Coinbase Ventures 2026 Crypto Bets: RWA Perps, DeFi and AI Explained

Published: November 26, 2025

On November 26, 2025, the crypto industry is digesting a clear signal from one of its most influential investors: Coinbase Ventures has laid out where it wants to put money to work in 2026 – and it’s all about real‑world asset perpetuals, specialized trading platforms, next‑generation DeFi, and AI‑driven crypto infrastructure. ^[1]

Coverage from outlets like Bitcoin Sistemi, DailyCoin, AInvest and OneSafe, along with on‑chain security platform CertiK’s live feed, shows a fast‑forming consensus: if you’re building around RWA derivatives, on‑chain credit, prediction markets, or AI + robotics tooling, Coinbase Ventures wants to talk to you – and capital is likely to follow. ^[2]

What Coinbase Ventures Actually Announced

In a blog post published on November 25, 2025, Coinbase Ventures outlined nine ideas it is “most energized about heading into 2026,” grouped under four big themes: asset tokenization, specialized exchanges and trading terminals, next‑gen DeFi, and AI + robotics. ^[3]

Those ideas are:

RWA Perpetuals – “Perpification of Everything”
- Synthetic exposure to off‑chain assets (like private companies, commodities or macro data) via perpetual futures instead of classic tokenization.
- Aimed at bringing both exotic assets and macro exposures (oil, inflation, credit spreads, volatility) on‑chain for sophisticated traders. ^[4]
Specialized Exchanges & Trading Terminals
- Alternative Prop AMMs (e.g. on Solana) that route trades via aggregators to protect liquidity providers from toxic flow.
- Prediction‑market trading terminals that aggregate fragmented liquidity across venues and present professional‑grade tools in one interface. ^[5]
Next‑Gen DeFi
- Perp markets composability: perpetual DEX volumes have reached around $1.4 trillion per month, up roughly 300% year‑over‑year, and Coinbase expects deeper integration between perps and lending/borrowing so collateral can both earn yield and support leverage. ^[6]
- Unsecured lending / credit: on‑chain credit systems that mix on‑chain reputation with off‑chain data to tap into the $1.3 trillion U.S. revolving unsecured credit market. ^[7]
- On‑chain privacy: privacy‑preserving assets and DeFi apps built on ZK, FHE, MPC, TEEs and dedicated privacy chains, aimed at institutions and users who can’t expose all of their strategies and histories on a public ledger. ^[8]
AI and Robotics
- Robotics & humanoid data collection: using DePIN‑style incentive models to crowd‑source high‑quality physical interaction data (grip, pressure, complex object handling) to train embodied AI systems. ^[9]
- Proof of humanity: systems combining biometrics, cryptographic signing and open standards to distinguish humans from AI‑generated activity online (with Worldcoin cited as an early mover). ^[10]
- AI for on‑chain development & security: “Copilot‑moment” tools that auto‑generate, review and continuously monitor smart contracts, allowing non‑technical founders to launch on‑chain products in hours rather than months. ^[11]

Coinbase frames these as the places “where the next big breakout companies and protocols will emerge” – and explicitly invites founders to DM the team to pitch projects in these categories. ^[12]

How Today’s Coverage is Framing the Story

Bitcoin Sistemi: 8 Major Investment Areas

Turkish‑English outlet Bitcoin Sistemi reported this morning that Coinbase Ventures has “announced the 8 important cryptocurrency investment areas” it will focus on in 2026, effectively clustering the nine ideas into eight themes familiar to traders and builders. ^[13]

Their breakdown highlights:

RWA‑based perpetual futures
Specialized exchanges and trading terminals
Proprietary AMMs and prediction‑market aggregators
Next‑gen DeFi that merges derivatives and lending
Privacy‑preserving on‑chain infrastructure
On‑chain reputation + off‑chain data lending protocols
DePIN‑based AI data aggregation for robotics
AI tools for development and security ^[14]

The article also reminds readers that Coinbase Ventures is already one of the most active investors in crypto, with 618 investments since 2018 and a portfolio of 422 startups, including recent bets on compliance platform 0xbow, payment firms Zynk and ZAR, and prediction‑market platform Kalshi. ^[15]

DailyCoin: RWA Perps, DeFi and AI Take Center Stage

Crypto news site DailyCoin calls the roadmap “ambitious,” noting that Coinbase Ventures’ 2026 focus spans real‑world assets, next‑generation DeFi and AI‑driven blockchain tools. ^[16]

Their coverage leans into:

The “perpification” concept – using perpetuals to give synthetic exposure to off‑chain assets instead of tokenizing them one‑by‑one. ^[17]
The push for better trading terminals, especially for prediction markets whose liquidity is fragmented across platforms. ^[18]
AI‑powered tools that can streamline smart‑contract development and security, opening the door for non‑developers to build on‑chain. ^[19]

