Coinbase is planning to develop a cryptocurrency app store for decentralized apps (dApps) using the blockchain, with an end goal of listing all legal assets and putting decision-making into the hands of users.
“We’re seeing crypto quickly mature from its initial use case of trading bitcoin to the trading of thousands of new assets, and the adoption of new use cases like Decentralized Finance (DeFi), NFTs, smart contracts, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), and more,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a blog post on Thursday (July 1).
“Much of this is relatively new and there are challenges to using it, but I see it as the future of where this industry is going,” Armstrong said in the post.
As more economic activity happens on cryptocurrency rails, Coinbase wants to be a more expansive bridge to the crypto economy, he said. Although centralized (CeFi) products will continue to drive expansion in that economy, decentralized will be a “major area of growth.”
The move aims to make it easier for new assets to join the exchange and extend more products to the global market. Eventually, all apps developed on decentralized crypto rails will be available on the Coinbase app.
“Apple didn’t attempt to build every app for the iPhone, it empowered developers and gave mobile users an easy way to access new innovative apps. We need to do the same in crypto,” said the post.
Coinbase also introduced a crypto savings account that starts with a 4 percent yield and works with the stablecoin known as the USD Coin (USDC). Account-holders would allow Coinbase to loan the assets to unidentified third parties, which could result in a total loss of holdings in the event of default. Coinbase already has a bitcoin lending product in place.
The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. recently launched the Coinbase Visa debit card that supports both Google Pay and Apple Pay. The card can be used to spend cryptocurrency for merchandise and bill payments.
