Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong eyes flatcoins as ‘next iteration of stablecoins’

Quick Take

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong referenced flatcoins, which are pegged to the cost of living rather than another currency, as an area of personal interest in an interview.
Armstrong said the company isn’t currently working on flatcoin development, but is eyeing a few technologies including flatcoins for potential venture investments.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong called flatcoins “the next iteration of stablecoins” and hinted about the future direction of the company’s venture investments in an interview.

The word “flatcoin” was likely coined by former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, who noted that if a particular fiat currency inflates, the stablecoins pegged to that fiat currency will also inflate. A flatcoin would instead peg its price to “...an on-chain basket of goods,” according to Srinivasan.

“[The Flatcoin concept is] a new thing on the horizon. There's a couple teams working on it,” said Armstrong in an interview with Yahoo Finance. “We're not building something in that realm yet, but we're interested in it.”

Armstrong described the idea as “a better form of money in the crypto space” compared to currently available cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

Investing in new crypto ideas

Armstrong had previously highlighted the concept of flatcoins in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that showcased the 10 ideas in crypto he’s “most excited about.” In the interview, Armstrong noted that a number of its venture investments might go into some of the ideas mentioned in that post.

Armstrong’s post mentioned other ideas that excited him, including on-chain reputation, ads, capital formation, and games, privacy for Layer 2 chains, tokenizing real-world assets, and more. In the interview with Yahoo, Armstrong noted that “a number of our venture investments might go into things like that,” referencing his post.

Armstrong also highlighted the launch of Base and its Coinbase Derivatives exchange as two recent victories for the company, in the interview. Coinbase’s Onchain Summer initiative to promote Base appears to have been successful, as the chain is now the third largest Layer 2 chain on Ethereum by Total Value Locked, according to The Block data.

Coinbase Ventures recently invested an undisclosed amount in six projects from the Base Ecosystem fund: Avantis, BSX, Onboard, OpenCover, Paragraph, and Truflation. Truflation, which offers on-chain CPI oracles, was listed as an “honorable mention” on Armstrong’s X post about flatcoins.