coincodex.com
Key highlights:
- Coinbase Ventures maps out nine high-potential sectors for the next crypto surge
- New trends in DeFi, AI, and real-world assets could reshape 2026 markets
- The investment roadmap reveals where major new crypto players may emerge
Coinbase Ventures has outlined its investment priorities for 2026, signaling a major push into nine sectors it believes will define the next era of crypto growth. The firm plans to back startups working at the intersection of real-asset trading, decentralized finance, and artificial intelligence.
Where Coinbase Ventures sees the biggest opportunities
In a recent blog post, the company said it is actively looking for teams building in the following areas:
- Perpetual futures on real assets
- New types of specialized crypto exchanges
- Advanced trading terminals
- Proprietary automated market makers
- Prediction market aggregators to unify fragmented liquidity
- Integrating perpetual futures with DeFi lending protocols
- Blockchain privacy tools
- DeFi protocols using on-chain reputation and off-chain data for unsecured lending
- AI-powered tools for non-technical founders
Coinbase Ventures believes the next wave of major protocols and companies will likely come from these categories.
Since launching in 2018, the venture arm has made 618 investments and now holds stakes in 422 startups, according to PitchBook. Recent deals include the DeFi compliance project 0xbow in November and the payments-focused startups Zynk and ZAR, as well as the prediction-market platform Kalshi.
Coinbase Ventures’ October–November investments dominated by AI and DeFi. Source: PitchBook
The next generation of DeFi, AI, and real-world asset access
New forms of exposure to real-world assets — particularly through perpetual futures are expected to expand as synthetic markets grow. These instruments give investors access to off-chain asset performance without traditional intermediaries.
Proprietary automated market makers are emerging as a new exchange design aimed at protecting liquidity providers from sophisticated traders and bots.
Meanwhile, prediction-market aggregators are set to become a dominant interface layer by consolidating roughly $600 million in liquidity and offering a unified view of real-time event probabilities.
A new phase for DeFi and AI-driven innovation
DeFi is also expected to evolve as perpetual futures integrate with lending protocols, allowing traders to earn yield on collateral while keeping leveraged positions open.
Growing interest in privacy-preserving tools, including renewed energy around assets like Zcash, suggests a coming surge in cryptographic privacy solutions.
Another major opportunity lies in unsecured lending. DeFi protocols that merge blockchain reputation with off-chain data could tap into the U.S. market for $1.3 trillion in revolving unsecured credit, offering better capital efficiency and wider accessibility.
On the AI side, Coinbase Ventures highlights gaps in robotics and embodied-AI training, where high-quality datasets are scarce. Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) may help scale the collection of real-world interaction data.
“Proof of humanity” systems, combining biometrics, cryptographic signatures, and open standards, are also expected to grow as the need to distinguish human content from AI-generated content becomes more urgent.
Finally, AI-based agent tools could democratize blockchain development by enabling non-technical founders to build, audit, and deploy smart-contract systems instantly. Coinbase Ventures believes these tools could help unlock an entirely new wave of entrepreneurs in 2026.
Coinbase Ventures’ roadmap suggests a maturing crypto industry increasingly focused on practical use cases, real-world integration, and next-generation technologies.