WILMINGTON, Del.— The CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, has announced ambitious plans to turn the cryptocurrency exchange into a comprehensive crypto and bitcoin “super app” that will provide a full range of financial services currently offered by traditional financial institutions.
Armstrong said the super app will take advantage of “legacy banking inefficiencies.”
Specifically, he highlighted the inefficiencies of what he called the high transaction fees associated with credit cards.
“It kind of boggles my mind,” Armstrong said. “Like, why are we paying two to three percent every time we swipe our credit card? It’s just some bits of data flowing over the internet. It should be free or close to it.”
The New PFA
According to Armstrong, Coinbase’s goal is to become users’ primary financial account, leveraging bitcoin and blockchain rails for payments, credit cards and rewards.
He said one of the key features under consideration is a credit card offering 4% rewards paid in bitcoin.
“Ultimately, we want to be a bank replacement for people,” he said.
Armstrong credited the recent passage of the GENIUS Act as providing the regulatory guidance needed to move forward toward those goals.
