Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong unveiled the corporate’s formidable 2026 roadmap, promising a worldwide “all the pieces alternate”.
Whereas the imaginative and prescient is daring, customers and builders alike are signaling frustration, citing a widening hole between Coinbase’s acknowledged priorities and their on-the-ground experiences.
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Brian Armstrong Takes Hearth as Coinbase’s 2026 Roadmap Faces Person Backlash
In accordance with the Coinbase govt, the Every little thing app would span crypto, equities, commodities, and prediction markets. It could additionally function scaled stablecoins and funds, in addition to expanded developer onboarding via the Base chain and the Base App.
“We’re making main investments in product high quality and automation underlying every of those as properly. Objective is to make Coinbase the #1 monetary app on the earth,” wrote Armstrong.
Critics have lengthy highlighted security lapses. In 2025, Coinbase skilled an information breach allegedly involving insider participation.
“Brian nonetheless doesn’t see person security to be a precedence for Coinbase. It may’ve been prevented. A yr later, as an alternative of fixing that shit, management says ‘carry extra lambs to my slaughterhouse, pls,’” wrote Tay, a preferred person on X (Twitter).
Regardless of Armstrong’s 2026 give attention to world growth and automation, many customers really feel safety and buyer help stay afterthoughts.
The backlash towards the Base App has compounded frustrations. The rebranded self-custody pockets, designed as a hybrid of buying and selling, social feeds, and messaging atop Coinbase’s Layer-2 Base chain, has been criticized for prioritizing creator and content material cash over significant DeFi or gaming initiatives.
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“Every little thing on Base is trash… Your flagship is a rip-off token generator,” acknowledged one other person, reflecting a widespread sentiment amongst builders who really feel missed except they align with Base management or are ex-Coinbase workers.
Many builders report feeling unsupported and gaslit by Base administration. In a prolonged submit, developer Coco argued that Coinbase is successfully competing with its personal builders, favoring insiders over long-standing initiatives.
“Cease supporting absolute scammers… Assist legit builders, not SouljaBoy or Sahil,” Coco wrote, emphasizing the chance of prime expertise fleeing the ecosystem if the chain continues to prioritize inside politics over advantage.
BeInCrypto just lately reported on the controversy surrounding Soulja Boy, the place backlash erupted after Base creator Jesse Pollak endorsed a meme coin related to the American rapper and file producer.
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Retail Desires a Monetary Tremendous App—Not Social Experiments
Customers are additionally questioning Coinbase’s give attention to social versus monetary utility. Whereas Armstrong emphasizes onboarding via the Base App, retail merchants argue that the corporate is neglecting the subsequent era of finance customers.
“Retail needs to wager, financial institution, save, earn, commerce, withdraw money, pay hire, and all the pieces else on the similar time… Coinbase doesn’t perceive this,” defined person Evfiend, highlighting the aggressive menace posed by platforms like Robinhood, which provide built-in monetary companies with out forcing customers to navigate fragmented apps.
Regulatory choices have added to confusion. Coinbase plans to show off on/off ramps in Argentina, a area with excessive stablecoin adoption. This prompts questions on whether or not such strikes are regulatory, political, or inside.
Lastly, analysts and customers additionally cite a disconnect between roadmap and execution, with execution having traditionally fallen brief. This pertains to uneven token listings and opaque decision-making on the Base chain.
Longstanding Base builders echo this, describing an “uneven, unfair playground” the place advantage is commonly secondary to inside alignment. Many customers understand Armstrong’s playbook as repetitive and disconnected from neighborhood wants.
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“They’ve run this similar playbook for a very long time now… The shit they are saying doesn’t match up with the shit they do,” tweeted Rbthreek, highlighting the rising credibility hole with each retail customers and builders.
Regardless of these criticisms, some see potential in Coinbase’s 2026 imaginative and prescient. Customers acknowledge the Base chain’s promise for on-chain funds and retail adoption, and the Base App may ultimately streamline social buying and selling if execution aligns with neighborhood wants.
But, with out addressing safety, developer belief, and the disconnect between ambition and supply, Coinbase dangers alienating the very customers its roadmap goals to onboard.
As Armstrong pushes for a worldwide “all the pieces alternate,” critics argue that Coinbase should first show it will possibly safe, help, and empower its present base earlier than betting on the way forward for on-chain social finance.
Till then, 2026 could also be a yr of promise, but in addition of mounting skepticism.