Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong unveiled the corporate’s ambitious 2026 roadmap, promising a world “the entirety trade”.
Whereas the imaginative and prescient is plucky, users and developers alike are signaling frustration, citing a widening gap between Coinbase’s acknowledged priorities and their on-the-ground experiences.
Brian Armstrong Takes Fire as Coinbase’s 2026 Roadmap Faces User Backlash
Per the Coinbase executive, the Every thing app would span crypto, equities, commodities, and prediction markets. It might perchance probably perchance perchance additionally feature scaled stablecoins and funds, in addition to to expanded developer onboarding thru the Injurious chain and the Injurious App.
“We’re making well-known investments in product quality and automation underlying every of these as successfully. Design is to construct Coinbase the #1 monetary app on the earth,” wrote Armstrong.
Critics occupy prolonged highlighted safety lapses. In 2025, Coinbase experienced a recordsdata breach allegedly intriguing insider participation.
“Brian quiet doesn’t peep consumer safety to be a priority for Coinbase. It also can’ve been prevented. A yr later, rather than fixing that shit, leadership says ‘lift extra lambs to my slaughterhouse, pls,’” wrote Tay, a favored consumer on X (Twitter).
Despite Armstrong’s 2026 point of curiosity on world growth and automation, many users feel security and buyer enhance remain afterthoughts.
Priorities are important
— Kyle Chassé 🐸 (@Kylechasse) January 2, 2026
The backlash against the Injurious App has compounded frustrations. The rebranded self-custody wallet, designed as a hybrid of shopping and selling, social feeds, and messaging atop Coinbase’s Layer-2 Injurious chain, has been criticized for prioritizing creator and narrate material cash over valuable DeFi or gaming projects.
“Every thing on Injurious is trash… Your flagship is a rip-off token generator,” acknowledged but every other consumer, reflecting a fashioned sentiment among developers who feel lost sight of unless they align with Injurious leadership or are ex-Coinbase workers.
Many builders document feeling unsupported and gaslit by Injurious administration. In a prolonged publish, developer Coco argued that Coinbase is successfully competing with its have builders, favoring insiders over prolonged-standing projects.
“Quit supporting absolute scammers… Reinforce legit builders, no longer SouljaBoy or Sahil,” Coco wrote, emphasizing the likelihood of top expertise fleeing the ecosystem if the chain continues to prioritize inner politics over merit.
BeInCrypto no longer too prolonged prior to now reported on the controversy surrounding Soulja Boy, the derive backlash erupted after Injurious creator Jesse Pollak instructed a meme coin linked to the American rapper and document producer.
Retail Wants a Financial Huge App—Not Social Experiments
Customers are additionally questioning Coinbase’s point of curiosity on social versus monetary utility. Whereas Armstrong emphasizes onboarding thru the Injurious App, retail traders argue that the corporate is neglecting the next know-how of finance users.
“Retail needs to wager, bank, build, accomplish, trade, withdraw cash, pay rent, and the entirety else on the same time… Coinbase doesn’t tag this,” defined consumer Evfiend, highlighting the aggressive possibility posed by platforms fancy Robinhood, which offer integrated monetary services without forcing users to navigate fragmented apps.
Regulatory choices occupy added to confusion. Coinbase plans to turn off on/off ramps in Argentina, a topic with high stablecoin adoption. This prompts questions about whether such moves are regulatory, political, or inner.
Hi there Brian! why is Coinbase planning to turn off the on/off ramps in Argentina, given it’s some of the areas with the most effective stablecoin utilization globally? Is this mainly because of the regulatory or political constraints, or extra of an inner resolution? Rather shocking pondering the…
— Criptolawyer (@criptolawyer) January 2, 2026
At final, analysts and users additionally cite a disconnect between roadmap and execution, with execution having historically fallen brief. This pertains to uneven token listings and opaque resolution-making on the Injurious chain.
Longstanding Injurious builders echo this, describing an “uneven, unfair playground” the derive merit is generally secondary to inner alignment. Many users ogle Armstrong’s playbook as repetitive and disconnected from community needs.
“They’ve bustle this same playbook for a truly prolonged time now… The shit they mutter doesn’t match up with the shit they build,” tweeted Rbthreek, highlighting the rising credibility gap with both retail users and developers.
Despite these criticisms, some peep probably in Coinbase’s 2026 imaginative and prescient. Customers acknowledge the Injurious chain’s promise for on-chain funds and retail adoption, and the Injurious App might perchance perchance well also at final streamline social shopping and selling if execution aligns with community needs.
Yet, without addressing security, developer believe, and the disconnect between ambition and shipping, Coinbase dangers alienating the very users its roadmap objectives to onboard.
As Armstrong pushes for a world “the entirety trade,” critics argue that Coinbase must first indicate it will accumulate, enhance, and empower its present ugly sooner than having a wager on the prolonged bustle of on-chain social finance.
Except then, 2026 will be a yr of promise, but additionally of mounting skepticism.
The publish Right here Are The total Causes Why Coinbase’s 2026 Vision Isn’t Winning Fans regarded first on BeInCrypto.
