Coinbase One Card Explained: Up to 4% Bitcoin Back on Everything

Ben, so head of head of financial services and loyalty products at Coinbase, how are you defining that role today and all the amazing things that Coinbase is doing behind the scenes? Yeah. Happy to.

So I'm building me and my team are building a lot of the products that customers rely on to do things like send payments to their friends and family, make everyday purchases using the Coinbase One card she just highlighted, things like borrowing and lending money and earning on chain USDC rewards and tied to the broader Coinbase One membership. So you can think about it like Coinbase is now an everything exchange. You can trade all kinds of assets on Coinbase.

We're bringing a lot of the utility to the assets you're holding on Coinbase and just like in your everyday life when you need to go about, you know, doing things with your money. Yeah. So,

okay. This is this is a perfect we've we've been asking this question to we have a lot of different card programs and people who are innovating within on chain cards coming to the show today. I don't know if you heard, I'm here live in New Jersey at the Composecure and Arculus factory where the Coinbase One card was made. Can you speak a little bit to the I'm a Coinbase One card user myself. I personally really enjoyed using this product. I have the Bitcoin back rewards set, that's been awesome.

Speak a little bit about the role that this card plays within this everything exchange. I know this is Yep. One of many things Coinbase is doing, but in your mind, what type of influence does this card program have within the broader set of services that Coinbase is is covering right now? We're getting some jokes online that this is the card carnival is what we're naming it the card carnival. So welcome to the card carnival, Ben. Go ahead. I'll unmute myself. Yeah.

Well, first of all, thanks for your support using the the Coinbase one card. We view the Coinbase one card attached to the Coinbase one membership as one of the foundations that

could really deepen and expand the relationship Coinbase has with its customers. A lot of customers are already earning. You know, they're trading crypto. They're now trading stocks. They're making predictions, etcetera. And ultimately, people come to Coinbase to grow their money. Right? They want to make their money go further and earned. With the Coinbase One card, we are building that connection to the everyday financial relationship. You know, you can't live your life on an everyday basis without spending.

Money is the way you interface with the world around you. With the Coinbase One card, customers can earn up to 4% in Bitcoin instantly on all categories. So there's no points, there's no blackout dates, and as I'm sure you're experiencing, and I am as well as my primary card, you know, I'm, you know, buying groceries. I'm spending at restaurants. I'm booking travel. And, you know, across all categories, I'm earning an excellent rate, and it's based on the assets that I hold on Coinbase. So that's the the other part.

I'm holding assets on Coinbase. It's allowing me to earn 4%, in Bitcoin on my everyday spend, and the assets I'm holding on Coinbase are across many different types of assets. Right? It's across USDC. It's across different crypto, stocks, etcetera. And a lot of those assets are earning as well. I'm earning rewards as I'm holding my cash. I'm staking my crypto, and I'm also lending USDC on chain.

So there's this confluence of earning that's happening as I'm spending holding assets, and it all ties back to the Coinbase One membership. Right? That supercharges all of it. We also just announced this partnership with Better Mortgage. And with that, Coinbase One members can pledge their crypto on Coinbase towards a mortgage and also get a 1% rebate on their mortgage, right, up to okay. Back. So I think the Coinbase One is the overall wrapper.

Coinbase One is the connection to people going out in their everyday lives, making purchases, and it all ties to making your money work better for you. Yeah.

The I think the idea of something tangible here is really, really interesting. Coinbase is a brand that, and many crypto companies, this idea of bringing you know, a lot of this is digital. A lot of this you can't touch and feel and hold, and the idea of a card being something that I can actually every time I go and pay with it, it's a reminder of like, oh, I have a relationship with Coinbase here. It's a physical reminder of that. And also just physically on that, the card itself is so cool.

Like, the actual design of it, the feel of it, the way that is it the Bitcoin Genesis or the banks or what was it? Not the Banksy note. The Genesis block. Toshi, the Genesis block actual, like, code on that or or what the blockchain what exactly is on the card? It's really interesting. Yeah. It's the it's the Genesis block. So and and basically the the writing on it. So, you know, our design team, you know, did an incredible job bringing the card to life. So cool.

