Base, Coinbase's onchain platform, has grown its tokenized equities from about 40 to about 100 and targets roughly 500 by quarter's end, six weeks after launch.
Saumya Saxena, Global Builders Lead at Base, argues stablecoins have strong product market fit because they are cheaper, faster and more efficient than older payment methods.
Base helped build the x402 Protocol and signed a Cloudflare deal so that Cloudflare's USDC wallets settle x402 transactions on Base, letting websites monetise content from AI agents.
Base bets stablecoins, tokenized stocks and AI agents will make blockchain invisible
Base, Coinbase's layer 2 chain, is betting that blockchain becomes invisible infrastructure for payments, trading and lending. Stablecoins already beat older payment rails on cost and speed, and tokenized assets can be used as collateral and traded around the clock. AI agents add a new class of users that need to pay and verify on a shared ledger.
Takeaways
Stablecoins have found real product market fit. Saxena says stablecoins are cheaper, faster and more efficient than older payment methods, and fintechs and other businesses now see this without blockchain being explained. She compares them to UPI in India, with settlement on a global ledger.
AI agents are becoming on-chain payment users. Agents have moved from researching assets to executing transactions, in commerce, supply chain purchases and retail. Base helped build the x402 Protocol, and Cloudflare wallets settling in USDC run on Base to settle x402 transactions.
Wallets could let websites charge for content. Saxena argues LLM labs scraped web data because nobody could charge for it. Wallets such as Cloudflare's now let every site monetise its content, and she says AI needs ledger technology to verify what is real.
Tokenized equities are growing fast on Base. Launched about six weeks before the interview, Base's tokenized stocks now number about 100, up from about 40, with a target of some 500 by quarter end. On chain, people anywhere can invest in any stock and trade 24-7.
Tokenized assets become building blocks for lending. Once an asset class is on chain it is permissionless, so anyone can deploy liquidity pools and lending systems. Saxena's example is lending Apple stock and borrowing against it, which she says is not freely possible today.
Blockchain is headed for the background. Saxena expects blockchain to become the obvious backend for software. Enterprise talks have moved from whether to tokenize to how. Base keeps upgrading its chain and introduced the B20 token standard aimed at tokenized assets.
India has talent but little engaged capital. Saxena says India has immense technical talent, but social stigma keeps most people away. Venture capital has not deployed deeply, partly because money went to AI. Base Batches backs Indian founders, and Coinbase Ventures backed a team that raised $5.5m.
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