolic, serving more as a statement of long-term strategy than a literal set of goals for 2026. The key, according to Lian, is that true adoption “hinges on solving real problems, not just moving users onchain for its own sake.”

Looking beyond Coinbase’s specific plans, Lian predicted that 2026 will see the wider cryptocurrency industry reemphasize “user-centric utility.” He explained that after the speculative cycles of the past, the coming year will prioritize “relatable, non-speculative applications.” Examples include travel platforms using crypto for seamless cross-border rewards, supply chain tracking for ethical sourcing, and healthcare data interoperability via permissioned blockchains.

This shift toward utility is expected to drive mature enterprise adoption in key sectors. Lian highlighted finance (through tokenized assets), healthcare (for secure patient records), and supply chains (for provenance verification) as primary areas for growth. The successful realization of this vision, however, is contingent on two critical factors: technical interoperability between different blockchain systems and supportive regulatory frameworks. David Duong’s commentary aligns with this, underscoring that regulatory clarity is a necessary precursor for the institutional adoption needed to integrate crypto into the financial mainstream.

Thus, Coinbase’s 2026 ambition sits at the intersection of aggressive corporate strategy and broader industry maturation. While the goal of becoming the planet’s top financial app within a year faces skepticism, the company’s focus on scaling stablecoins, leveraging Base, and improving core infrastructure positions it to capitalize on the trends experts predict will define the year: a turn toward practical utility and deepening enterprise integration.