OneSafe: Connecting the Roadmap to Banking, Treasury and RWA Adoption

Fintech‑crypto banking startup OneSafe published its own analysis today, using the Coinbase roadmap as a lens on broader 2026 crypto investment trends. ^[20]

Their piece stresses:

DeFi’s evolution toward unsecured credit markets as “the next major leap,” echoing Coinbase’s focus on on‑chain credit. ^[21]
AI and trading infrastructure as key investment areas for 2026, helping optimize strategies, risk and execution. ^[22]
The growing importance of crypto‑friendly business banking, B2B payments and stablecoin invoicing for companies managing crypto treasury. ^[23]
RWA tokenization and fractional ownership as a way to unlock new liquidity and portfolio diversification. ^[24]

AInvest & CertiK: Institutions, Compliance and Focused Themes

An AI‑assisted article on AInvest zooms out from ventures to broader Coinbase strategy, arguing that 2026 will be about balancing innovation with regulatory compliance to win institutional money, and tying the roadmap to moves like 24/7 U.S. altcoin futures and the institutionalization of Solana staking. ^[25]

Meanwhile, security analytics platform CertiK has logged multiple real‑time items today summarizing the roadmap as a focus on:

RWA perpetual contracts
Specialized trading platforms with Prop AMMs
Prediction‑market terminals
AI‑powered smart‑contract development and robotics data collection
On‑chain credit systems and composable DeFi ^[26]

Taken together, today’s coverage paints a consistent picture: Coinbase Ventures isn’t chasing meme cycles – it’s building a thesis around derivatives for real‑world assets, capital‑efficient DeFi, institutional‑grade market structure, and AI‑native crypto infrastructure.

Theme 1: RWA Perpetuals and the “Perpification of Everything”

Tokenizing real‑world assets (RWA) has been a crypto buzzword for years. What’s new here is the emphasis on perpetual futures for RWA rather than tokenization as the primary instrument. ^[27]

Key ideas:

No need to custody the underlying asset: Perps can track any reference index – private equity, real‑estate indices, macro data, even bespoke economic metrics – without actually holding or tokenizing them. ^[28]
Faster market creation: You can spin up new markets in days instead of navigating the legal, custodial and regulatory complexity required to tokenize bonds, equities or property. ^[29]
Macro on‑chain: As crypto traders become more sophisticated, they want to hedge inflation, rates or credit spreads directly on‑chain, not just speculate on BTC and ETH. RWA perps provide that bridge. ^[30]

DailyCoin underscores that this strategy offers a more flexible, hedge‑friendly alternative to classic tokenization, potentially giving traders access to everything from commodities to economic indicators without ever touching traditional brokerages. ^[31]

For builders, this creates a huge design space:

Structuring and oracles for RWA indexes
Perp DEXs specialized in macro and exotic markets
Risk engines and compliance layers suitable for institutions

Theme 2: Specialized Exchanges, Prop AMMs and Prediction‑Market Terminals

Coinbase Ventures is clearly betting that the next wave of exchanges will be application‑specific and deeply optimized, not one‑size‑fits‑all. ^[32]

Prop AMMs and Market‑Structure Innovation

On ecosystems like Solana, “Prop AMMs” restrict how resting liquidity can be accessed: trades must route through aggregators, which helps protect liquidity providers from toxic order flow. ^[33]

Why it matters:

Better LP protection → more durable liquidity
More room for custom fee curves, risk parameters and inventory strategies
A path to CEX‑like market quality without sacrificing decentralization

Prediction‑Market Trading Terminals

Prediction markets are one of crypto’s breakout consumer use cases, but liquidity and UX are still fragmented. Coinbase Ventures expects aggregator‑style trading terminals to emerge as the dominant interface layer. ^[34]

Think of:

One screen that pulls odds and liquidity from multiple venues
Advanced order types, charts and filters for event markets
Cross‑venue routing, arbitrage tools and position tracking

Media coverage today agrees this could be a major growth area in 2026, especially as political events, sports and macro data all become tradable “markets for everything.”

