Crypto: Coinbase Bets on 9 Tech Trends That Could Redefine the Market

Coinbase Ventures has just unveiled its investment strategy for 2026, outlining the strong points of a changing Web3 ecosystem. Nine key areas have been identified, revealing the sectors where capital could soon flow. More than a simple manifesto, this roadmap lays out the technological and economic bets of one of the most influential players in the crypto industry, a strong signal sent to developers, investors, and builders of the decentralized web.

Towards a new generation of crypto use cases

While the exchange prepares a prediction markets platform, Coinbase Ventures summarizes its intentions for the coming years in a blog post “we believe a wide range of use cases will emerge thanks to on-chain infrastructure”.

The first highlighted focus concerns the tokenization of real-world assets, a growing trend the company wants to propel to a new phase. One objective is to develop RWA markets accompanied by derivatives such as “RWA perpetuals”, aiming to create more sophisticated and liquid exposure vehicles.

This strategy also includes support for “specialized exchanges and trading terminals” necessary for these types of products. The announced action plan relies on nine priority investment areas covering a wide range of use cases and infrastructure :

• The tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) and the creation of associated derivatives;
• Specialized exchanges and advanced trading terminals;
• Next-generation DeFi, including loans, borrowing, and derivatives;
• Artificial intelligence tools to facilitate on-chain creation;
• Decentralized physical networks (DePIN);
• “Proof of humanity” systems for human identity verification;
• New or reinvented on-chain social applications;
• New native crypto payment protocols;
• Development primitives accessible to non-programmers.

Since 2018, Coinbase Ventures has made 618 investments and currently supports more than 422 startups. This roadmap confirms its role as a structuring investor in the ecosystem, capable of detecting and amplifying the faint signals of crypto innovation.

Infrastructure and AI at the heart of an expanded technological vision

A second pillar of this investment strategy rests on improving the conditions for on-chain development. Coinbase Ventures indicates its desire to “support tools and primitives that make it easier to create new on-chain applications, including by non-developers”.

Such openness is reinforced by a marked interest in artificial intelligence tools intended to generate content or code directly on the blockchain. The convergence between AI and Web3 is thus presented not as a secondary bet but as a driver of adoption.

Support for decentralized physical networks (DePIN) and human identity verification solutions suggests an extension of the scope to both social and technical issues.

According to Coinbase, these innovations could fit into a perspective where “users are incentivized to contribute to open-source protocols” through reward mechanisms, thus linking infrastructure, incentives, and usage. This positioning places the company as an active observer of the reshaping of business models and governance in the crypto ecosystem.

By betting on varied areas ranging from tokenization to AI, Coinbase affirms its desire to sustainably influence the foundations of Web3. This multi-layered strategy could redefine technological priorities and attract new players around a shaping ecosystem.