Coinbase Ventures unveils nine priority sectors for 2026 as crypto VC funding hits $4.65bn
Coinbase Ventures has unveiled nine key investment sectors it believes will define the next wave of blockchain innovation in 2026. The announcement comes at a time when global crypto venture capital funding has roared back to life, climbing to $4.65 billion in Q3 2025 — the strongest rebound since the FTX crash. The firm says this sharp surge reflects renewed institutional confidence and a maturing on-chain market environment.
Since launching in 2018, Coinbase Ventures has built one of the industry’s largest and most diverse portfolios, supporting 422 companies across 618 investments. With the growing convergence of blockchain, artificial intelligence, and privacy technologies, the firm says it is now taking a more strategic approach to identifying where the most transformative breakthroughs will emerge. Top on the list are Real-World Asset (RWA) Perpetuals, which general partner Kinji Steimetz describes as enabling synthetic exposure to real-world data, valuations, and economic indicators — a shift he calls “the perpification of everything.”
The firm is also doubling down on advanced trading infrastructure, highlighting proprietary AMMs, prediction market terminals, and the rise of composable perpetual markets. With perpetual DEX volumes now topping $1.4 trillion monthly, Coinbase Ventures believes traders will soon earn yield on collateral without closing leveraged positions — a major evolution for DeFi traders. Another area gaining momentum is unsecured onchain lending, which general partner Jonathan King says could tap into the U.S.’s massive $1.3 trillion unsecured credit market by blending blockchain-based reputation scores with real-world financial data.
Privacy and identity remain central to Coinbase Ventures’ 2026 thesis. The firm is prioritizing onchain privacy solutions, including zero-knowledge proofs and trusted execution environments, which it argues are essential for mainstream adoption. It is also backing proof-of-humanity technologies to combat the rising flood of AI-generated content and strengthen digital identity verification — a trend general partner Hoolie Tejwani says will be critical for maintaining trust online.
Beyond finance, Coinbase Ventures says it is preparing for the next phase of decentralized technology by investing in robotics data collection networks and AI-powered smart contract development tools. These innovations could democratize access to onchain business creation, enabling non-technical founders to launch blockchain applications in hours. President and COO Emilie Choi encouraged founders building in these nine focus areas to engage with the firm, while chief business officer Shan Aggarwal emphasized that the future of global capital markets will be unmistakably built onchain.
source: Business day