When you when you, Ben, when you think about the maybe the the uniqueness of this of this card versus others, We were just talking with Liz. I don't know if you ever crossed paths with her when she was at Coinbase, but she's on the MetaMask team building out their card program. A very different approach and like structure just in terms of like how the card is set up custodially versus non custodially.

What are some of the things that as you're when you think about the users that are maybe looking at all these cards and they're saying, hey, I have five, six options here and they're all different. What are some attributes to the Coinbase one card that are, like, specific to call out? You've mentioned, like, it's embedded already within the Coinbase exchange.

What are some of those unique selling points or attributes versus maybe others? So I think one is earning up to 4% in in Bitcoin instantly on all categories. You know, there are definitely some cards, whether crypto or not, where there are a lot of rules to the game. Right? There's points. You make your purchases, then you think about using your points towards redeeming for different things if you remember to, and if the points don't get devalued, what have you.

And with the Coinbase one card, you're really just earning, you know, a a hard asset, a a extremely hard and and rewarding asset in Bitcoin instantly, right, across all categories. That's one thing to call out. There's a lot of flexibility embedded in the card as well. You can pay down your statement balance using assets on platform, you know, whether it's USBC, different forms of crypto, or you could just pull from your linked bank account.

It has a lot of the Amex benefits that, you know, are come with the Amex premium card. Things like travel insurance or rental car insurance, even Amex offers. So and it's at a very democratized price. You know, you can get it starting at $50 per year with the Coinbase one basic membership. So it it really has best in class earnings. It has a lot of the sort of the light of premium cards at a very accessible price.

And once again, the assets you bring on platform to earn your rewards, they are providing a lot of utility in and of themselves because of the broader everything exchange and Coinbase offer. Yeah. Ben, stepping out macro here a little bit, how long have you been at Coinbase now? About a year. I started roughly one year ago, almost to the day, actually.

Okay.

Where were you coming in from? What what's your background before this? How did you find your way into Coinbase? Yeah. So I was building at Cash App for about eight and a half years. Long story short is, you know, I joined Cash App back in 2016. It was a team of about, I think, eight or 10 people as this fledgling startup within, you know, then Square, now Block, focused exclusively on p two p, just making p two p better, instant money movement.

And, you know, my journey there was a big part of it was evolving it from a p two p only app to something people use for a wider swath of their financial lives. Right? Sending, spending, buzzing, etcetera.

And so I think at Coinbase, there are a lot of the, similar parallels. People's financial lives and money needs, you know, have stayed the same. But with crypto, with Onchain, and with a full suite and tool box, we can build incredible things to to serve those customers. Prior to that, I was in the traditional financial services industry doing combination of trading, investing, you know, equity derivatives Yeah. High high yield distressed debt. Yeah. Eight years of Cash App is no small feat.

Think I when I I guess when I was there, you you must have I was at Block early in my career is where I started. I was like, I know this guy's names. Where where did we cross paths? What were you know, being a Cash App for so long and being such an influence there for for that amount of time, Cash App and Coinbase are, know, just there's no denying the influence and the role that those two companies have played in the modern financial services movement.

What are some of the things that you think are if you kinda would put put on a hat of like advice for a second, I think there are a lot of startups, neobanks, small teams, builders who are now trying to come to market with a lot of these more stable coin native, crypto native tools. What are some of the learnings that you've you've had along the way building these, you know, at scale solutions that you've seen work?

And what would what would some advice be to some of these younger teams or learnings that you think have made those two companies be what they are? Yeah. Two things that come to mind. The first one is, you know, find things that you do really well. Go very deep. Think about how the technology

can, you know, empower new ways to serve customers. I often see businesses that start with a business model. Right? It's like, want to be a it could be like a neobank. It it could be, you know, whatever it is, and almost like work backwards. And you don't really ever find a one good hook where you're you're just innovating. You're serving customers better than, you know, any anyone else out there.

