Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong: 1 Billion People Will Be in Crypto Ecosystem in 5 Years

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong predicts the number of people in the cryptocurrency ecosystem to grow from the current 40 million to 1 billion in the next five years, TechCrunch reported September 7.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Armstrong projected that the crypto ecosystem and the total number of digital currencies will grow substantially, attributing the growth to commercial organizations which develop their own tokens.

The tokens would reportedly function together with equity as an alternative investment system.

"It makes sense that any company out there who has a cap table should have their own token. Every open source project, every charity, potentially every fund or these new types of decentralized organizations [and] apps, they're all going to have their own tokens."

Addressing the issue of regulation as one of the crucial factors for implementing his vision, Armstrong called it "a big open question," and noted that it remains to be seen whether the majority of tokens will be recognized as securities.

He said that Coinbase does "Feel a substantial subset of these tokens will be securities."

Armstrong added that Coinbase could host hundreds of tokens within "Years" and potentially "Millions" in the future.

In order to become a fully-regulated broker-dealer and "Offer future services that include crypto securities trading, margin and over-the-counter trading," Coinbase acquired securities dealer Keystone Capital Corp. in addition to Venovate Marketplace, Inc., and Digital Wealth LLC. The acquisition could help the company subsequently expand into non-crypto financial products.

Yesterday, Coinbase announced it will launch trading of four more cryptocurrencies for the U.K. pound sterling.

British customers will now be able to trade altcoins Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash for GBP, in addition to the existing Bitcoin.