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• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has offered a bold outlook for the firm.

• Armstrong’s statements come as market watchers wonder whether incumbents like Coinbase can handle competition from traditional finance giants.

• Coinbase believes that this increased market participation from legacy institutions benefits its business.

The cryptocurrency industry can be accused of many things, but lacking ambition is not one of them.

From seemingly outrageous price predictions to visions of upending the global financial system, industry participants maintain that Bitcoin and blockchain technology, like electricity and the internet, have changed the world forever.

Now, in line with this outlook, one of the industry’s biggest firms, Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN), has made a bold statement.

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‘Number One’

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the firm wants to become the top financial services application during its Q1 earnings call last week, when asked about future aspirations and intentions to get into the traditional finance space.

“Today, we’re primarily focused on trading and payments, and we’re doing that across our major customer groups: retail, small medium-sized businesses, institutions and developers,” he said. “I think in five to 10 years, our goal is to be the number one financial services app in the world across those customer segments, because we believe that crypto is eating financial services, and we are the No. 1 crypto company.”

Specifically addressing plans to venture into traditional finance, he said Coinbase did not want to look backwards but “forward and skate to where this opportunity is going.”

“All these asset classes, money market funds, real estate, securities, debt, these are all coming on-chain,” Armstrong said, adding that Coinbase intended to be the best company for building on-chain.

Armstrong’s remarks come as market watchers wonder whether incumbents like Coinbase can handle competition from traditional finance giants, which are gradually encroaching on the cryptocurrency space as regulatory hurdles clear.

Coinbase, however, believes that this increased market participation by legacy institutions benefits its business.