CoinbaseCOIN, the major U.S.-listed bitcoin and crypto exchange, has seen its stock price rocket over the last month (with a multi-trillion dollar China bombshell potentially just around the corner).
The bitcoin price has doubled since the beginning of 2023, with it and the second-largest cryptocurrency ethereum outpaced by the XRPXRP price that’s surged following a shock legal ruling.
Now, after ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin teased a new upgrade that could be a 100x game-changer, Coinbase protocols lead Jesse Pollak has predicted almost everyone on Earth will be introduced to the crypto ecosystem by 2030.
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“Our feeling is that there’s so much growth ahead of us,” Pollak, who leads Coinbase’s development of ethereum-focused layer-two blockchain Base, told Decrypt on the sidelines of an ethereum conference in Paris. “We have less than 10 million people on-chain today. There’s going to be 8 billion people on-chain over the next decade.”
Coinbase’s ambitions have increased along with the crypto market, which exploded to around $3 trillion in 2021 before collapsing through 2022. The San Francisco-based company said last month its “goal” is to bring “over 1 billion people into crypto.”
“I think it’s happening right before our eyes,” Pollak said, predicting bitcoin, crypto and blockchain technology will “change billions of people’s lives.”
The world of bitcoin and crypto has been galvanized in recent weeks after a long period of stagnation by BlackRock’s application for a U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) and chief executive Larry Fink’s shock flip to bullish on bitcoin.
Fink, who founded the world’s largest asset manager that oversees some $9 trillion worth of assets around the world, said this month that bitcoin and crypto could “revolutionize finance”—a sentiment echoed by Pollak.
“Everyone’s going to finally be put on a level playing field, where they get access to the same products and services, regardless of where they were born or where they live,” Pollak said, describing crypto as “fundamentally global by default.”
Pollak’s crypto and bitcoin prediction also encompasses blockchain growing beyond speculation and trading.
“It’s really all about increasing the number of things people can do, so people have more opportunities to use Coinbase,” Pollak said. “It’s not just speculation and trading, it’s also art, music, gaming, and other consumer products.”
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The bitcoin, ethereum, XRP and crypto market has meanwhile stalled after leaping higher in June.
“Bitcoin failed to develop any local upward momentum and continues to test the lower boundary of its last trading range,” Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro senior market analyst, wrote in an emailed note.
“Following the sell-off in risk assets and the rise in the dollar, the first cryptocurrency has returned to below $30,000. A failure below opens the door to a deeper correction to $28,900, where the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement and 50-day moving average are concentrated,” Kuptsikevich said, adding ethereum traders “should pay close attention to the momentum near the 50-day average (currently at $1850), as a break below this level could quickly take another $100 off the price.”
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