Interviewee: Shan Aggarwal, CBO, Coinbase

Original article by Sandy Carter, Forbes

Original translation: Saoirse, Foresight News

Editor's Note : This article is adapted from a Forbes interview with Shan Aggarwal, Coinbase's first Chief Business Officer. Shan Aggarwal previously led Coinbase Ventures for seven years, during which time he also served as Vice President of Corporate and Business Development. In this interview, he discussed Coinbase's core strategies, including product expansion, institutional partnerships, and international expansion, and analyzed the prospects for stablecoins and strategies for responding to market cycles. His perspective offers a glimpse into Coinbase's true thinking and strategic planning regarding product innovation, market expansion, and regulatory responses, providing key insights for a deeper understanding of the development trends of Coinbase and the entire cryptocurrency industry. The following is the interview transcript.

In September 2024, Coinbase's first chief business officer, Shan Aggarwal, hosted a fireside chat with Coinbase co-founders Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam III at the Coinbase Ventures annual summit.

Over the past few weeks, I've had the privilege of speaking with Shan Aggarwal, Coinbase's newly appointed Chief Business Officer (CBO). This position is a first for the cryptocurrency exchange. Aggarwal's background defies the traditional tech executive mold: he began his career in medicine, earning a bachelor's degree in neuroscience from UCLA, before transitioning to the cryptocurrency industry, where he has since become a leading figure in corporate strategy, M&A, and partnerships.

From overseeing Coinbase's fundraising and capital markets from its Series E funding round in 2018 to its public offering in 2021, and now serving as one of the youngest executives at a Fortune 500 company, Shan Aggarwal's leadership has come at a crucial juncture in Coinbase's evolution. Amidst surging institutional demand for cryptocurrency and a growing regulatory landscape, Shan Aggarwal has a critical mission: to propel Coinbase into its next phase of growth, transcending its original focus as a retail trading platform.

Here's what he shared about the company's strategy, market outlook, and his vision for the future of cryptocurrency going mainstream.

Q1: As Chief Business Officer of Coinbase, what are your core responsibilities?

As Chief Business Officer, my core responsibility is to seamlessly connect all aspects of Coinbase's growth engine. I oversee ecosystem partnerships, business operations and strategic planning, data and analytics, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and investments. I can say that my role serves as the bridge between the product team and market opportunities, defining both what the company should do and how to execute it.

Shan Aggarwal with Brian Armstrong, Jesse Pollak and members of the Coinbase Ventures team at the annual Coinbase Ventures Summit in September 2024.

My focus is on growing Coinbase—not just as an exchange, but as the infrastructure that supports the entire cryptocurrency economy. This means collaborating with institutions, retail partners, and emerging projects to deeply integrate cryptocurrency into the core of global financial infrastructure.

Q2: What are Coinbase’s three core priorities under your leadership?

First, we are focused on building top-tier trading products to meet the needs of traders by expanding support for assets beyond cryptocurrencies, including stocks, futures, perpetual futures, crypto-native assets, prediction markets, and more.

Secondly, we are leveraging our established platform to drive institutional adoption of cryptocurrency. Currently, corporate demand for crypto services is extremely high, and our platform is ready for partners to use right out of the box, enabling them to offer cryptocurrency trading, staking, and other services to end users.

Third, we are focusing on payments and promoting the widespread adoption of stablecoins. We are developing products to support first-party payments and building a cryptocurrency payments platform for other businesses to use. As we advance these priorities, international expansion remains a key priority: we will continue to expand our global presence and fulfill our mission to expand economic freedom for individuals and businesses around the world.

Q3: What will be the growth trend of Coinbase in the current market cycle?

The core of growth today is quality over quantity. We won't pursue superficial "data" but rather deepen our relationships with high-value clients and expand our share of their cryptocurrency demand. This means broadening our service offerings beyond trading to include savings, consumption, and financing, thereby deepening our engagement with clients.

