Companies Will Complete Listing Process Onchain: Coinbase CEO

• Brian Armstrong said heavy regulation has pushed value creation into private markets.
• Coinbase expects companies to complete the full listing process on-chain.
• Fortune 500 firms are actively exploring on-chain equities and assets, he said.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said private companies stay private too long because going public is expensive, slow, and heavily regulated.

According to Armstrong, this has pushed most early value creation into private markets, where access is limited to large funds and credit investors.

He said demand for shares in major private companies already exists, but there is no liquid market to set prices early. When firms finally list, valuations are often distorted, and post-IPO performance suffers.

Armstrong described this as an unintended outcome of higher regulation, not a lack of investor interest.

Public Listings Move On-Chain

Armstrong said the long-term solution is to take the entire listing process on-chain. In that model, companies would issue and trade shares directly through blockchain infrastructure.

He said on-chain listings would sharply lower costs, remove intermediaries, and reduce friction in capital formation. More importantly, they would open access earlier in a company’s life cycle instead of concentrating gains among private investors.

Armstrong said this transition could happen soon, rather than over decades.

Tokenization Dominates Davos Discussions

Armstrong was also present at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 24. He said tokenization was the dominant topic across industries, beyond stablecoins, equities, and other asset classes.

He noted that Fortune 500 companies are now actively exploring tokenized assets. Armstrong framed tokenization as a practical shift, not a buzzword, with the goal of expanding investment access to billions of adults excluded from traditional markets. He said tangible progress is expected in the coming years.

Despite constructive talks in Davos, Armstrong said US regulation remains the main bottleneck. Coinbase recently withdrew support for the Senate version of the CLARITY Act after a late amendment sought to block crypto exchanges from offering yields or rewards on stablecoins.

Armstrong said regulatory clarity around market structure is essential for tokenized equities and on-chain listings to function in the US. He added that discussions with policymakers and banking executives show that large institutions now treat crypto as a strategic priority. 

The Coinbase exec also described the current US administration as the most crypto-forward globally.

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