RWA Perpetuals: Coinbase’s Plan to Tokenize Everything

Coinbase 2026 Outlook Report

Coinbase’s Investor Outlook Report is a highly anticipated publication that investors and businesses use to spot emerging trends across the market. This year’s report marks the 4th consecutive year that North America’s largest exchange released the data, which has become an integral part of many investors’ planning. Here is what the report says you can expect in the next 12 months.

Why Coinbase Expects Crypto Markets to Accelerate

The core thesis of the report is a prediction of accelerated growth for the blockchain sector. It specifically identifies stablecoins, tokenized assets, and ETF inflows as the primary catalysts driving this momentum into hyperdrive.

Coinbase’s “Everything Exchange” Strategy

The report highlights Coinbase’s role in the market and its future intentions. According to the document, Coinbase will take a broader approach to the blockchain sector, seeking to evolve from the largest crypto exchange in North America into one of the largest providers of blockchain-based assets globally.

This pivot will include a renewed focus on crypto, tokenized stocks, prediction markets, futures, and options. According to CEO Brian Armstrong, the platform intends to capitalize on recent pro-crypto regulations to further its positioning in the stablecoin and payments markets.

Additionally, Coinbase will push its Base blockchain for tokenization and stablecoin projects, with the goal of making the network developer-friendly and more accessible. Armstrong spoke on how the exchange plans to evolve into the premier tokenization platform globally.

Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization Explained

A big part of Coinbase’s pivot focuses on the tokenization of Real World Assets (RWAs). This industry continues to expand, with the report highlighting 18X growth since 2022. While the exchange intends to always provide trading, storage, and management services for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, it will now delve aggressively into tokenization strategies.

Tokenization refers to the digitization of assets onto a blockchain. Recent regulatory changes and improved trust for blockchain systems have made tokenizing assets easier and more secure than ever. The RWA movement centers on bringing traditional assets—like bonds, real estate, and credit—onto the blockchain.

Once tokenized, these assets can be transferred as easily as cryptocurrencies. They also enjoy additional benefits like increased trackability. One of the main benefits is that tokenized assets can have their regulatory requirements “baked” into their code, reducing the need for manual third-party intermediaries.

Third Pillar of Digital Assets

The report places RWAs as the third pillar of crypto alongside traditional coins like Bitcoin and stablecoins. It highlights growth in the tokenized equity sector—specifically in synthetic tokens, which offer exposure to markets, and in the full security token sector. The latter represents a legal claim on the underlying security held by a regulated custodian.

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Private Credit

Interestingly, the report excludes several large tokenization platforms like Figure. The paper explains that these platforms were excluded because they don’t support direct wallet-level portability. However, it notes that if these platforms were taken into consideration, it would make private credit the largest tokenized asset currently.

Regulated Exposure

Tokenized assets provide another major benefit in that they offer indirect exposure to markets. Coinbase has said that it intends to provide synthetic exposure to key markets in the future. Specifically, you could see tokenized oil, gold, or real estate on the platform in the coming months.

Synthetic exposure has some key advantages, especially for institutional investment firms seeking to enter the market. For one, it enables institutional investors to gain access to markets without holding assets directly. This capability gives firms who cannot risk regulatory scrutiny the ability to provide exposure to clients without adding operational risk.

New Regulations

The GENIUS ACT (signed July 2025) is cited alongside a more agreeable SEC stance as one of the main reasons the RWA market is expanding so quickly. The paper highlights projects like BlackRock’s (BLK -0.74%) BUIDL tokenized money market fund as critical service providers.

Ethereum Dominates the RWA Sector

The data also shows that Ethereum and its L2s are still the dominant force in terms of hosting RWAs and settling transactions. However, the report explains that as of mid-2025, more RWA-centric networks have emerged, and they continue to cut into Ethereum’s dominance.

Real World Asset Perpetuals

Coinbase states that it will enter the RWA perpetuals sector to become the premier location for these assets. RWA perpetuals open the door for a plethora of new revenue-generating services and features. For example, tokenized assets will be able to utilize DeFi features to improve returns.

More Trading Time

RWA perpetuals have an advantage over traditional assets in that they provide round-the-clock trading. Stocks and other traditional assets have limited market hours. Coinbase seeks to eliminate these inconveniences by enabling RWA perpetuals to be traded 24/7, opening the door for more liquidity and ROI opportunities, alongside increased capital efficiency.

Global Access

Coinbase has noted that this maneuver will also open the door for international investors to gain exposure to key US markets. For example, foreign investors can gain exposure to treasuries and stocks via tokenization which may not be available to them using traditional brokerage accounts.

Tokenized Equities

The report reveals that tokenized public equities are still only a small portion of the RWA market. The report places tokenized stock values at under $1B versus the traditional equities market. This data suggests that tokenized assets are at the start of widespread adoption, a key factor that has led Coinbase to reconfigure its entire strategy to support the shift.

