Coinbase Ventures Unveils Nine Crypto Bets for 2026
Coinbase Ventures has outlined nine high-conviction sectors it believes will define crypto’s next expansion cycle, from RWA perpetuals to AI-powered development tools, as venture capital flows return to multi-billion-dollar levels.
Coinbase Ventures has released its investment roadmap for 2026, highlighting a refined set of strategic sectors the firm expects will anchor the next phase of blockchain innovation. The venture arm of Coinbase, which has backed 422 companies across 618 investments since its launch in 2018, published the outlook amid the strongest fundraising environment the crypto industry has seen since the collapse of FTX.
The announcement follows a flurry of recent dealmaking by the firm. Coinbase Ventures’ latest disclosed investment came on November 18 in Oxbow, a DeFi compliance platform, after earlier bets this quarter on payment infrastructure projects ZAR and Zynk, and prediction-market platform Kalshi. The timing coincides with a broad resurgence in crypto venture participation: Q3 funding surged to $4.65 billion, a 290% jump from the previous quarter.
A New Cycle of Trading Infrastructure and Perpetual Markets
At the top of Coinbase Ventures’ priority list are real-world asset (RWA) perpetuals, a segment the firm believes could unlock synthetic access to offchain markets. General Partner Kinji Steimetz highlighted the opportunity for traders to gain exposure to private companies and macroeconomic data through perpetual futures, describing the trend as the “perpification of everything.”
Prediction markets and trading infrastructure also feature prominently. The firm sees room for aggregators that can unify what it calls “fragmented liquidity,” estimated at more than $600 million across platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. Coinbase Ventures expects purpose-built terminals and connectors to help consolidate these siloed markets and increase efficiency for institutional and retail users.
A Boost for Next-Gen DeFi
Perpetual DEXs remain a core growth area as onchain derivatives volumes consistently exceed $1.4 trillion per month. Coinbase Ventures is particularly interested in emerging DeFi architectures that allow traders to use collateral more efficiently. Composability—using the same collateral to earn yield while maintaining leveraged positions—stands out as one of the most attractive design improvements for the coming year.
Unsecured Lending and the Push Toward Sustainable Credit
Another major theme is unsecured crypto lending, which General Partner Jonathan King described as DeFi’s “next frontier.” The U.S. alone accounts for $1.3 trillion in revolving unsecured credit lines, a market the firm believes could partially migrate onchain once risk models become more robust.
The challenge, according to King, lies in building systems that combine both onchain activity and offchain financial data to assess creditworthiness. If solved, unsecured lending could become one of the most transformative areas in the crypto economy, opening the door to consumer-level financial products built entirely on blockchain rails.
Privacy Tech Returns to the Spotlight
With privacy once again a mainstream topic, Coinbase Ventures is prioritizing technologies that give users greater control over their financial data. General Partner Ethan Oak emphasized that confidentiality will play a critical role in broader adoption of digital assets.
“We are seeing a surge of developer energy focused on privacy-preserving assets (e.g., Zcash) and DeFi applications (e.g., private orderbooks, borrow/lend, etc) and dedicated blockchains for payments touting privacy as a raison d’etre,” — Ethan Oak, Coinbase Ventures
The firm is closely monitoring zero-knowledge proofs, trusted execution environments, and privacy-focused DeFi primitives as it searches for infrastructure capable of supporting mass-market use cases without compromising transparency or regulatory compliance.
AI Tools for Onchain Development
AI also ranks high on the list, particularly tools that can streamline smart contract creation. King likened the trend to a “GitHub Copilot moment” for web3, envisioning a future where automated code generation and embedded security checks allow non-technical founders to launch onchain businesses within hours.
Robotics and Digital Identity Expand the Investment Horizon
Coinbase Ventures is also exploring opportunities at the intersection of crypto and physical robotics. Steimetz pointed to a shortage of high-quality training data—especially for complex physical interactions like grip pressure or manipulating soft materials. Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) could offer a scalable model for collecting such data.
On the digital identity front, the firm expects proof of humanity systems to become increasingly necessary as AI-generated content grows more difficult to distinguish from human work. General Partner Hoolie Tejwani stressed the urgency of developing verification frameworks to protect digital ecosystems from automated manipulation. Coinbase Ventures’ existing backing of Worldcoin is part of this longer-term thesis, but the firm has signaled it plans to support multiple competing solutions.
The Nine Priority Areas for 2026
Coinbase Ventures’ full list of focus sectors includes:
- RWA perpetuals
- Proprietary AMMs
- Prediction market trading terminals
- Perpetual markets composability
- Unsecured lending
- Onchain privacy
- Robotics data collection
- Proof of humanity
- AI development tools
Coinbase Ventures noted that “these ideas reflect where we see huge potential, but the most exciting projects often come from places no one expects,” adding that builders working in these sectors are encouraged to reach out — including directly through open DMs on X.
Venture Funding Rebounds as Institutional Appetite Returns
The publication arrives during a decisive rebound in crypto venture activity. The $4.65 billion raised in Q3 represents the second-strongest quarter since late 2022, surpassed only by early 2023’s $4.8 billion. Galaxy Digital noted that while enthusiasm has returned, capital remains concentrated: just seven deals accounted for half of all money deployed among 414 tracked investments.
Some of the largest raises included:
- Revolut — $1 billion
- Kraken — $500 million
- Erebor — $250 million
Galaxy’s head of research Alex Thorn said the resurgence reflects a deeper-than-expected appetite for digital-asset startups even amid macro uncertainty. The United States maintained its position as the industry’s central hub, capturing 47% of total invested capital and 40% of completed deals. Thorn expects U.S. dominance to increase further with the GENIUS Act now enacted and potential progress on federal market-structure legislation.
Why These Bets Matter for Crypto’s Next Chapter
The themes outlined by Coinbase Ventures showcase a maturing market that is shifting from broad experimentation toward targeted, high-utility applications. Whether through new forms of synthetic exposure, capital-efficient DeFi design, privacy-preserving finance, or identity systems resilient to AI disruption, the firm’s investment map outlines where it believes the next wave of founders will emerge.
As capital accelerates back into the ecosystem and trading infrastructure evolves, these nine sectors offer a window into how crypto may look in 2026—and what kinds of products will power its next stage of global adoption.
