Speaker 1: Hey, folks. We're at Coinbase's State of Crypto's summit, and
Speaker 1: joining me is Max Brandsberg, who's the VP of Product
Speaker 1: at Coinbase. Max, great to see you, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: So Max, tell us bit about yourself and what you
Speaker 1: do at coinbase.
Speaker 2: So I lead our consumer and business products at Coinbase.
Speaker 2: I've been at coinbase for about seven years, which you
Speaker 2: can imagine. Over that time at Coinbase, I've done a
Speaker 2: whole lot of different things. I actually joined to start
Speaker 2: our corporate development and ventures team, initially doing M and
Speaker 2: A and investments we did. We've now done over five
Speaker 2: hundred investments out of our Coinbase Ventures team. But most
Speaker 2: of the time I've been at Coinbase, I've been leading
Speaker 2: our product teams in consumer and business products. That includes
Speaker 2: our main Coinbase app, our Coinbase Advanced platform, Coinbase for Business,
Speaker 2: our payments efforts, our stable coin efforts, and everything facing
Speaker 2: individuals and businesses.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Seven years in crypto, seven years at Coinbase.
Speaker 1: I was an early coinbas users has seeing the company
Speaker 1: grow and mature, and obviously you having a big hand
Speaker 1: in getting the product up to par with kind of
Speaker 1: matching trad fi, getting the proper on rams for adoption.
Speaker 1: So tell us what are some of the latest features
Speaker 1: that you guys have rolled out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, over that time, we've made a lot of progress.
Speaker 2: When I started working on the product, I think we
Speaker 2: had four assets listed for trading and we were available
Speaker 2: in a handful of countries. So over the last several
Speaker 2: years we've accelerated asset listings dramatically. We now have hundreds
Speaker 2: of assets available for trading. We've expanded countries dramatically, so
Speaker 2: we have people trading in over one hundred countries around
Speaker 2: the world. Recently, we've been investing heavily in our advanced
Speaker 2: platform that's Coinbase Advance, which you can access directly in
Speaker 2: the main Coinbase app, and within that advanced platform you
Speaker 2: can trade spot and futures. In the US, you can
Speaker 2: trade CFGC regulated futures of crypto and non crypto futures
Speaker 2: as well. And then outside the US, we have international
Speaker 2: Exchange where you can trade Purpse, and we've continued to
Speaker 2: expand listings for Purpse now have dozens of listings. People
Speaker 2: can trade perps on that platform with the sort of
Speaker 2: leverage and position limits that they're looking for.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. So many products now I'm a user of
Speaker 1: the advance feature and tested it all out and it
Speaker 1: works really great. You know, as far as with on
Speaker 1: chain tools, would Base and much more, Can you tell
Speaker 1: us a bit about what you're working on there and
Speaker 1: when we may see some of these things that may
Speaker 1: be coming.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's so much happening on chain. It's one of
Speaker 2: the most exciting things I think happening in our space
Speaker 2: is just the pace of development on chain, and a
Speaker 2: lot of this has really picked up since the introduction
Speaker 2: of Layer two networks and fast Layer one networks, but
Speaker 2: Base is really leading the charge with Layer two networks,
Speaker 2: and so with Base with smart contract wallets, which are
Speaker 2: making it easier to interact with on chain protocols, and
Speaker 2: with some of the things we've done with stable coins,
Speaker 2: you can now have really excellent, fully fleshed out on
Speaker 2: chain experiences. So there's a lot happening there. One of
Speaker 2: the things I'm really excited about that we've done with
Speaker 2: coinbase products is we recently launch a crypto backed loan
Speaker 2: product on Coinbase. So within the main Coinbase app, using
Speaker 2: Morpho under the Hood, which is a lending protocol on Base,
Speaker 2: you can borrow up to one million dollars of USDC
Speaker 2: backed by bitcoin, all within the Coinbase app itself. You
Speaker 2: don't need to apply for a loan or go through
Speaker 2: an approval process or wait for it to settle. It's
Speaker 2: just right there, and then you can use that USDC
Speaker 2: to earn up to four and a half percent yield
Speaker 2: on the Coinbase platform, or you can withdraw it, use
Speaker 2: it to pay down a mortgage, buy a car, whatever
Speaker 2: you may need, all without selling that bitcoin. So that's
Speaker 2: been a really powerful product. We just launched it a
Speaker 2: few months ago and already we have more than three
Speaker 2: hundred million dollars in loans outstanding. We're seeing a lot
Speaker 2: of value in that. So it's a good example of
Speaker 2: where on chain finance and the development and open permission
Speaker 2: list protocols combined with the Coinbase app, the safety, the trust,
Speaker 2: the distribution is really combined to create something very special.
