Bitcoin Magazine
Coinbase Institutional Co-CEO: Bitcoin’s “Second Wave” of Institutional Capital has Arrived
Seven of the largest banks in the world are now running on Coinbase infrastructure, and Brett Tejpaul, Co-CEO of Coinbase Institutional, says they’re having a “Kodak moment.” He joins Grace Remington and Sean Hagan to explain why the driver has shifted from Bitcoin ETFs to stablecoin payments now that money can move from a Citi account to USDC, across the blockchain in a second, and into a corporate account on the other side. He also gives a candid read on Bitcoin: the macro setup is great, the performance has been disappointing, and institutions aren’t yet treating it as anything but a tech trade.
Chapters:
0:00 Seven of the World’s Largest Banks Are Using Coinbase Infrastructure
1:19 From ETFs to Payments: Citi, USDC and Instant Bank-to-Blockchain Transfers
2:44 $400 Million an Hour in Stablecoins and the Banks’ “Kodak Moment”
4:38 Stablecoins Are a “Speck of Dust”: Payment Providers First, Then Banks
6:10 Agentic Commerce Arriving at the Same Time as the Big Players
6:49 Is Bitcoin Still a Leveraged Tech Trade? “Disappointing” Performance, Great Setup
8:44 Connecting U.S. Funds to Deribit’s 85% Options Market Share
11:06 The Second Wave: Net-New Entrants and Coinbase’s “Amazon to AWS” Pivot
12:57 Activating the Whole U.S. Through Coinbase Infrastructure
13:56 Quantum, 90% ETF Custody Share and “Safe Forever”
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
This post Coinbase Institutional Co-CEO: Bitcoin’s “Second Wave” of Institutional Capital has Arrived first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Patrick Green.
TL;DR: Ireland’s central bank imposed a €3.25 million penalty on Coinbase Ireland over electronic-money safeguarding and outsourcing failings, subject to High Court confirmation.
Ireland's central bank has fined Coinbase Ireland €3,252,618 after finding failures in the way the company safeguarded electronic-money customer funds and oversaw outsourced arrangements.
The action, announced Thursday, concerns compliance with Ireland's electronic-money rules over a period spanning 2020 to 2025. It is important to identify the regulated activity precisely: the decision is about safeguarding funds associated with electronic-money services, not an allegation that Coinbase's blockchain itself suffered a security breach.
Electronic-money institutions must maintain arrangements that separate relevant customer money from the firm's own funds and protect it under the governing rules. The Central Bank of Ireland said Coinbase Ireland did not consistently maintain the required amount in designated safeguarding accounts and failed to meet related governance and outsourcing obligations.
Safeguarding failures matter even when customers do not report an immediate loss. They weaken the controls designed to ensure funds are available if a business runs into trouble, and they can leave regulators without a reliable picture of where protected balances actually sit.
The central bank's notice says Coinbase Ireland admitted the breaches. The monetary sanction reflects a starting penalty of €4,646,597 reduced by 30% under the regulator's settlement-discount scheme. The sanction is subject to confirmation by Ireland's High Court, a procedural qualification that should not be lost in the headline.
Crypto companies often hold multiple regulatory permissions that govern different pieces of a customer relationship. Safeguarding rules for an electronic-money business are not identical to the rules governing an exchange, a wallet provider or a bank deposit.
That distinction has become more important as exchanges add payment accounts, stablecoin access and other bank-like features. A company may deliver technically functioning transactions while still falling short on operational records, third-party oversight or reconciliation of the money behind those services.
Coinbase is a prominent global exchange, so a national enforcement action carries reputational weight. It does not, by itself, establish that Coinbase customers lost €3.25 million; that figure is the fine, not a documented customer loss.
The practical takeaway is that consumer confidence in digital finance depends on more than cryptographic security. Conventional controls over client funds remain essential, and regulators are prepared to enforce them even at firms whose public identity is rooted in cryptocurrency.
