However, with the intensifying competition in the cryptocurrency market and the changing market environment, Coinbase actively promoted a diversification strategy last year, gradually expanding into subscription, services, and institutional infrastructure, with the proportion of retail trading revenue gradually declining to 48%. This article will conduct an in-depth analysis of Coinbase's ongoing transformation and explore the impacts of this transformation on the company’s profitability, competitive position, and long-term valuation.

The truly pressing question is not whether a specific company is a villain, but whether the regulatory framework established for 20th-century traditional finance is suitable for custodizing a 21st-century 'emerging asset whose value is not under regulatory control'?

As traditional payments begin to mature, Stripe is accelerating its evolution into a financial operating system for the internet economy and is attempting to seize the next financial track. Meanwhile, stablecoins and AI Agents are becoming the two new engines that Stripe is betting on.

In the long run, Curators are not the endgame of DeFi, but almost an unavoidable layer before DeFi reaches a broader user base. DeFi has proven the feasibility of its infrastructure; what it now lacks is a middle layer that can package, distribute, and embed these capabilities into real usage scenarios. Curators are taking on this role.

Vitalik's value judgment of AI is not a sudden turn; as early as early 2025, he proposed that the right direction for AI should be to enhance human capabilities rather than build autonomous systems that might gradually strip humans of control. In his framework, the risk does not come from AI being 'smarter' itself, but from misguided system design goals—especially those entities that can replicate and expand themselves and continue to execute without continuous human supervision and correction mechanisms.