Theme 3: Next‑Gen DeFi, On‑Chain Credit and Privacy

If 2020–2021 DeFi was about yield farming and AMMs, Coinbase’s 2026 view is about capital efficiency, credit and institutional usability. ^[35]

Composable Perp Markets

Perp DEX volume has exploded to about $1.4 trillion per month and has grown roughly 3x year‑over‑year, driven by platforms like Hyperliquid and Lighter. ^[36]

The next step is tying those markets into every other leg of DeFi:

Borrow against collateral that is also margin for perps
Earn yield on idle collateral while maintaining open positions
Use structured products, vaults and automated strategies built on top of perps

Unsecured Lending and On‑Chain Credit

Both Coinbase and OneSafe spotlight unsecured, reputation‑based lending as a major frontier for 2026. ^[37]

Instead of only over‑collateralized loans, the thesis is:

Blend on‑chain behavior (history, positions, governance participation) with off‑chain data (business metrics, credit history). ^[38]
Target a slice of the $1.3 trillion U.S. revolving credit market, where traditional rails are expensive and fragmented. ^[39]
Build DeFi money markets that look and feel like genuine financial infrastructure, not speculative casinos. ^[40]

On‑Chain Privacy as a Prerequisite

Coinbase is unusually direct here: without privacy options, institutions and serious traders simply can’t operate on‑chain at scale. ^[41]

The roadmap encourages:

Privacy‑preserving L1s and L2s
Private orderbooks and borrow/lend protocols
Advanced cryptography layers (ZKPs, FHE, MPC, TEEs) that preserve verifiability while hiding sensitive data ^[42]

This aligns with OneSafe’s focus on regulatory‑aware treasury management, where companies need to reconcile compliance, auditability and confidentiality. ^[43]

Theme 4: AI, Robotics and Proof of Humanity

Perhaps the most forward‑looking part of the roadmap is the explicit focus on AI and robotics as crypto‑native opportunities. ^[44]

Robotics & Humanoid Data Networks

Coinbase Ventures is interested in incentivized data‑collection networks that reward people and devices for supplying the detailed interaction data modern robots and embodied AI systems need (pressure, grip, deformable objects, etc.). ^[45]

The logic:

Robotics companies struggle to get enough high‑quality, diverse training data.
DePIN‑style networks can token‑incentivize data collection from a global base of contributors. ^[46]

Proof of Humanity

As AI content floods the internet, the team argues we’re approaching a point where “everything you see on a screen” could be AI‑generated. ^[47]

They want to back:

Identity systems combining biometrics, cryptographic proofs and open standards
Tools that let apps and users verify “this action came from a human” without leaking sensitive data
Multiple competing approaches – with Worldcoin cited as an early example of this direction ^[48]

AI for Smart‑Contract Development & Security

Finally, Coinbase expects smart‑contract development to hit a “GitHub Copilot moment” where AI agents:

Generate contracts from natural‑language specs
Perform automated security reviews and continuous on‑chain monitoring
Help non‑technical founders ship production‑ready dApps in hours or days ^[49]

For builders, this suggests a fertile space for:

Agentic dev‑tools and no‑code platforms
AI‑native auditors and risk dashboards
Protocols that reward open‑source security contributions

What This Means for Builders and Investors Heading into 2026

For Founders and Developers

If you’re planning a 2026 raise, today’s roadmap and coverage send a fairly clear message:

Align with one of the four big themes – RWA perps, specialized trading, next‑gen DeFi, or AI/robotics x crypto – and you’re speaking Coinbase Ventures’ language. ^[50]
Build with institutional requirements in mind: compliance, privacy, risk controls and UX close to pro‑grade tools. ^[51]
Don’t ignore AI integration – whether in your product, your dev tooling, or your data strategy. ^[52]

For Institutional and Corporate Users

Institutional coverage today emphasizes:

A continued shift toward regulated, 24/7 derivatives markets (including altcoin futures) and compliant venues that can withstand regulatory scrutiny. ^[53]
Growing demand for crypto‑friendly banking, invoicing, payroll and treasury tools, exactly the kind of infrastructure OneSafe and similar platforms are building. ^[54]
The need for robust governance and risk frameworks as legal and regulatory cases in fintech multiply. ^[55]

For Individual Investors

Coinbase Ventures’ roadmap is not investment advice, and neither is this article. Crypto, derivatives and RWA exposure are all high‑risk. But the roadmap does offer a useful lens on where sophisticated capital and founders might cluster in 2026:

On‑chain access to macro and RWA trades
DeFi protocols that feel more like infrastructure than casino
A deeper fusion of AI, robotics and blockchain

As always, you should do your own research, understand the risks, and never invest more than you can afford to lose.

Outlook: A More Mature, More Machine‑Native Crypto Market

The common thread across today’s announcements, analyses and live data feeds is maturity:

From speculative yield to credit and real‑world exposure
From generic AMMs to professionally engineered market structure
From manual Solidity coding to AI‑assisted, continuously monitored smart contracts

If Coinbase Ventures’ 2026 bets are right, the next cycle may be defined less by meme coins and more by synthetic RWA markets, composable derivatives, privacy‑preserving DeFi, and AI‑enabled infrastructure – all stitched together by teams building for institutions and consumers at the same time. ^[56]

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