Of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, the company has reached an important benchmark and has over $420 billion in AUM (assets under management). It is now larger than the 21st largest bank in the United States, by total assets. As Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong previously noted, this is where the firm sits between credit institutions, such as banks, and, on the other end of the spectrum, between those institutions providing brokerage services.
Coinbase’s AUM vs Traditional Banks.
With an AUM of $420 billion, Coinbase is now bigger than New York Community Bancorp (NYCB), which is an $112.9 billion asset holder. After Coinbase’s good news, NYCB just announced a loss of $260 million in Q4 of 2023.
Armstrong said, “If Coinbase is a brokerage firm, it ranks 8th in the United States by AUM.” The comparisons go to show how cryptocurrency platforms play increasingly essential roles in the overall financial business.
🚀 Big news in the crypto world! #Coinbase has achieved an astounding $420B in Assets Under Management (AUM), surpassing the 21st largest US bank! 🏦 This milestone showcases the growing influence of digital currencies. Are we witnessing a paradigm shift? 💰 #Crypto #Finance #B…
— FatRatKiller (@FatRatKiller) February 8, 2025
The Future of Finance: Crypto as a Unified Financial System
Armstrong believes that future cryptocurrency will make finance unified, meaning that there will be no need for separate accounts in financial services. The “new financial system” is supposed to comprise the single most important financial account under which banking, investments, and payments all fall together. This will bring about the following:
- Lower costs due to reduced friction in the system.
- More economic liberty through decentralized networks
Barriers to Widespread Cryptocurrency Use
The important thing, says Chintan Turakhia, senior director of engineering at Coinbase, for bringing in that next billion is to make cryptocurrency easier to use. The biggest challenges are the complexity of setting up a wallet, for instance, for managing seed phrases. Another is the high transaction fee on blockchain networks, making transactions expensive and often requiring users to buy native tokens just to process payments. The industry has to simplify such processes and create an experience as smooth and comfortable as traditional banking to make crypto a widely adopted form of currency.
Conclusion
Coinbase’s enormous AUM achievement marks a significant milestone in the growing integration of cryptocurrencies into mainstream finance. As exchanges continue to grow, they could easily disrupt the traditional banks and brokerages, providing more efficient and inclusive financial services, but only once more attention is directed at making cryptocurrency accessible to everyday users.