And I think you've it I think if you find that and you serve it, you will naturally find adjacencies that you can further expand into. Say, like, for example, you know, in the case of Cash App, it was really like instant money movement. That was p two p, but it expanded to card. It expanded to deposits and a whole slew of things. And at Coinbase, similarly, there's a lot of unique advantages that we have, having built the most trusted crypto exchange and now expanding it. Right? So that's one.

And then the second one I would say is abstracting away the technology and just thinking about the customer needs. You know, when I first started at Cash App, Visa Direct wasn't really even a thing. Right? Moving money, everyone did it through ACH. And we were hacking together money movement by essentially purchase transaction pulls and unlinked refund pushes until Visa Direct was actually created as a thing and distributed it.

And so, you know, there is innovation on the the core money itself, but at the end of the day, the customer is just thinking about how how can I move money? And I think the same parallel applies to stables. It applies to a lot of on chain and crypto use cases where you can leverage the technology, what the best tool and toolbox is, but then translate it to a very relatable thing that customers ultimately find indispensable

in their everyday lives. Yeah. I'm asking this next question from a place of like genuine curiosity and not a place of like gotcha journalism, I promise. But I think that Coinbase right now, if I'm looking at it, is in a really really like crucial moment to get right with this everything exchange narrative, where I agree, like, to to get it right, there is typically this one, like, really obvious thing that drives adoption, it drives usage.

I'm recalling a Jack Dorsey's talk, like, a decade ago to a bunch of college kids about the early days of Cash App. I'm like, hey, send an email to your parents and, like, the funds will just be there. Like, these these really simple principles or or, you know, in twenty thirteen, fourteen, like buying Bitcoin for the first time. We're now in this really interesting moment where everything is there, and there's so much there. I I opened my Coinbase app and there's like, there's a lot going on right now.

How do you how do you continue to bring that level of clarity and product value given now that there are so many things that I am as a user kind of presented with? Like, do you how do you attempt to drive that forward on the product side right now? Because there's a tension there.

There's a risk there, and I think Square, you know, for a while, if you look at their business, like, you know, you can you can get into dangerous places where you're not like doing anything super, super well, and then a company like Toast comes out of nowhere and eats your lunch, no pun intended. How do we prevent that from happening? Yeah. I do think that there's a lot of different capabilities that teams are building

across trading, across financial services, across our membership program, and more. I do think that as a company and organization, one thing I think about a lot is how do you make the sum of the parts equal something, you know, even greater. I do think a lot of it comes down to how you weave the customer experience, you know, and create that delight. So for example and you can think about it in the lens of customer stories. Right?

You know, in the Coinbase app today, and we've evolved it a ton, as you mentioned, in the home tab, you see your holistic assets. Right? And you see what you're holding. You see all the things you can trade. Maybe you're trading crypto, you're depositing cash, you're trading stocks, etcetera. We've now launched experiences like the earn center, where previously, there are much more, like, siloed experiences around USDC rewards, lending, and staking. We're kinda showing you, hey.

Like, what's the holistic amount that you're earning because you're holding assets on Coinbase? You know, that's something that's been rolling out. We're we're also launching, a much more cohesive experience around borrow. Right? So based on the assets you've traded or you've deposited and you're holding on Coinbase, you can now see your borrowing power. Like, how much instant liquidity can I get at extremely competitive rates on, you know, all the assets I'm holding?

I see my earnings earning rate, and it all accretes to how much I earn on the Coinbase one card when I spend. So at the end of the day, like, I believe that a lot of technologies should be sized. A lot of builders should have access to them. You know, we do believe we are on the cutting edge in terms of building things, you know, in in number of areas, whether it's stables, on chain, etcetera. But at the end of the day, there is this onus to wrap it all together in a way that is cohesive.

