“Can Coinbase become the foundational crypto infrastructure layer — exchange, custody, stablecoin rails, developer APIs — for both consumers and the global financial system?”
Founded in 2012 as a simple Bitcoin wallet and exchange, Coinbase progressively expanded from consumer retail trading into institutional custody (2019), then went public in 2021 as the leading US crypto exchange. From 2023 onward the company pivoted toward being a crypto infrastructure provider — launching Base (L2 blockchain), the Coinbase Developer Platform with embedded wallet/stablecoin/payments APIs, and USDC-backed lending via Morpho. The embedded finance angle crystallised with CDP: Coinbase now sells its own compliance, custody, payments, and stablecoin infrastructure to third-party businesses as a developer platform, competing directly with BaaS providers in the crypto-native layer.