The three major investment banks are optimistic about the future of Coinbase (COIN.US): Bernstein favors the tokenization super cycle, while Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. considers it the preferred choice for crypto infrastructure.

With the start of the global financial market in 2026, cryptocurrency trading giant Coinbase (COIN.US) is at the core of a strategic transformation. The company's CEO Brian Armstrong officially announced the "Everything Exchange" vision this month, signaling a deep cross-boundary shift in the company's business. Due to optimism about its potential for horizontal expansion into traditional financial markets, including mainstream investment banks such as Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., many have raised their stock ratings to "buy". On January 6, Bernstein analyst Gautam Chugani lowered Coinbase's target price from $510 to $440 while maintaining an "outperform" rating. Bernstein expects a tokenization super-cycle in 2026, characterized by the migration of the dollar, capital markets, and event-based assets to blockchain. The institution remains optimistic about Bitcoin, believing that this cryptocurrency and the broader digital asset market have already bottomed out. On the same day, Rosenblatt also lowered Coinbase's target price from $470 to $325 while maintaining a "buy" rating. This adjustment was made due to a significant slowdown in trading activity. Despite the short-term slowdown, Rosenblatt believes that the market has already taken into account these lower trading volumes. The company still sees potential in Coinbase's long-term transformation, believing that as the company expands into stocks, prediction markets, and stablecoin payments, it will reduce its reliance on volatile cryptocurrency trading cycles, thus having significant upside potential. However, on January 5, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. raised Coinbase's rating from "neutral" to "buy" and raised the target stock price from $294 to $303. The institution pointed out that the recent product releases have enhanced the competitiveness of its core business. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. believes that Coinbase is a top investment choice for those looking to profit from the expansion of crypto infrastructure. It is understood that Coinbase is planning to challenge traditional financial services platforms like Robinhood by introducing zero-commission stock trading, ETF management, and commodity prediction markets, leveraging the convenience of payments in US dollars and stablecoins (USDC). At the same time, the company has explicitly set its growth engine for 2026 on the expansion of the stablecoin payment ecosystem and the developer penetration of Base blockchain, aiming to establish a more robust multi-dimensional income structure beyond the volatile crypto industry. It is worth mentioning that, in response to key crypto legislation such as the upcoming "CLARITY Act", Coinbase is actively lobbying to retain the right to provide stablecoin rewards to customers, a business segment that generates up to $1.3 billion in annual non-interest income for the company. The company has even issued a strong signal that if the final law includes restrictions on stablecoin rewards or provisions that excessively interfere with decentralized finance (DeFi), it will consider withdrawing support for the related legislation. In terms of global expansion, Coinbase is undergoing complex strategic adjustments and regional reductions. Due to local currency environments and compliance costs, Coinbase announced that it will officially cease fiat currency trading pairs between the Argentine peso (ARS) and USDC on January 31, 2026, retaining only the functionality for converting pure cryptocurrencies. Additionally, despite facing licensing regulatory blockages in markets such as the Philippines in Southeast Asia, capital markets remain optimistic about its strength.