We also see significant growth opportunities in the B2B space—moving beyond serving end consumers directly to supporting other companies' crypto strategies. We call this model "crypto-as-a-service." As the regulatory landscape becomes clearer, we can offer white-label solutions and infrastructure APIs, enabling other companies to quickly integrate crypto capabilities without having to build systems from scratch.

The ecosystem of enterprise builders is enormous. Think of fintechs, payment processors, and traditional enterprises that want crypto capabilities but don't want to deal with regulatory compliance, asset custody, or technical complexity—we can be their "crypto backbone." This is evident in our partnerships: BlackRock and PNC are leveraging our infrastructure for institutional crypto services, while companies like Perplexity are integrating crypto data into their platforms.

These partnerships are disruptive because they allow users who have never downloaded a crypto app to access cryptocurrency. We're not only expanding our direct user base, but also driving widespread adoption of cryptocurrency across the entire digital economy. This model helps us broaden our service's end-user base and accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrency.

Q4: Based on Coinbase’s position, what are your predictions for stablecoins and their regulatory prospects?

Stablecoins are a platform-level game-changer in the payments sector. We believe all asset classes globally will eventually be brought online, with stablecoins being one of the first and most important. The increasing clarity of the regulatory landscape not only lends legitimacy to stablecoins but also lays a solid foundation for their development—for example, establishing a unified framework for key elements like reserve requirements and transparency.

I believe there will be a "diversification" in the future: compliant, transparent stablecoins will be clearly distinguished from other types of stablecoins. The ultimate winners will be those operators who work closely with regulators, rather than against them. We are already seeing stablecoins becoming increasingly integrated into the traditional financial system, and this trend will continue—because stablecoins provide a more efficient, global, and lower-cost channel for the circulation of US dollars.

In short, the digital economy needs digital currency, and stablecoins are the missing piece. Following the passage of the GENIUS Act, Coinbase has a unique advantage in the stablecoin space thanks to its extensive USDC distribution channels and ability to offer industry-leading rewards.

Q5: How will Coinbase plan its strategy in the face of the next round of cryptocurrency bull and bear markets?

We always take a long-term approach and develop strategies based on different market cycles. During bear markets, we focus on expanding our infrastructure to support the next wave of cryptocurrency applications while investing in long-term projects and teams. During bull markets, we focus on optimizing customer experience and innovating new products.

We are investing heavily in the Coinbase platform because we believe that as the regulatory environment becomes clearer, more companies will enter the crypto space. We are also developing new revenue streams that are less correlated with trading volume, such as stablecoin interest, custody fees, and staking rewards. Our goal is to ensure a company that is resilient to market fluctuations.

Q6: What is Coinbase's acceleration strategy? What role will traditional finance play in the mainstreaming of cryptocurrency?

Traditional finance will become a critical bridge for the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency—connecting traditional systems with the decentralized financial ecosystem. As Chief Commercial Officer, I believe partnerships with institutions like JPMorgan Chase and American Express are crucial to accelerating cryptocurrency adoption. These collaborations not only expand cryptocurrency accessibility and lower the barrier to entry for consumers, but also integrate cryptocurrency into everyday financial activities like payments and rewards programs.

In June 2025, Shan joined Will Stredwick, Senior Vice President of American Express, on stage at the Coinbase Crypto Summit to discuss the new Coinbase One credit card (which is an American Express card).

With the trust and infrastructure of traditional finance, we can attract the next wave of users into the crypto space and help millions of people around the world achieve the goal of "economic freedom."

This trend is already emerging: institutions previously skeptical of cryptocurrencies are now exploring ways to custody Bitcoin for their clients; asset managers are looking to launch cryptocurrency ETFs and index products; and payment companies are seeking stablecoin distribution channels. Our role is to provide secure and compliant infrastructure to facilitate their participation in the crypto space. It can be said that traditional finance and cryptocurrencies are converging in a two-way convergence, and Coinbase serves as the bridge between them.

Q7: Among emerging crypto fields such as DeFi, NFT, RWAs, etc., which areas can bring the greatest opportunities to Coinbase?

Currently, the potential in the field of RWAs is most prominent.

