US-based Coinbase has plans to be more than one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges by going public as well as launching an exchange-traded fund (ETF) and become the place for investors to trade all available digital assets.

“We want to be the bridge all over the world where people come, and they take fiat currency, and they can get it into these different cryptocurrencies,” says Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, whose company has doubled its staff to 500.

Coinbase to host hundreds of cryptocurrencies

“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 decentralised organisations and apps, they’re all going to have their own tokens,” he adds.

In light of this tokenised future, Coinbase will potentially host hundreds and even millions of digital coins within the next few years, says Armstrong. Coinbase currently hosts five cryptocurrencies, so if and when it does increase the crypto exchange would grow to be larger than the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.

However, before this ‘dream’ comes true, regulation is required, according to many crypto experts. Armstrong is possibly one of the very few people in the industry who doesn’t agree with this argument. He does, however, accept that there’s a big question over whether most of the new rush of tokens he predicts will be securities.

“We do feel a substantial subset of these tokens will be securities,” he comments. “Our approach has always been to be the most trusted exchange and the easiest to use. So we want to be the legal compliant place where you can start to trade these tokens that are classified as securities.”

He believes that along with the growth in cryptocurrencies the number of people in the crypto ecosystem will also increase. Currently, there are about 40 million people involved in crypto investments. In the next five years, there’ll be one billion, Armstrong says.

Coinbase holds talks with BlackRock

Also, Coinbase executives have approached Wall Street giant BlackRock, which manages $6 trillion in assets, seeking help to launch a cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Coinbase joins VanEck, Bitwise Asset Management and Gemini in bidding to launch the first crypto ETF. The US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has so far rejected nine Bitcoin ETF applications.

The San Francisco-based venture claims to be the most popular exchange for fiat to crypto conversion with over 13 million users and $1 billion in revenue.

Armstrong has also announced plans to go public, possibly on the blockchain and on his the Coinbase platform. “We are self-sustaining,” Armstrong states. “You know, we’ve been profitable for quite a while. We don’t have any plans to raise additional capital at this point but never say never. Someday I’d love to run a public company.”