Cantor Fitzgerald Sees Coinbase Play Key Role in Crypto Infra
Wall Street bets on crypto giant's infrastructure play despite market blues.
Coinbase is building the financial plumbing of tomorrow — and it's worth 53% more than today's price, says financial services giant Cantor Fitzgerald.
The firm issued an "Overweight" rating on the exchange yesterday, setting a $245 target—despite COIN shares tumbling 38% this year to $160 as crypto markets bled red.
"Markets are missing what it is doing beyond trading, particularly with its L2 (Base) and its stablecoin relationship with Circle," Cantor analysts Brett Knoblauch and Thomas Shinske wrote in their 84-page report.
The analysts believe Coinbase is undergoing a fundamental transformation — evolving from a cyclical trading platform into a "mission-critical infrastructure layer" for the entire crypto economy.
At the heart of this thesis are two underappreciated growth engines.
Base — Coinbase's Layer-2 network on Ethereum that processes transactions faster and cheaper than Ethereum's mainnet. With 17 million active addresses monthly (tripling rival Arbitrum's 5.3 million), Base has silently become Ethereum's scaling backbone.
USDC — Coinbase's 50% revenue-share with Circle delivered $455 million last year from stablecoin reserves alone. Analysts project this could grow tenfold if stablecoins gain regulatory clarity under US President Donald Trump's promised GENIUS Act.
Read: How STABLE is the GENIUS Act? ⚖️
The report details how Base creates a "flywheel effect" where user growth attracts developers, which increases transactions and fees, further fuelling expansion.
This infrastructure play positions Coinbase to capitalise on what Cantor calls crypto's upcoming "ChatGPT moment" — a tipping point for mass adoption.
"There is, in our view, no better way to play this dynamic than COIN given it has its hands in virtually every aspect of the crypto ecosystem," the analysts noted.
"The ultimate goal is to make Circle's USDC the world's number one dollar stablecoin.” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong declared in February.
That's a direct challenge to Tether's USDT, which currently dominates with a market cap of $233.557 billion.
With Trump's promised GENIUS Act potentially legalising and expanding the stablecoin market within his first 100 days, Coinbase's USDC partnership could become a goldmine if regulatory winds blow favourably.
Regulatory uncertainty persists despite the administration's crypto-friendly stance, and questions linger about potential conflicts of interest. Howard Lutnick, Trump's Commerce Secretary and former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO, maintains ties to Tether.
Read: Howard Lutnick: Crypto Cabinet Ally 🤝
If Cantor's thesis proves correct, Coinbase's evolution could accelerate Ethereum's scaling efforts, mainstream stablecoin adoption, and bridge traditional finance with decentralised applications.