You know, the ecosystem builds on itself. Right? It's Yeah. If I decide to trade and and hold assets on Coinbase, the benefits are compounding in nature. Right? If I become a Coinbase one member, it's and rather than these siloed features. And I think that is one of the things I think about all the time.

Yeah. Speaking for myself, I think you've done that with the Coinbase One card. I I do think that it's it is a delightful one of the most delightful experiences I think I've had with Coinbase since being being a user of that product for many, many, many years now. Coinbase was where I bought my first bit Bitcoin. It's where I hold the majority of my assets now.

Like, the Coinbase one card, though, is, like, this really interesting example of being able to bring something that feels additional into the fold, but actually create this, like, really beautiful workflow of I like the word you used, delight, where it's like, I actually can just still hold the Bitcoin balance that I already had there. Now it's just like wonderfully connected to, you know, the bagel I had for breakfast this morning. Like I was able to connect those two dots.

And that is something that together I think has a sum a sum effect that is better than those parts individually. I have to ask just because we for us, we're thinking through a lot of things and the the market is like, I think, focused a lot on the some other areas of of Coinbase. Do you, Ben, do you work at all with the like, with financial services and loyalty? Is anything related to, like, x four two touching your world at all, or is that pretty separate right now? I'm curious. I had a couple questions on that.

Yeah. There are some interactions. It's a completely separate group, developer group. So I would say the connections are pretty light right now, though there are some things we are contemplating with regards to how we might use the Cointell Coinbase retail app. But yeah, not no major details to share at this moment. Okay. And the way you would kind of bucket your product group is more on the like the retail the retail focused front of things, if I'm understanding Yes. The consumer. Okay.

Can you can you speak a little bit to how things are going or what is now possible with prediction markets? You guys acquired The Clearing Company three, four, five, six ish months ago. Tony and his company brought them into the fold. They've been launching some stuff. We now have if I'm opening my app today, I see prediction markets embedded within the Coinbase app. What has that unlocked? The acquisition of the clearing company? How you're able to deliver some of these products? How is that going?

Any thoughts on the the prediction market side of things? Yeah. Yeah. And I think I just saw Tony somewhere walking the distance, actually. Tell him I said tell him next time you see him, say, hey. I just was on a livestream with Drew Rogers. Good buddy. Nice. Will do. But, yeah, predictions has has brought a ton to the platform. Obviously, you know, a lot of our customers want to, you know, either trade crypto, equities,

you know, different asset classes, and predictions adds a new dimension where they can also make predictions, whether it's news, you know, and other things. And fundamentally, it obviously ties information to the power of crypto. And so I think it's something that brings different things to different people. Right? Some people might use it as a way to hedge different exposures on their portfolio. Increasingly, there'll be also things connected to to even more, like, crypto type predictions.

And so I think, similar to a lot of products at Coinbase, it serves different personas. Right? People want to tie it to a broader strategy around how they might be investing across various other asset classes. So I think the connections are early. I think there are a lot more connections we can make to various other products in ecosystem, but those are some of the things that come to mind. Do you have speaking about these workflows and these like ideal

connective tissue pieces that we can bring together here, what does that look like for prediction markets? And in your mind, I know we're kind of forecasting this a little bit. We're kind of building this in real time, it sounds like, but when you think, when you guys are meeting and talking about who you're really building this for, are these like prediction market maxes who are very into this stuff, and they're like, you know, doing this very, very seriously?

Are these more of like, you know, people maybe in my neck of the woods who might do this once or twice a year and are just getting started with it? Who are those, like, user personas that you guys are really trying to target as you as you bring this totally new thing to Coinbase's

product experience. Have any opinions on that yet? Yeah. There's definitely a mix. We're seeing power users, whether they were power users before Coinbase or they developed into power users, but there is a large percentage of customers who had not been making predictions outside of Coinbase.

And I think that's a big part of the Everything Exchange as well, just bringing asset asset availability, different asset classes and tools to our customers such that they can essentially have a bigger toolbox on how they want to use their money. Right? You know, quick trading, quick earning, hedging, what have you. So I think it's it's a pretty wide slew.

