The digital finance world was knocked off balance a little bit today when word came out that not only did Coinbase make a very tidy revenue this latest quarter, the American crypto exchange pummeled analyst expectations as a publicly-traded entity and have now set the stage for re-shaping the forward direction for U.S. crypto in 2024. Unlike Binance, which suffered a fatal injury from it's own leader's involvement in alleged money-funny business, a vulnerability that ultimately brought Binance within the administrative purview of the U.S. Department of Justice, Coinbase stayed aligned with government from the beginning. That discipline has paid off. 

A Paved Path Going Forward

Now, Coinbase is positioned to be the premiere crypto exchange for the U.S., and the same may very well position the platform to being a prime candidate for merger with, gasp, the likes of Google or Microsoft. Yes, while both those companies are hedged in with regards to their traditional markets, they can easily expand over to the blockchain crypto side, which is wide open for growth. And a merger with Coinbase would be a dramatic move of market control that could pay dividends for decades forward as currency becomes digitized. 

Coinbase has no real competition now. Both Kraken and Binance have been hobbled. Other platforms are either overseas and restricted from playing in the U.S. under threat of lawsuit, and remainders are trying to stay out of the limelight to avoid the gaze of the SEC and becoming an easy litigation target for political posturing. Instead, Coinbase has the resources and network on Capitol Hill to fend off a pesky regulator, as well as outlast his tenure before anything can even become a risk in court. And if the company does choose to combine itself with one of the two aforementioned players, there is no chance the SEC can squash Coinbase after that. 

Why Does 2024 Matter?

What does the above mean for consumers? Well, at first it might seem rather convenient for consumers to have a combination of a tech giant and crypto in the same entity. However, those benefits may fade luster when folks realize that the independence and decentralization of blockchains may become controlled by a large centralized player. The government would definitely prefer that option; centralization works better for government policy than a million decentralized points to herd like cats. And in that regard, the limitation of central control would dampen the value of crypto and would also likely neuter its ability to reshape people's lives, except for maybe the very rich again. 

There's no question that Coinbase's repositioning in 2024 is a gateway for things to come. However, for the average consumer, it may the dawn of a negative period in crypto access for main street America.