Speaker 1: That's amazing Max the fact and I will be using
Speaker 1: that product, by the way. To be transparent, I've talked
Speaker 1: to my wife, like I have some bitcoin and I'm like,
Speaker 1: should I cash it out and pay taxes or borrow
Speaker 1: against it? And we're leaning towards borrowing and to do
Speaker 1: some like upgrades at a house and things like that.
Speaker 1: So that's amazing. And to your point, you can borrow
Speaker 1: us DC, you can cash it out or just leave
Speaker 1: it on the platform to earn yield.
Speaker 2: That's right. That's right. And now coinbase is offering up
Speaker 2: to four and a half percent yields on the platform,
Speaker 2: which is six times the national average savings account yield
Speaker 2: in the US of point six percent. So just holding
Speaker 2: USDC on the platform itself is tremendously valuable. And USDC
Speaker 2: on coinbase is a really incredible product. It's one to
Speaker 2: one backed, it has market leading yields, You can instantly
Speaker 2: trade with it, pay with it, do anything else with it.
Speaker 2: So the the combination of being able to borrow USDC
Speaker 2: against your bitcoin and then hold and use that USDC
Speaker 2: is really powerful.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I know a lot of people have a
Speaker 1: long term view on bitcoin and crypto assets and rather
Speaker 1: than have it just sit there, put it to work
Speaker 1: and earn a return.
Speaker 2: Right, that's right. And that's an area that we're really
Speaker 2: pushing on across the coinbas platform. So we want to
Speaker 2: make it coinbase the best place for people to use
Speaker 2: and grow their assets in crypto. So USDC is a
Speaker 2: great example of this. Borrowing is a great example of it.
Speaker 2: Staking is another good example. So you can now steak
Speaker 2: assets on coinbase and earn up to fourteen percent yield
Speaker 2: across eight different assets we support, including Ethereum and Solana,
Speaker 2: and we've seen people just continue to stake and grow
Speaker 2: their assets across all of these different products, from trading
Speaker 2: to saving, to borrowing to staking. So it's coming together
Speaker 2: to create this really powerful platform where people's financial services
Speaker 2: and financial lives are increasingly moving on chain on Coinbase.
Speaker 1: Is that the vision for coinbase more than just a
Speaker 1: crypto exchange, but a finance app, a new modern age
Speaker 1: finance app.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. I think financial services are being rewritten
Speaker 2: on chain. They're more efficient, they're more rewarding, they're more accessible,
Speaker 2: and so the vision for coinbase is to make those
Speaker 2: financial services accessible to everyone on chain, and I think
Speaker 2: if we can do that, it'll actually create more valuable
Speaker 2: financial services for people all around the world who may
Speaker 2: not be able to access the services that exist today
Speaker 2: in traditional finance.
Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely, are there any plans to add tokenize stocks.
Speaker 1: It seems the puck is heading in the direction everyone's
Speaker 1: trying to tokenize stradfi assets. Any updates you can share there.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's an exciting time in tokenized real world assets.
Speaker 2: I think we just dropped a report, the State of
Speaker 2: Crypto Report, that showed that there's more than twenty billion
Speaker 2: dollars of tokenized real world assets out there, and with
Speaker 2: the developments in the regulatory environment, there's tremendous opportunity to
Speaker 2: really push ahead on tokening real world assets. So we're
Speaker 2: very excited about this space. No updates to share that
Speaker 2: right now, but I think will this space will continue
Speaker 2: to develop, More real world assets will come on chain,
Speaker 2: and they will become more efficient and more accessible because
Speaker 2: of that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's fascinating because it's going to open up
Speaker 1: twenty four to seven truly global markets like trading, no
Speaker 1: more opening and closing bell. It's like a brave new world.
