Coinbase (COIN) on Solana

Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of Coinbase (COIN), and Hong Kong-based CMCC Global have closed a strategic funding round in Raven, a crypto trading firm, at a \$90 million pre-money valuation, according to [Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/coinbase-backed-raven-raises-funding-152400207.html) and [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/29/coinbase-ventures-and-cmcc-global-close-strategic-funding-round-with-raven.html). The amount raised was not disclosed. Raven was founded in 2023 and previously raised a \$2.7 million seed round in 2024 at a \$25 million valuation, led by Hack VC.

The deal gives Coinbase exposure to the liquidity side of prediction markets, a product the exchange has added to its own trading app. Raven moved into prediction markets in the second quarter of 2025 and now acts as an institutional market maker on venues including Kalshi and Polymarket, quoting more than 3,000 contracts across sports, crypto, macroeconomics and entertainment. CMCC Global co-founder Charlie Morris has joined Raven's board to help the firm expand among institutions.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) reinstated coverage of Coinbase (COIN) with an outperform rating on Monday, September 28, according to CNBC's roundup of the day's biggest Wall Street analyst calls. KBW called Coinbase a share gainer, arguing that the crypto cycle is turning while the exchange keeps winning global market share.

The call comes after a volatile month for COIN: the shares swung on the Senate's failed CLARITY Act cloture vote and on the SEC's exemption for tokenized stock trading, and bitcoin recently climbed back above $85,000 for the first time since January.

The Clarity Act, the comprehensive crypto market-structure bill Coinbase had championed, failed a Senate cloture vote on September 15 and lead negotiator Sen. Cynthia Lummis has since called its prospects "all but dead" for this year. The failure leaves Coinbase — which has operated under persistent regulatory ambiguity — without the statutory clarity it sought on whether digital assets are securities or commodities, keeping the company exposed to potential SEC enforcement actions and uncertain jurisdictional boundaries for its spot trading, staking, and derivatives products.

Rather than waiting on Congress, federal agencies moved within 48 hours of the vote to build a patchwork framework. The CFTC submitted a crypto-markets rulemaking package to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, while the SEC issued an innovation exemption allowing qualifying venues to trade tokenized U.S. stocks on-chain without registering as national exchanges — a category where Coinbase has expressed expansion interest. CEO Brian Armstrong acknowledged the legislative impasse directly, stating "at this point, I don't think we can wait on Congress and the Senate." The shift from a single legislative fix to agency-by-agency rulemaking means Coinbase faces a fragmented compliance landscape in the near term, with the SEC and CFTC potentially establishing overlapping or conflicting rules for the same products.

Bitcoin climbed above $85,000 on September 21, reaching its highest level since late January and capping a roughly 35% three-month recovery from the depths of a crypto winter that set in after Bitcoin's October 2025 all-time high above $126,000. The move was partly accelerated by a short squeeze that liquidated approximately $790 million in crypto positions over the weekend—87% of them short—while Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan told CNBC the downturn is over and pointed to growing institutional participation and rising on-chain transaction volume as evidence of improving fundamentals.

The recovery is directly positive for Coinbase (COIN), the leading U.S. crypto exchange whose transaction fee revenue scales with both crypto prices and platform trading volumes. Higher Bitcoin prices also appreciate the value of Coinbase's own crypto holdings on its balance sheet. Analysts additionally flagged capital rotating out of AI equities and back into crypto as a potential source of sustained inflows, a dynamic that would extend the trading activity driving Coinbase's top line.

The SEC issued a five-year "innovation exemption" allowing tokenized U.S. stocks to trade on public blockchains through automated market makers, without requiring qualifying venues to register as traditional securities exchanges. Under the framework, tokenized equities must represent actual shares carrying full shareholder rights—including dividends and voting—backed by KYC controls and a 30-day issuer notification window that excludes synthetic derivatives. Coinbase (COIN) shares rose approximately 5% on the news, as markets read the SEC move as accelerating the convergence of crypto market infrastructure with traditional equity trading.

While the direct exemption pathway is structured primarily for tokenization platforms such as Securitize and Bullish and DeFi protocols including Raydium and Uniswap—with centralized exchanges potentially sitting outside its immediate scope—Coinbase's positioning across custody, institutional prime brokerage, and its Base blockchain makes it a candidate infrastructure layer for tokenized equity settlement and clearing. The SEC's framework puts Coinbase, Robinhood, and Gemini in more direct competition with traditional brokerages for ownership of the emerging on-chain equities market, and the five-year runway gives Coinbase time to build or acquire compliant venue capabilities.

Coinbase has moved to embed digital asset infrastructure inside more than 4,000 U.S. community banks and credit unions through two separate partnerships announced within days of each other. The Stablecore partnership, announced September 16, plugs Coinbase's rails into 3,000-plus institutions via integrations with core banking providers Q2 and Jack Henry, enabling tokenized deposits, digital asset accounts, and collateralized loans without requiring banks to overhaul their existing systems. That deal follows a September 10 agreement with Moov, which connects Coinbase stablecoin payments and settlement capabilities to an additional 1,000-plus financial institutions.

The combined strategy targets what Coinbase describes as a largely untapped market: the company cites data showing 77% of consumers would open a stablecoin wallet if offered through their existing bank or fintech app. Activation of the integrated features depends in part on regulatory clarity, with an OCC charter framework deadline in November seen as a potential trigger that could allow community banks to go live without waiting for new legislation.