On June 12, 2025, Coinbase’s third "State of Crypto" summit brought together industry leaders, policymakers, and financial giants. Against the backdrop of Bitcoin breaking the historical high of $112,000, CEO Brian Armstrong focused on the theme "Build the Future of Money," addressing the pain points of the global financial system: the exponential growth of government debt, inflation eroding national economies, and the continuous decline in economic freedom. He declared: "The world needs encryption, especially now."
Crypto Adoption in Three Stages: From Asset Tokenization to Reshaping the Internet
The core framework proposed by Armstrong reveals the path of encryption technology consuming traditional finance:
- Investment Platform Stage (Current Focus): Expanding from Bitcoin to the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), with RWA scale expected to surge 200 times by 2024, and on-chain assets surpassing $20 billion. Assets such as gold, government bonds, and stocks are accelerating their tokenization, and after integrating the Deribit exchange, Coinbase is expanding the derivatives trading landscape to include compliant futures and options.
- Financial Infrastructure Reconstruction Stage: Going beyond interface optimization to build a new underlying system. This includes:
- USDC Payment Network: Monthly settlement volume reaching $1 trillion, partnering with Shopify to achieve on-chain settlement on Base and adding 1% cash back
- Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Bitcoin collateralized loans, low-friction stablecoin payments
- Enterprise Entry Coinbase Business: Providing crypto asset management and global payment tools for small and medium-sized enterprises
- Next Generation Internet Platforms (Web3): Decentralized identity, social, and prediction markets moving into the mainstream, with value flowing directly to creators. New sectors such as DeSci (Decentralized Science) and DePIN (Distributed Physical Infrastructure Network) are emerging, reshaping the internet’s power distribution mechanism.
Coinbase Strategic Panorama: Products, Data and Payments Launch Together
The summit simultaneously released key tactical layouts, targeting three phases for implementation:
- Payment Revolution: Coinbase One credit card (in collaboration with American Express) offers a 4% Bitcoin reward for spending, strengthening fiat and encryption channels; cross-border payment agreements (such as SAP/Deal) use USDC for settlement.
- Data Engine: In July, a partnership was established with the AI search engine Perplexity, integrating real-time market data in phases (including COIN50 index), providing a "conversational analysis interface." Armstrong emphasized, "The complete integration of crypto wallets with large language models (LLM) will open up a permissionless digital economy."
- User Asset Accumulation: The platform’s staked assets surged from $4 billion to $15 billion; USDC holdings increased 12 times over the year (to $12 billion).
Policy Turning Point: National Bitcoin Reserves and SEC Personnel Reshuffle
President Trump sent a powerful signal through a summit video:
- Plans to promote national-level Bitcoin reserves via an executive order, establishing a digital asset task force
- Former SEC official Paul Atkins being nominated as SEC Chairman, interpreted as a key measure for regulatory easing
This move echoes the policy shift at the White House Crypto Summit in March, aiming to establish the United States’ global leadership in digital assets. Coinbase subsequently announced the addition of 1,000 jobs in the U.S. in response to the compliance dividend.
AI + Crypto: The Dual Engines of the Next Growth
The summit did not elaborate but quickly landed on the direction - the integration of AI and encryption became the focus in July:
- The partnership with Perplexity indicates that real-time on-chain data can train AI models, improving the accuracy of trading decisions.
- Bitcoin’s new highs coincide with a year-on-year increase in Google search interest, with a surge in demand for AI-driven data analysis.
Armstrong predicts: "Enhanced encryption functionality will be a catalyst for AI achieving 10x growth."
Conclusion: From Marginal Experiment to Financial New Infrastructure
As national-level Bitcoin reserves enter the policy agenda and traditional financial giant BlackRock deeply integrates into the Coinbase ecosystem, encryption technology has transformed from a disruptor into a new foundation for economic freedom. The core logic revealed by the summit—Tokenization, disintermediated settlement, and creators’ economy rights confirmation—is reconstructing the global value network in a three-phase pathway.
As of the end of July, Bitcoin stabilized at $108,000 amid continuous inflow of institutional funds, the TVL of the Base chain ranked sixth among public chains, and the user growth rate of Perplexity data services reached 45% month-on-month. This process, which began with investment, flourished in finance, and ultimately led to the internet revolution, has just begun to peel back a corner.
