- Coinbase has restored the Coinbase Wallet name after more than a year operating the product as Base App.
- Wallet is being positioned around multichain markets, including perpetual futures, prediction markets and tokenized stocks.
- Singapore is serving as both an engineering base and an APAC hub for Coinbase’s regulatory and client engagement.
- Coinbase will host a $150,000 live trading competition in Singapore on October 8.
Coinbase is changing how it develops and engages users around trading, with three initiatives converging around the same part of its business. The company has restored the Coinbase Wallet brand, is directing engineering resources in Singapore toward its Advanced trading products, and will stage its first in-person esports-style trading competition there on October 8. Together, the moves show Coinbase testing different ways to expand trading access and participation without relying on the social-first strategy previously attached to Base App.
Coinbase Wallet returns with a broader trading role
The September 10 rebrand reverses a change Coinbase made in July 2025, when Coinbase Wallet became Base App.
Base App is now Coinbase Wallet.
Built for speed. Trade anything, anywhere, without asking permission. pic.twitter.com/Z1tlIWyI4X
— Coinbase Wallet (@CoinbaseWallet) September 10, 2026
Base App was designed as a broader consumer product combining trading with social features, messaging and mini apps. The return to Coinbase Wallet follows acknowledgment from CEO Brian Armstrong that the social experiment did not perform as intended.
The product itself is not reverting to its previous form.
Coinbase Wallet now supports more than 10 blockchain networks and is being expanded around markets that reach beyond conventional spot crypto trading. Current and planned capabilities include:
Multichain access: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Base, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon and Avalanche, with newer integrations including Monad and Robinhood Chain.
Derivatives: Perpetual futures access through integrations including Hyperliquid.
New markets: Prediction markets and tokenized stocks broaden the range of assets available from the wallet.
Self-custody: Users retain control of their assets while accessing onchain markets directly.
This also resolves a branding problem. A product called Base App was becoming increasingly multichain, including support for networks outside Coinbase’s own Base ecosystem. Coinbase Wallet gives the company a neutral consumer brand as it adds more chains and asset classes.
Wallet can reach markets the Coinbase exchange cannot
The more consequential difference lies in how Wallet fits alongside Coinbase’s centralized exchange.
A centralized listing requires Coinbase to support the asset within its own exchange infrastructure and regulatory framework. A self-custodial wallet can connect users directly with decentralized markets across supported networks.
Wallet product head Ryan Kass has described the product as a “test kitchen”, giving Coinbase room to experiment with assets and trading formats before deciding how, or whether, they belong elsewhere in its ecosystem.
That creates a competitive challenge beyond centralized exchanges.
MetaMask and Phantom have expanded from basic crypto storage toward swaps, multichain access and broader financial services. Coinbase can compete for the same self-custodial activity while connecting Wallet to an established exchange brand, fiat infrastructure and its wider product ecosystem.
Supporting Robinhood Chain is an especially useful example of the multichain approach. Coinbase can facilitate activity on infrastructure associated with a financial-services competitor rather than requiring users to remain inside Base.
The question for users becomes less about which Coinbase network they use and more about which markets they can reach from one interface.
Singapore links product development with APAC expansion
Coinbase is developing the trading side of that strategy partly from Singapore.
Armstrong said this week that he met engineering leads at the company’s Singapore office after regulatory and client meetings. He also joined engineers for a pair-programming session and said the team was working on quality and scalability across Coinbase’s codebase, particularly for Advanced traders.
The comments give Singapore a defined technical role alongside its regional business function.
Advanced trading requires infrastructure capable of handling frequent order updates, market-data delivery and periods of sharply higher activity. Reliability becomes more important as Coinbase competes for users who can move between exchanges based on execution quality and available markets.
Armstrong also described Singapore as Coinbase’s hub for serving APAC and said the company would continue investing in the region.
That puts engineering, regulatory engagement and client development in the same location rather than treating Singapore primarily as a licensing or sales base.
Coinbase tests trading as live entertainment
The next Singapore initiative targets engagement rather than infrastructure.
Coinbase will bring 10 traders together for an in-person competition on October 8, with $150,000 at stake. The esports-style event will be streamed live from Singapore and feature prominent crypto traders, according to the company’s announcement.
The format gives Coinbase another way to acquire and engage active traders.
Trading competitions are not new to crypto exchanges, but presenting one as a physical, livestreamed event moves closer to the audience model used by esports. Viewers can follow individual participants and trading decisions rather than interacting only with a leaderboard or promotional campaign.
That approach is materially different from trying to create a social feed inside Base App. Coinbase can build content and community around an activity users already perform on its products instead of asking them to adopt a separate social behavior.
October will provide the first engagement test
The October 8 event will provide an early indication of whether Coinbase can turn active trading into an audience product in APAC. Participation, livestream reach and subsequent interest in its trading products would be more useful indicators than the competition’s prize pool alone.
Wallet presents a separate measurement opportunity. Multichain trading volume, adoption of newer markets and activity outside Base can show whether restoring the Coinbase name improves the product’s reach while its functionality becomes less tied to the company’s own blockchain.
Singapore sits between those two experiments. Coinbase is using the market to improve the infrastructure serving advanced traders while simultaneously testing a new way to attract and engage them. The results should offer a clearer picture of whether its next phase of consumer growth comes from adding social features to crypto products or from building engagement directly around trading.
Source: https://www.crypto-news-flash.com/coinbase-singapore-hub-expands-as-wallet-rebrand-targets-trading/
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