Benefits of Tokenized Equities

There are several reasons why both investors and Coinbase are eager to usher in RWA tokenized assets. For one, they help to reduce settlement delays. Blockchain assets leverage technology and prearranged requirements to reduce the need for third parties and delays.

Keenly, the process reduces the complexity of the entire transaction. When dealing with cross-border equity markets, there are usually multiple transactions that must occur. Each one adds to the costs of the transaction, slowly reducing ROIs. This direct approach reduces intermediate costs.

Pre-IPO Access

One of the biggest advantages of RWAs—and a main reason why Coinbase is so eager to corner this market—is that it can be used to offer investors access to high-demand assets before their availability. For example, Coinbase’s report speaks on the tokenization of late-stage private companies (like OpenAI), enabling investors to access opportunities that used to only be available to accredited individuals.

Risks of Tokenized Equities

The report also highlights risks that investors need to consider. One of the main issues is a lack of liquidity. The relatively new nature of these assets means that their markets are thin. When dealing with markets like this, investors should prepare for more slippage and volatility.

Oracle Risk

Another major concern is Oracle pricing discrepancies. Since tokenized assets rely on these off-chain sensors to convert stock prices from the market to the blockchain, any issues, errors, or delays can result in price discrepancies between the token and the underlying asset.

Regulatory Fragmentation

Another major issue that Coinbase will focus on in 2026 is helping to create a uniform regulatory environment for digital assets. As it stands now, differing regulations across jurisdictions lead to a loss of clarity and make cross-border transactions complex. Coinbase will seek to simplify and unify these markets to streamline future transactions.

US Treasuries

Interestingly, the amount of tokenized treasuries doubled since this time last year. This growth was fueled by several factors, including strong institutional investor support and growing investor confidence in the tech.

Tokenized Commodities

Coinbase noted that the tokenized commodities sector experienced 3x growth in 2025. These assets focus on tokenized goods like gold, silver, and other metals. The report shows that gold is the most popular asset used in these projects. Networks like PAX Gold (PAXG -0.88%) and Tether Gold (XAUT -0.45%) now have a combined market cap of +$3B and are growing.

The data also shows that agricultural commodities are the slowest to embrace tokenization. However, it points out potential growth, highlighting projects like JusToken. This protocol enables users to trade tokenized agricultural goods like soybeans, cotton, or corn.

Private Credit

On-chain loan registries have proven to be a valuable tool for investors who use these protocols to save on fees and settlement times. The report shows that private credit now accounts for +$19B of the tokenized RWA sector, and it predicts that it will remain the most popular RWA option in 2026.

More Lending Protocols

The report also highlights a trend in which RWAs are increasingly being used as collateral on lending platforms. In this way, these assets have begun to operate as fundamental collateral rather than simple investment vehicles. Coinbase predicts that RWAs will become the core entry point for traditional money moving into the blockchain sector.

Other Interesting Data

Not all of the report focused on RWAs. The paper highlights the growing importance of stablecoins, calling them the premier use case for cryptocurrencies moving forward. The data shows that this market will surpass $1.2T in value by the end of 2028.

Privacy First

While highlighting regulatory advancements, the paper also notes how many crypto users turned towards privacy coins. The report suggests that as more regulatory requirements enter the market, developers will integrate key privacy technologies like zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) to enhance anonymity.

Regulatory Progress

Much of this year’s report focuses on how recent regulations—specifically the 2025 GENIUS ACT—have opened the door for widespread adoption. The report points out several landmark U.S. and global regulatory advances and how they have enabled new products and services.

It also touches on the expansion of Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs). The data suggests that DATs will help to stabilize the market and drive liquidity, with the platform suggesting DATs are set to experience massive growth in 2026.

Macroeconomic Backdrop

Zoomed out, the report looks at the US economic situation to determine the network’s health. The data suggest that the economy remains strong, leading many analysts to predict room for growth this year across key sectors like the stablecoin market.

Coinbase

Coinbase entered the market in 2012 as a Bitcoin exchange. The company’s founders, Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, met in an online chatroom before sharing their ideas for a major centralized exchange that could streamline Bitcoin adoption.

In 2013, Coinbase secured $5M in Series A funding, enabling it to expand its network and offerings. Since that time, the company secured millions in additional funding, and in 2021, the company went public on the NASDAQ. Today, it is one of the most influential platforms in the market.

Coinbase’s pivot towards RWAs makes sense and will enable the company to operate as a key infrastructure owner for investors. As one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, the platform holds immense influence. It has helped to build consumer trust and worked with regulators to develop crypto-friendly legislation. Those seeking an exchange that has its eye on the big picture should do more research into Coinbase and its offerings.

Latest Coinbase (COIN) News and Performance

Coinbase Evolved | Conclusion

It’s interesting to see Coinbase evolve from a simple Bitcoin exchange into a complex blockchain ecosystem that supports everything from DeFi to the most recent tokenization efforts. This pioneering spirit is one of the core reasons why Coinbase continually finds success. It’s also why the platform will remain a dominant force in the market as crypto makes the leap from retail to institutional investors.

Learn about other key digital assets here.