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Coinbase Wants Banks as Crypto Clients—and Prime Brokerage Rivals
Coinbase is pursuing two roles at once: infrastructure provider to banks and competitor for institutional crypto business. Its planned USDC custody role in Samsung Wallet gives the strategy a consumer facing example, while the Deribit integration broadens its derivatives ambitions.
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Key takeaways
- Coinbase is pursuing two roles at once: infrastructure provider to banks and competitor for institutional crypto business.
- Its planned USDC custody role in Samsung Wallet gives the strategy a consumer facing example, while the Deribit integration broadens its derivatives ambitions.
- Martin’s comments point to demand and expansion opportunities, but some product launches and U.S.
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openai.comCreate a landscape editorial hero image for this Studio Global article: How is Coinbase positioning itself as a crypto-infrastructure provider to traditional banks while expanding its rapidly growing Coinbase Pri. Article summary: Coinbase is positioning itself as both a supplier to banks entering digital assets and a competitor for their institutional clients. Liz Martin’s message at Token2049 was that growing demand for crypto and tokenization l. Topic tags: general, general web, news, user generated. Style: premium digital editorial illustration, source-backed research mood, clean composition, high detail, modern web publication hero. Use reference image context only for broad subject, composition, and topical grounding; do not copy the exact image. Avoid: logos, brand marks, copyrighted characters, real person likenesses, fake screenshots, UI text, readable text, watermarks, charts w
Coinbase is betting that it can help traditional banks build digital-asset services while competing with them for institutional customers. At Token2049 in Singapore, Coinbase Institutional leader Liz Martin pointed to continuing demand for crypto and tokenization. Prime’s reported $15.2 billion-plus in institutional assets gives that strategy scale—but the figure is not revenue. 17
Why Coinbase sees banks as customers and competitors
As banks develop digital-asset offerings, Coinbase is positioning itself as infrastructure they can use, even as its own institutional business competes for clients. Martin’s view is that these roles can coexist: banks may compete for end customers and still rely on outside providers for parts of their digital-asset operations.
That approach reflects a broader bet on institutional adoption rather than a choice between serving banks and competing with them. Martin described demand for crypto assets and tokenization as growing, citing greater regulatory clarity and transparency as contributing factors. 17
What Prime’s reported asset figure says—and doesn’t say
Coinbase Prime is presented as an institutional offering that brings together trading functionality and services such as custody and staking. Martin described the prime-brokerage business as growing rapidly. The reported $15.2 billion-plus in institutional assets indicates the scale of assets associated with the business; it should not be mistaken for Prime’s revenue.
Coinbase is also competing in a market where crypto prime brokerages and banks are expanding their digital-asset services. The company’s strategy is to make its infrastructure useful to institutions even as its Prime business pursues the same broader institutional opportunity.
Samsung Wallet offers a concrete infrastructure use case
Coinbase is set to provide custody for USDC balances in Samsung Wallet, where USDC is planned as the default dollar stablecoin. Samsung says the U.S. feature is scheduled to launch in the last week of October 2026; it is a planned rollout, not a service already live. 1
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The partnership shows how Coinbase’s institutional infrastructure could support a stablecoin experience delivered through another company’s consumer wallet. It does not, by itself, establish how much business the arrangement will generate for Prime. 1
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Deribit broadens Coinbase’s trading ambitions
Coinbase has completed its integration of Deribit and is working to connect U.S. and international derivatives liquidity. The company has also outlined plans to expand options access for Prime clients and U.S. retail customers. These plans signal a wider derivatives push, but should be distinguished from products already available to every customer.
Coinbase has also said it plans to bring back a revamped Coinbase Pro by year-end.
Regulation and geography shape the next phase
The Senate’s failure to advance the Coinbase-backed Clarity Act did not, Martin said, change Coinbase’s plans for the following year. Separately, the SEC’s conditional five-year exemption creates a route for qualifying platforms to facilitate tokenized-stock trading. Coinbase had not announced a U.S. launch date for its own tokenized stocks in the reporting provided here.
Coinbase’s reported plans for a Singapore office and significant Asia-Pacific investment point to continued international expansion as it pursues institutional demand across markets. Together, the regulatory developments and overseas investment help explain why the company is building both bank-facing infrastructure and a broader Prime business—without assuming that every announced product or opportunity has already reached the market.
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What is the short answer to "Coinbase Wants Banks as Crypto Clients—and Prime Brokerage Rivals"?
Coinbase is pursuing two roles at once: infrastructure provider to banks and competitor for institutional crypto business.
What are the key points to validate first?
Coinbase is pursuing two roles at once: infrastructure provider to banks and competitor for institutional crypto business. Its planned USDC custody role in Samsung Wallet gives the strategy a consumer facing example, while the Deribit integration broadens its derivatives ambitions.
What should I do next in practice?
Martin’s comments point to demand and expansion opportunities, but some product launches and U.S.