From real estate to commodities, tokenizing a wide range of assets unlocks new markets and creates liquidity in previously illiquid sectors. DeFi is also maturing—moving beyond yield farming to become the core of a new, legitimate financial infrastructure. At Coinbase, we firmly believe that the future of all asset classes lies on the blockchain, and we are focusing our resources on building the infrastructure to make this vision a reality.

The key is to find application scenarios that can "solve real problems on a large scale" rather than just promoting speculation in the crypto-native field (although speculation also has its value).

Q8: How will Coinbase balance international expansion and US regulatory challenges?

We are encouraged by the steps the U.S. is taking to increase regulatory clarity, but we also see tremendous opportunities globally—with clearer regulatory rules in many markets, opportunities are easier to realize.

Regions like Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America are rapidly advancing in cryptocurrency regulation and adoption, and we are actively following this trend by establishing local partnerships and building customized compliance capabilities to meet the evolving needs of each market. The US remains a key market for us, but we will not let the "imperfect regulatory framework" there limit our global ambitions. Cryptocurrency is a global trend, and we are committed to establishing Coinbase as a global leader in this space.

Q9: What is Coinbase's M&A strategy? When it comes to building core capabilities, does the company prefer independent R&D or acquisitions?

We have always been active in the M&A space and will continue to be so. We believe M&A is the core of our growth engine and a key capability we have been building over the years. After determining our strategic direction, we always evaluate our execution path from three perspectives: independent research and development, acquisition integration, and win-win cooperation.

Core platform capabilities are primarily based on independent research and development – this is the company's foundation and requires deep integration with existing platforms.

Acquisitions focus on opportunities that can accelerate strategic implementation, such as acquiring differentiated technology, expertise, licenses, or established businesses. Recent examples include the acquisitions of Deribit, a leading crypto options exchange, and Spindl, an on-chain advertising protocol and exchange.

Through these acquisitions, we can both strengthen our product capabilities and foster new revenue growth. We also value talent and will bring in specialized teams through small-scale acquisitions. The key to successful M&A lies in integration—acquisitions only truly deliver value when they strengthen our core platform, rather than becoming isolated "information silos."

Q10: What kind of positioning do you hope Coinbase will represent in five years?

I envision Coinbase becoming the preferred platform for users, institutions, and their end-clients to store and grow their wealth. Customers should clearly understand that through our trusted, easy-to-use products, they can access unique opportunities. This is exactly what we're striving for: a comprehensive exchange and a mature financial platform—one where users can trade all their desired assets in one place, easily grow their wealth, and manage their daily finances, all powered by crypto technology.

Furthermore, I envision Coinbase becoming synonymous with crypto infrastructure—much like AWS (Amazon Web Services) is in cloud computing. Base (Coinbase's blockchain network) is building the future on-chain economy, supporting on-chain crypto applications across finance, social networking, and more. Whether you're a startup issuing a token, a bank providing crypto services, or a nation exploring digital currency, Coinbase can be your trusted infrastructure partner. We aspire to be a necessity, not an option, supporting all crypto-related industry innovation.

My new understanding of Coinbase from Shan Aggarwal's sharing

Through my conversation with Shan Aggarwal, I deeply realized that Coinbase isn't just preparing for the next cryptocurrency bull run; it's building infrastructure for the long-term future of cryptocurrency. The company's core strategy isn't to chase short-term trends, but to integrate cryptocurrency into everyday finance—from promoting institutional adoption to expanding stablecoin usage to expanding into international markets. Shan Aggarwal clearly stated that the most important growth levers at this stage are high-quality growth, deepening customer relationships, and becoming the company's "crypto pillar."

I also saw more clearly Coinbase's ambition: to become not only a "full-category exchange" for digital assets, but also the "AWS" of crypto infrastructure. Whether it's tokenizing real-world assets, creating compliant and trustworthy stablecoins, or bridging traditional finance and Web 3, Shan Aggarwal's vision remains clear: Coinbase not only wants to "participate in the future of money," but also to "define the future of money."

This is a bold mission, and I will continue to follow Coinbase's every move going forward.

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