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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong reflects on the past decade of the cryptocurrency industry, highlighting his initial expectation that payments would be the primary application for crypto. Instead, trading became the dominant force. Looking ahead, Armstrong remains optimistic about the future of crypto payments, citing advancements in stablecoins, layer two technologies, and simpler onboarding processes as key factors that could drive growth in the next decade.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Reflects on a Decade of Crypto Evolution
Brian Armstrong, the CEO of crypto exchange Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN), shared on social media platform X on Monday his thoughts on the evolution of the cryptocurrency industry over the past decade.
Reflecting on the early days of crypto, Armstrong highlighted how his initial expectations for the growth of crypto payments did not play out as anticipated, with trading instead becoming the dominant force in the market. The Coinbase CEO opined: “It’s funny to look back on how I thought payments was going to be the first killer app for crypto, and it turned out trading was the best business in crypto for the first 10 years.”
Looking forward, the Coinbase executive remains optimistic about the future of crypto payments, stating:
I think payments will probably take off in the second 10 years.
The Coinbase CEO pointed out that the infrastructure for crypto payments is steadily improving and that adoption has already begun, as indicated by the increasing stablecoin payment volume. He explained: “Now that we have stablecoins (USDC), layer 2 (Base), human readable names (ENS), and simpler onboarding (Smart Wallets). It has already started if you look at stablecoin payment volume.”
Armstrong also emphasized the importance of learning and evolving in the crypto space, calling it a “good example of bias for action and iterating based on customer feedback,” and further noting that “action produces information.”