We're still collecting a lot of data, and of course, like, there's been various events where we've seen meaningful spikes in activity, you know, whether it's just and and then we're also seeing a steady amount of activity across, once again, macroeconomic things like news and other predictions. So I think it's still early, but maybe one big point is that it is bringing prediction markets capabilities to more people, right, versus the other interfaces that exist outside of Coinbase. Yeah.

It seems like a very, very accessible

accessible product. Last question for you as we kinda turn here. So you're about a year into this. What is it compared to what you thought? If you were to kind of go back a year as you were joining the company, like, what would you say

the experience has been like compared to what you expected? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I feel tremendously energized. I think a lot of the sort of part of what I was underwriting was building with a bigger toolbox. Right? We build with a lot of traditional rails. Right? ACH, credit cards, etcetera. But then with it, you know, building with a lot of on chain capabilities, thinking about how you marry together as well as abstract things. Right?

The Coinbase one card has elements of it, are very crypto oriented elements that are just very, like, TradFi oriented. I'm very energized by the ability to build with this toolbox. You know, I think crypto, as well as even AI, like, the news flow is something that's constant. Right? Things are always changing underneath, but customers' money needs and everyday needs, you know, are consistent. The way you serve them can continue evolving.

So I think there are a lot of waves that we surf, and, you know, we obviously need always need to navigate the macro and other factors. But I think the core truth remains that there's just a huge opportunity to serve customers in their everyday lives, you know, across all these different jobs. Right? Trading, investing, saving, spending.

I think Coinbase is very well positioned to continue making that push, and then seeing all the pieces come together and sort of, like, hit hit that sort of moment of realization that, hey. Here, I can actually make my money go further and work better Yeah. On my behalf. Since we're on the topic,

last question. Any predictions on your end a year from now? So if you were to, you know, go twelve months from now, what predictions do you have around the maybe the role that, you know, things like the coin anything that we've talked about. The Coinbase One card, prediction markets within the app. I'm I'm I'm not gonna ask you about the prices of certain assets because that's too that's below me. But predictions

as you guys think about the the end of the year here. I think you'll see a a further blending of a lot of, like, traditionally brokerage and versus, like, financial services capabilities. You know, a lot of people are making these trade offs between deploying their money to work in brokerages, but then not be able to use it in other in their everyday lives, or storing a lot of money in, you know, financial institutions where they're not maximally earning. Right?

So I think a lot of that will start to you know, the divide will start to to blur. There will be a democratization of more asset classes that people can access, you know, across whether it's, you know, the ones that exist today, different things like private assets or tokenized, assets. So I think that general trend will continue. And I think the the broader thing around AgenTik payments, right, and just like stable coin payments will continue to be a rocket ship.

I think some of it may hit escape velocity and start to really kinda formulate we'll start to see how it actually interfaces with people's lives in a more mainstream fashion. Whereas today, there are a lot of green shoots. Right? But there are a lot of open questions on how it actually will manifest. Yeah. Man, so much to cover here.

I maybe next time we can talk about the I I love the idea of blending some of these things together. I know I think San Francisco in the the few months ago when you guys rented out the I think you'd launched like business banking and some of the stuff you guys rented a you did a big push, one of the things that really caught my eye was this prediction markets conversation we're talking about, but also the Coinbase Advisor with Anthony Basili's group and some of the the kind of advisory stuff.

I'm really excited to see more of like how I can actually engage with, you know, maybe maybe someone or a an agent specifically within the Coinbase platform that knows me, knows my brokerage preferences, things like that I get really excited about. So we'll talk about that next time. Awesome. Yeah. Lots more coming Lots more coming up. Well, Ben, thanks for the time. You're in you're in San Francisco. Tony's walking around. Yep. Is that true? Cool, man. Alright. Well, thanks.

Thanks for hopping on here, and thanks for all the work you're doing. Really appreciate it. Awesome. Thanks, Drew. Bye. Awesome.