Coinbase embraces decentralization, will speed up asset review and build a crypto app store

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong published a blog post on Tuesday saying that decentralized finance (DeFi) is the future of the industry.

Coinbase wants to add assets to the platform faster, expand the geographic scope of its services, and build a crypto app store similar to Apple’s to give customers easy access to DApps.

Armstrong wrote in the post, “Apple empowers developers and provides mobile users with an easy way to access new innovative applications. We need to do the same in crypto. Billions of dollars of economic activity are now running on DApps, and a new trend emerges every three months. We will work to make all of this easily accessible to our users from Coinbase’s main product.”

He said that in the near future, Coinbase will reduce the legal review it conducts for evaluating asset issuers from 70 questions to 12 and create a more efficient compliance and security review process.

Coinbase will also build out a “New Asset Experimental Zone” to ensure the company can provide customers with a more comprehensive risk picture, and take steps to give users access to basic wallet functionality for most assets, with customers also having the option to self-custody their cryptocurrencies in the Coinbase app.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Armstrong described how his cryptocurrency exchange will meet the growing demand for DeFi products and services.

“We are seeing crypto rapidly mature, with thousands of new assets traded and new use cases adopted, including DeFi, NFTs, smart contracts, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and more,” he wrote.

He promised to launch more products into new international markets while still working with regulators, saying that “users of the Coinbase app will have access to any application built on decentralized crypto rails. Customers’ wallets and identities should be seamlessly integrated into these applications.”

The crypto economy is growing at an incredible pace and will continue to accelerate. Just like the internet or mobile app stores, developers are scrambling to develop new use cases using new tools.

Armstrong concluded the post by writing, “This effort ties into our mission to increase economic freedom around the world. Many of the most innovative crypto use cases are being created in decentralized applications. By fully embracing this trend, we can put cryptocurrency in the hands of more people around the world, increasing their economic freedom.”