Real-World Assets and New Derivatives at the Forefront
Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of the prominent U.S. crypto exchange, has outlined eight key sectors it intends to support in 2026. This strategic focus signals the firm's expectations for emerging breakout startups and protocols within the cryptocurrency space, with a significant emphasis on AI integration and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.
A substantial portion of the 2026 roadmap is dedicated to RWA markets and novel derivative instruments linked to them. The firm anticipates considerable growth in RWA-based perpetual futures, enabling traders to gain synthetic exposure to off-chain assets like commodities, credit, and macro benchmarks through on-chain mechanisms. According to Coinbase Ventures investor Kinji Steimetz, these products are poised to become a crucial bridge between traditional finance and on-chain liquidity, allowing access to real-world markets without deviating from crypto rails.
The underlying principle is that as the tokenization of assets such as bonds and treasuries scales, the demand for derivatives built upon these RWAs will increase, extending beyond simple spot exposure.
Specialized Trading Venues, Proprietary AMMs, and Prediction Markets
Beyond RWAs, Coinbase Ventures is also targeting specialized trading venues and infrastructure rather than generalized, all-encompassing platforms. This strategic direction includes the development of next-generation exchanges and trading terminals tailored for specific asset classes or structures, moving away from conventional order book models.
Furthermore, the firm is interested in "Prop-AMMs" (proprietary automated market makers). These represent new AMM designs intended to shield liquidity providers from exploitation by sophisticated traders and MEV bots. These advanced systems are expected to offer greater configurability and security compared to current open AMM curves.
Coinbase Ventures also identifies an opportunity in prediction market aggregators, which function as meta-layers that consolidate liquidity and odds from various platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket. Investor Jonathan King posits that a dominant interface could emerge, unifying fragmented open interest totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. This would provide traders with a consolidated view of real-time event probabilities across multiple venues.
The Next Evolution of DeFi: Integrated Perps, Lending, and Reputation Systems
Coinbase Ventures predicts that the subsequent phase of decentralized finance (DeFi) will diverge from the yield-driven frenzy observed in 2020–2021. A key theme highlighted is integrated DeFi, which involves the tight coupling of perpetual futures exchanges and lending protocols.
Investor Ethan Oak emphasizes that unifying systems where traders can post collateral, earn yield on that collateral, and maintain leverage within a single framework significantly enhances capital efficiency when contrasted with today's fragmented models.
Another area of focus is the integration of on-chain reputation with off-chain data for lending purposes. King anticipates the emergence of protocols that leverage credit histories, cash-flow data, or behavioral signals alongside blockchain activity to facilitate large-scale unsecured borrowing. The U.S. market for revolving, unsecured credit alone is valued in the trillions of dollars, and Coinbase Ventures believes that crypto-native models are well-positioned to compete in this arena.
This strategic timing aligns with a sector-wide reset. The total value locked in DeFi remains considerably below its 2021 peak, creating an environment conducive to the development of more sustainable designs rather than simply reverting to previous strategies.
Infrastructure for Privacy and Compliance
Privacy-preserving infrastructure is identified as another foundational element of the 2026 investment thesis. Coinbase Ventures observes increasing developer activity in areas such as confidential transactions, privacy-focused assets, and zero-knowledge tooling. These technologies are expected to enable more complex on-chain activities without compromising sensitive information.
Concurrently, the firm continues to support the development of compliance-focused infrastructure for DeFi. This includes tools designed to assist protocols in operating within regulatory frameworks while maintaining composability. The firm’s recent investment in 0xbow, a DeFi compliance platform, exemplifies this commitment.
Artificial Intelligence, DePIN, and Proof of Humanity
The final cluster of investment themes centers on artificial intelligence (AI) and data management. Steimetz highlights a notable gap in training data for robotics and embodied AI systems, where high-quality physical interaction data remains fragmented. Coinbase Ventures foresees a significant role for DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure networks) in this domain, utilizing token incentives to crowdsource and aggregate such data at scale.
Hoolie Tejwani, Head of Coinbase Ventures, points to "proof of humanity" solutions as another area of keen interest. These systems combine biometrics, cryptography, and open standards to differentiate humans from AI-generated agents and content. Given the proliferation of synthetic media and bots, identity and authenticity layers are considered critical for both consumer-facing and financial applications.
Furthermore, the firm is monitoring agentic AI tools that can assist non-technical founders in building on-chain applications. King suggests that by 2026, AI agents could manage tasks ranging from smart contract generation and security checks to deployment and monitoring, thereby significantly reducing the barrier to entry for launching crypto-native products.
A Leading Venture Capital Force in the Industry
Since its inception, Coinbase Ventures has established itself as one of the most active investors in the cryptocurrency sector. Data from PitchBook, as cited in the firm's update, indicates that Coinbase Ventures has completed 618 investments since 2018 and currently holds stakes in 422 startups.
Recent notable transactions include investments in:
- •0xbow (DeFi compliance) in November
- •Zynk and ZAR (payments infrastructure)
- •Kalshi (regulated prediction markets)
The firm reports that it is actively sourcing and backing teams across all eight of its identified focus areas for 2026. Coinbase Ventures views this framework as a strategic guide to identifying what it believes will be the next generation of breakout companies and protocols.