Source: edit.centralbank.ie original announcement or data.
Related Reading: crypto custody; crypto exchanges; stablecoins.
Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
Bitcoin Magazine
Central Bank of Ireland Fines Coinbase Unit €3.25 Million Over Customer Fund Safeguarding Failures
The Central Bank of Ireland has fined Coinbase Ireland Limited €3.25 million ($3.65 million) for failing to safeguard customer funds and for leaning on its US parent to run compliance functions it was supposed to control itself.
The regulator announced the penalty on Thursday, one day after it reached a settlement with the Coinbase subsidiary.
The breaches ran from November 2020 to August 2025 under Ireland’s Electronic Money Regulations. Coinbase Ireland, an e-money institution, issues the euro and dollar balances European customers use to buy bitcoin and other crypto assets on the Coinbase platform.
The law requires those balances to sit in dedicated safeguarding accounts, walled off from corporate money and from customers of other Coinbase entities.
The Central Bank found three failures. Coinbase Ireland placed “excessive reliance” on its US-based group to design and run its safeguarding controls, and it lacked the local expertise to oversee that work.
Its safeguarding account was underfunded “for lengthy periods of time” because of poor system design and weak control testing. And it had no adequate process to flag material changes in its safeguarding practices to the regulator.
That last point drew the sharpest language from Karen O’Leary, the Central Bank’s director of enforcement. The regulator said the exchange Ireland promised “robust and automated safeguards” when it sought authorisation in 2019, and that the firm’s practices drifted from those commitments without notice.
“Failing to adhere to the assurances made during the authorisation process or to inform us of material changes as happened in this case is completely unacceptable,” O’Leary said. “Payment and e-money firms have a fundamental obligation to fully safeguard customers’ funds. The Central Bank has made its supervisory expectations in this regard clear: we have no tolerance for weaknesses in safeguarding arrangements.”
The Central Bank set the base penalty at €4.65 million and applied a 30% discount for settling. The fine and a reprimand await confirmation from Ireland’s High Court. It is the regulator’s 164th enforcement outcome, bringing its lifetime fines past €432 million.
In a blog post, Coinbase said it self-reported “many of the items described in the settlement” in January 2024 and fixed most of the underlying control issues that same year. The company stressed that no customer lost money or lost access to funds.
Coinbase laid out five problem areas. During the March 2023 US banking crisis, as Silvergate Bank neared collapse, Coinbase Ireland directed 30 customers to deposit dollars into a Coinbase, Inc. account at another US bank, mixing their funds with those of a separate Coinbase entity.
After Brexit forced the migration of European customers from the company’s UK affiliate, some kept sending deposits to the old UK accounts. Euro withdrawals for US and UK customers of other Coinbase units were at times paid out of the Irish safeguarding account for liquidity reasons, the exchange said.
Coding errors in an internal dashboard left the safeguarding account underfunded by an average of roughly 0.54% of its total obligation through 2023 and the first half of 2024. And the firm did not tell the Central Bank about changes to its practices.
A daily “Treasury Rebalancing Process” moved funds back into the correct account each day, the exchange said, but that did not prevent the initial commingling.
“These issues largely arose in the context of Coinbase taking steps to protect customers during periods of significant disruption,” a company spokesperson told Reuters.
The exchange said it has since redesigned its safeguarding calculation, passed two third-party validations with no open findings, posted a €25 million guaranty bond and hired a dedicated head of safeguarding.
The penalty follows a €21.5 million fine the Central Bank imposed on Coinbase Europe in November 2025 for failing to monitor more than 30 million transactions for money laundering and terrorist financing risk.
That unit’s Irish registration lapsed at the end of 2025 as the exchange shifted its European headquarters to Luxembourg under a MiCA license from the country’s financial regulator.
Coinbase is the largest US crypto exchange and the world’s biggest custodian of bitcoin, holding coins on behalf of most US spot bitcoin ETFs.
