Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has outlined ambitious plans to move every step of a startup’s journey to blockchain, from inception to fundraising to public trading.
On the TBPN podcast, Armstrong explained his vision for an on-chain lifecycle where founders can incorporate startups, raise a seed round, receive instant funding in USDC, and ultimately go public through tokenized shares.
“You can imagine this whole lifecycle being on-chain,” he said, adding that such a change “could increase the number of companies raising capital and starting operations around the world.”
Armstrong said that by being able to raise funds instantly through on-chain smart contracts, startups will no longer need banks or lawyers to process global money transfers. Once capital arrives, founders can start generating revenue, accept cryptocurrency payments, access funding, and even take their company public directly on-chain.
Related: Coinbase CEO reveals that “private transactions” will be introduced to Base
Realize on-chain funding
Coinbase’s CEO said the fundraising process is currently “pretty cumbersome.” He proposed on-chain funding to leverage Coinbase’s recently acquired funding platform Echo to make capital formation “more efficient, fairer, and more transparent.”
Echo, now part of Coinbase, has already helped more than 200 projects raise more than $200 million. Armstrong said the company will initially operate independently but will gradually integrate with the Coinbase ecosystem, giving founders access to $5 trillion in assets under custody and a global investor base.
“If we can get good builders who want to raise money to come in and connect them with investors who have the money, we have the perfect platform to accelerate this,” he said.
Coinbase stock ended Friday up about 10%. Source: Google Finance
Coinbase is also working with US regulators to enable broader access to on-chain funding. Armstrong argued that current accredited investor rules exclude many individuals from early-stage opportunities.
“In many ways, the accredited investor rules are kind of unfair,” he says. “We look forward to finding the right balance of consumer protections and delivering these to retailers as well.”
Related: Coinbase spends $25 million to revive Last Bull Market podcast
JP Morgan sees $34 billion opportunity in Coinbase base
Last week, JPMorgan Chase upgraded Coinbase to “overweight”, citing strong growth potential from the Base network and revised USDC rewards strategy.
Analysts said Coinbase is “leaning” toward base layer 2 blockchain to capture more value from platform expansions. They estimate that a potential Base token launch could create a market opportunity of $12 billion to $34 billion, with Coinbase’s share worth $4 billion to $12 billion.
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