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Coinbase Ventures has announced a sweeping set of nine investment priorities it believes will drive the next era of crypto innovation, unveiling the roadmap at a time when global venture funding for the sector has surged to its strongest level since the collapse of FTX.
The venture arm of Coinbase released its 2026 focus areas as third-quarter funding rose to $4.65 billion, representing 290 percent jump from the previous quarter, underscoring renewed institutional confidence in blockchain technologies.
Since its launch in 2018, Coinbase Ventures has built one of the industry’s largest portfolios, with 422 companies across 618 investments. Now, the firm says the maturing of onchain markets and the rapid convergence of blockchain, AI, and privacy-preserving technologies demand a sharper strategic lens.
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1. Real-World Asset (RWA) Perpetuals
At the top of its 2026 list are RWA perpetuals, which general partner Kinji Steimetz described as enabling synthetic exposure to offchain assets through perpetual futures contracts.
Coinbase Ventures expects new markets to emerge around private company valuations, real-world data prints, and economic indicators, a trend Steimetz calls the perpification of everything.
2. Proprietary Automated Market Makers (AMMs)
The firm is doubling down on specialized liquidity systems and proprietary AMMs that deepen the efficiency of onchain trading, especially as perpetual markets expand.
3. Prediction Market Trading Terminals
Another major area of focus is advanced prediction market infrastructure. The firm sees an opportunity for aggregators capable of consolidating over $600 million in currently fragmented liquidity across platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi.
4. Perpetual Markets Composability
With perpetual DEX volumes now exceeding $1.4 trillion monthly, Coinbase Ventures believes traders will increasingly earn yield on collateral while keeping leveraged positions open, ushering in a new phase of composable DeFi architecture.
5. Unsecured Onchain Lending
Unsecured lending is described by general partner Jonathan King as DeFi’s next frontier. With the U.S. alone holding $1.3 trillion in revolving unsecured credit, the firm believes onchain credit systems blending reputation and real-world data could unlock massive growth.
6. Onchain Privacy Solutions
General partner Ethan Oak stressed that mainstream adoption may require financial confidentiality, prompting a strong focus on zero-knowledge proofs, trusted execution environments, and privacy-enhanced DeFi protocols.
7. Robotics Data Collection
Coinbase Ventures is also looking beyond finance, noting a critical shortage of high-quality physical robotics data. Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) could help scale the collection of fine-grained interaction data, such as grip pressure and material handling.
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8. Proof of Humanity
As AI-generated content becomes harder to distinguish, the firm is prioritizing digital identity and human verification systems. General partner Hoolie Tejwani highlighted the need for robust solutions to maintain authenticity online.
9. AI-Powered Development Tools
Coinbase Ventures sees AI-driven smart contract development tools as the sector’s GitHub Copilot moment. These tools could enable non-technical founders to launch onchain businesses within hours through automated code generation and security reviews.
Emilie Choi, president and COO, urged founders building in these nine domains to reach out, while Shan Aggarwal, chief business officer added that the next wave of capital markets innovation will be built onchain.