This post Central Bank of Ireland Fines Coinbase Unit €3.25 Million Over Customer Fund Safeguarding Failures first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.
The arrest count is striking, but the scale of the online infrastructure removed may be the bigger story. An international effort against West African scam networks has resulted in 28 arrests, while technology companies say they removed more than 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups linked to fraudulent activity.
TL;DR: The US Justice Department says its October crackdown led to 28 arrests in Ghana and Nigeria. Binance and Coinbase were among the industry participants, and partners identified more than $11 million in potentially freezable funds, not confirmed recoveries.
The operation, called Joint Disruption Week, brought investigators together at the UK’s National Crime Agency in London during the week beginning October 6. Authorities targeted networks accused of investment fraud, impersonation and other online schemes that reach victims well beyond West Africa.
According to the Justice Department’s October 13 announcement, Ghanaian authorities arrested 19 people and seized 303 electronic devices in an operation near Accra. Nine more arrests were reported in Nigeria. Investigators also identified 117 trafficking victims in Ghana, a reminder that scam-centre operations can involve people held against their will as well as the victims losing money online.
Binance and Coinbase joined companies including Chainalysis, Elliptic, Meta, Google and Microsoft in sharing intelligence or disrupting the infrastructure used by scammers. That collaboration can help investigators connect social-media accounts, payments and wallet activity, but it should not be confused with proof that every suspect used cryptocurrency.
There is also an important distinction in the money figure. Officials said private-sector partners identified more than $11 million in funds that could potentially be frozen. They did not say that $11 million had been seized or returned to victims.
The real test now is how much of the identified money authorities can actually secure and how many disrupted operations stay offline.
Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
Bitcoin Magazine
Coinbase’s Ryan VanGrack: CFTC Approval “Opens Many Doors” for Bitcoin
The SEC’s proposed custody rules could make it easier for investment advisors to help clients own Bitcoin directly. Coinbase’s Ryan VanGrack explains why institutional capital tends to flow where there are clearer rules, and why he sees direct ownership and ETFs as “both and, not either or.” He also shares why traditional finance is accelerating its push into Bitcoin and digital assets.
Chapters:
00:00 Coinbase Wins CFTC Approval for Its Own Clearinghouse
01:29 Can SEC Guidance Last Without the Clarity Act?
02:40 SEC Custody Proposal: Helping Advisors Hold Bitcoin Directly
04:14 Tokenization: The Biggest Upgrade Since Electronic Trading
05:41 How Tokenization Cuts Out Wall Street’s Middlemen
07:34 What Washington Still Needs to Fix for Bitcoin Holders
08:56 Institutional Adoption Accelerates After the Clarity Act Vote
11:07 How Coinbase Is Bringing Digital Asset Infrastructure to Community Banks
12:01 Sponsor: Square
12:34 Is Crypto Really a Tool for Illicit Finance?
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
This post Coinbase’s Ryan VanGrack: CFTC Approval “Opens Many Doors” for Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Patrick Green.
Bitcoin Magazine
Coinbase Business Chief: Big Banks Increasing BTC Exposure | Shan Aggarwal
New SEC rules could open the door for financial advisors to hold Bitcoin for their clients, and Coinbase is already at the center of that custody story. Shan Aggarwal, Coinbase’s first-ever Chief Business Officer, explains how Coinbase custodies most of the Bitcoin ETFs and supports the advisor community. He sees the advisor rule as expanding the pie for Bitcoin access, with Coinbase providing the infrastructure behind it.
Chapters:
00:00 How the SEC’s New Advisor Rules Could Bring Bitcoin to Wealth Managers
01:13 What BlackRock and JPMorgan Want From Bitcoin Infrastructure
02:16 What Will Drive the Next Wave of Bitcoin Adoption
03:28 Can the Coinbase One Card Turn Spenders Into Bitcoin Owners?
