Name: Why Trillions in TradFi Capital Are Moving Onchain w/ Coinbase Exec Brian Foster
Uploaded: 2026-02-05T19:45:00+00:00
Duration: 2857 s

Speakers

Brian Foster — Leads Crypto as a Service, ETFs, and Government at Coinbase

Kyle Reidhead — Head of Research, Milk Road

Summary

Brian Foster, a Coinbase executive, explains how Coinbase is becoming institutional onchain infrastructure for banks, asset managers, fintechs, and payment providers. He frames three growth areas - crypto access/custody, stablecoin-enabled payments, and tokenization - and argues stablecoins are evolving into global payment rails while tokenization expands beyond dollars into equities, ETFs, and other assets. He also explains why public blockchains should win over private or permissioned systems and how tokenized TradFi assets may eventually integrate with DeFi. The discussion is longer-term bullish despite recent crypto market volatility.

Coinbase custodies over $500B in assets, with the majority now institutional.
Stablecoins are shifting from trading tools to global payment rails.
USDC is positioned as a trusted, liquid stablecoin likely to benefit from consolidation.
Tokenization is expanding from stablecoins into securities, commodities, real estate, equities, and ETFs.
Public open-source blockchains are expected to accrue more value than private chains.
Tokenized TradFi assets may eventually plug into DeFi lending and distribution.
Institutional conversations have moved from niche interest to top-of-firm urgency.
Brian remains long-term bullish on digital assets despite volatility.

Ideas

Brian Foster Leads Crypto as a Service, ETFs, and Government at Coinbase 0:08

Coinbase is institutional onchain infrastructure leader.

Coinbase has evolved from a retail crypto exchange into institutional onchain infrastructure. It custodies over $500 billion in assets, with the slight majority now institutional, putting it on the scale of some of the largest global banks. Brian argues the moat is trust, compliance, security, and specialized crypto infrastructure/product experience, so institutions can rent Coinbase's hardened rails rather than rebuild them. The company is expanding across crypto access, stablecoin-enabled payments, and tokenization, and it partners with banks, asset managers, fintechs, and PSPs via crypto-as-a-service rather than only competing with them.

Brian Foster Leads Crypto as a Service, ETFs, and Government at Coinbase 2:35

Long-term digital asset trend remains intact.

Despite recent volatility, Brian remains long-term oriented on digital assets. He sees the secular trend of digital assets impacting all of finance, capital markets, and payments as intact, and he views volatility as creating opportunity. Institutions are still moving onchain across access, payments, and tokenization, supporting the broader crypto asset class.

Brian Foster Leads Crypto as a Service, ETFs, and Government at Coinbase 5:53

All assets move to blockchain rails.

Brian is bullish on tokenizing the rest of the portfolio - securities, commodities, real estate, and other assets - onto blockchain rails. Tokenization improves settlement, enables instant global movement, and supports programmable smart-contract products, representing a huge addressable market. Regulatory unlocks and incumbent integration are progressing, and Coinbase provides creation, custody, movement, and eventual distribution/markets for tokenized assets.

Brian Foster Leads Crypto as a Service, ETFs, and Government at Coinbase 6:52

Stablecoins become global payment rails.

Brian sees stablecoins shifting from crypto-native trading tools into global 24/7 payment rails used by large banks, payment service providers, fintechs, and corporations. He says the industry is in the early activation phase and could grow 10x to 100x over the next decade; payments use cases should eventually decouple stablecoin growth from crypto trading, and stablecoin-as-a-service lets partners launch branded stablecoins on the same rails. He expects market growth and eventual power-law consolidation around dominant assets.

Brian Foster Leads Crypto as a Service, ETFs, and Government at Coinbase 21:10

USDC wins dominant stablecoin market share.

USDC is already large, trusted, widely used, and has regulatory oversight with collateral managed at large banks. As the stablecoin market grows and consolidates around a few dominant assets, USDC should benefit. Coinbase integrates USDC into its infrastructure, and stablecoin-as-a-service runs on the same rails, helping abstract fragmentation while preserving USDC liquidity and interoperability.

Brian Foster Leads Crypto as a Service, ETFs, and Government at Coinbase 35:30

Tokenized equities and ETFs are next.

Equities and ETFs are major demand sources, so Brian expects significant energy around tokenizing them next as the market goes down the list of asset classes by size. Replicating liquid assets onchain is only part of the story, but it is a natural early area given investor demand.

Brian Foster Leads Crypto as a Service, ETFs, and Government at Coinbase 37:25

Public blockchains accrue most value.

Brian and Coinbase are explicitly pro-public blockchains. He expects public open-source chains to accrue most value because they are easy for developers, inherently global, and benefit from interoperability, similar to internet protocols. Demand, clients, and money are already on public chains, forcing even conservative institutions to be on them or interoperate with them.

Brian Foster Leads Crypto as a Service, ETFs, and Government at Coinbase 40:31

Tokenized TradFi assets integrate with DeFi.

Brian says tokenized TradFi assets will increasingly integrate with DeFi, enabling permissionless lending and borrowing and broader distribution, and that this is already underway. Different institutions will expand from centralized venues to onchain environments over time as comfort grows; Coinbase is comfortable with DEXs and smart contracts and wants to be at the bleeding edge.

Why Trillions in TradFi Capital Are Moving Onchain w/ Coinbase Exec Brian Foster

Summary

Ideas

Up Next