Speaker 1: But also I wonder what that's going to look like
Speaker 1: as well, trading twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2: I think it'll create increased efficiency for everyone, and I
Speaker 2: think particularly I think a lot about retail traders and
Speaker 2: individual users, and the history of trading and markets has
Speaker 2: often disadvantaged retail traders. They've often been behind the institutional traders,
Speaker 2: the market makers, others. They're usually losing out in that
Speaker 2: kind of market where access is limited. And so when
Speaker 2: you think about bringing these asset classes on chain and
Speaker 2: making them accessible to everyone, you're thinking about empowering retail
Speaker 2: traders and creating more financial freedom and more access. So
Speaker 2: I think that that's the world that we're moving towards.
Speaker 2: It will be more efficient, it'll create more access, and
Speaker 2: particularly I think it will really empower individuals.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, because now I think people who were maybe
Speaker 1: they didn't have the proper on ramp, they couldn't find
Speaker 1: the or they had to be accredited. Now they can
Speaker 1: buy a fraction of a Tesla stock if it's tokenized,
Speaker 1: or whicheverstock they prefer, and then they can put that
Speaker 1: in DeFi if they want to. It just creates so
Speaker 1: many opportunities for folks, that's right.
Speaker 2: And we're also a global platform, so we certainly serve
Speaker 2: customers in the US. That's where we're based and has
Speaker 2: been a hallmark of coin based strategy, but we're very
Speaker 2: much a global company, serving users in more than one
Speaker 2: hundred countries around the world, and in a lot of
Speaker 2: those countries, accessing Tesla stock is really difficult actually, right,
Speaker 2: there's not really platforms that are accessible. It's hard to
Speaker 2: find the right hours, maybe it's costly to actually trade it.
Speaker 2: And so I think as real word assets become tokenized,
Speaker 2: they not only make it easier for people in the
Speaker 2: US or developed markets where it's always been relatively easy
Speaker 2: to access them, but especially in other markets where the
Speaker 2: financial infrastructure is maybe less developed. And it really brings
Speaker 2: that up to par I think with other markets and
Speaker 2: increases access sure.
Speaker 1: And I can say anecdotally in my own pool of
Speaker 1: family and friends, people who are not interested in investing
Speaker 1: before are now very interested because of the token iszed aspect.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, in general as well, because
Speaker 1: investing has gone to the mobile phone. Versus I need
Speaker 1: to go to an office or I need to log
Speaker 1: onto my computer, I could simply do it as a
Speaker 1: click up a button on my phone. So it's just
Speaker 1: this whole new paradigm shift of like how people can
Speaker 1: access markets.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think there's a lot of education that
Speaker 2: comes with that. That's something that coinbases. We think about
Speaker 2: making this whole space more accessible. We think about safety
Speaker 2: and security as a really key principle for us, So
Speaker 2: We've integrated with the best banks in the world to
Speaker 2: enable really high quality on and off ramps. We provide
Speaker 2: the right sort of education and security as people are
Speaker 2: joining the platform, and I think that's really important. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of innovation in this space. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of new things coming, and so as we're creating this
Speaker 2: new paradigm for investing and more people are getting access
Speaker 2: to it, I think the sort of safety and trust
Speaker 2: of coinbase is a really important way to help people
Speaker 2: take that next step.
Speaker 1: Absolutely well, Max, I got to get your promise you'll
Speaker 1: come on the podcast one you guys launched the token
Speaker 1: ised stocks product so we could talk about it.
Speaker 2: I would be happy to join you and talk about
Speaker 2: all the new products for launching. We've got a few
Speaker 2: exciting announcements coming later today and so we'd love to
Speaker 2: chat more about this.
Speaker 1: Awesome Max, Thank you so much and looking forward to
Speaker 1: the future updates.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Awesome