04:22 Coinbase’s Trillion-Dollar Stablecoin Opportunity
05:14 Coinbase and Citi Bring Stablecoin Payments to Merchants
05:56 Sponsor: SALT Lending
06:26 How Coinbase Customers Are Using Bitcoin Lightning
07:37 Will AI Agents Pay in Bitcoin or Stablecoins?
08:30 Coinbase Expands Into Collectibles and Everyday Bitcoin Rewards
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
This post Coinbase Business Chief: Big Banks Increasing BTC Exposure | Shan Aggarwal first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Patrick Green.
Bitcoin Magazine
Coinbase Asset Management President: Bitcoin to $300k by 2030 | Anthony Bassili
What’s Coinbase’s asset manager’s Bitcoin price target? Anthony Bassili, president of Coinbase Asset Management, says his team’s target is north of $300,000 by 2030. He also explains why he expects Bitcoin’s cycle returns to shrink from a larger base, and why gold parity is a longer-term trend.
Chapters:
0:00 What Does Coinbase Asset Management Do?
1:01 How Pensions, Endowments, and Sovereigns Approach Bitcoin
3:29 Wealth Advisors and the 1–5% Bitcoin Allocation
4:04 The Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund: Who Uses It and Why
7:34 Bitcoin Price Target and Why Cycle Returns Keep Shrinking
10:08 Tokenization: Tokenized Funds and the iCapital Feeder
12:10 Why Tokenization Will Take Time to Reach Advisors
15:54 Will Sovereign and Pension Allocations Keep Rising?
18:14 Bitcoin and Gold: Correlations in the Fiscal Dominance Era
19:23 The Store of Value Index: Bitcoin and Gold in One Wrapper
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.
This post Coinbase Asset Management President: Bitcoin to $300k by 2030 | Anthony Bassili first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Patrick Green.
Bitcoin Magazine
Citi and Coinbase Working Together To Build Stablecoin Infrastructure for Businesses
Citigroup is working with America’s biggest crypto exchange, Coinbase, in its latest blockchain-based venture.
The two companies said in a joint statement Monday that they were teaming up to allow Citi clients to move between regular money and stablecoins without having to build or manage both banking and crypto systems themselves.
The announcement comes as banks worldwide utilize Bitcoin’s underlying technology to speed up their processes and cater to crypto-hungry customers.
Citi last month said it would allow institutional investors to custody both traditional assets and bitcoin within one framework, rather than needing separate systems, later this year.
“Our clients operate in an increasingly fast-paced and complex global economy, and we’re focused on delivering the solutions they need,” said Debopama Sen, Head of Payments, Services, Citi.
“Our goal is to build the next generation of payments infrastructure — one that is seamless, interoperable, and operates across both traditional and digital payments instruments and networks.”
There are two parts to the deal, the announcement said. Firstly, Coinbase Virtual Accounts, built on Citi’s banking-as-a-service platform, will give Coinbase’s payments customers bank-account-like features so they can accept, hold, send funds. Citi will provide the regulated banking backbone so that incoming fiat can be automatically converted to stablecoins.
Secondly, Citi’s merchant platform, Spring by Citi, will use Coinbase’s infrastructure so that Citi’s enterprise clients can accept stablecoin payments at checkout. Coinbase will convert the stablecoins to fiat, and Citi settles the funds, so merchants never have to hold or manage crypto directly.
“Fintechs building on Coinbase have always needed a fast, compliant bridge between fiat and stablecoins, and Citi gives us that at scale,” Coinbase’s Head of Infrastructure Product, Alec Lovett, said.
Coinbase and Citi first announced last year that they would partner to enhance digital asset payment capabilities for institutional clients.
Citi has a number of blockchain offerings, including Citi Token Services, which enables real-time cross-border payments using tokenized deposits.
The firm since last year has also been working with other top banks — including Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America — to explore issuing a stablecoin product.
This post Citi and Coinbase Working Together To Build Stablecoin Infrastructure for Businesses first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.
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