Bitcoin is down about 2% this morning trading at around $82,700, pressured by Middle East tensions and rising bond yields. Joining me to discuss this is Luuk Strijers, Head of Coinbase Exchanges. Luuk, welcome to the show.
Thank you very much. Great to be here.
Bitcoin is under pressure this morning alongside gold and stocks. How are you reading the current market environment?
Markets are processing a lot of simultaneous signals — rising yields, elevated oil, geopolitical uncertainty. What I would say is that compared to previous cycles, the composition of who is in this market has changed materially. The ETF flows we have seen this year represent institutional capital that is fundamentally stickier than retail speculation. These investors have longer time horizons, more sophisticated risk frameworks, and are less likely to panic exit on short-term macro noise. The fact that Bitcoin is holding above $80,000 in this environment tells you something real about the underlying demand structure.
Coinbase recently received a licence in Abu Dhabi to tokenise US stocks. What does that signal about your global strategy?
The Abu Dhabi approval is very significant for us and reflects a deliberate strategic choice. When Coinbase evaluates where to build international infrastructure, we look for jurisdictions that offer regulatory clarity, institutional credibility, and genuine long-term commitment to the space. Abu Dhabi checks all of those boxes. The FSRA has been publishing digital asset guidance since 2018 and has built one of the most rigorous and consistent frameworks anywhere in the world. That kind of consistency — knowing the regulatory environment you are operating in today will look very similar five, ten, or twenty years from now — is exactly what institutional infrastructure requires.
What specifically is the exchange building for institutional clients that retail platforms cannot provide?
Institutions have fundamentally different requirements. They need custody infrastructure that meets the standards of their own regulators and risk frameworks. They need trading infrastructure that can handle institutional scale without market impact. They need compliance infrastructure that integrates with their existing reporting and AML obligations. And they need counterparties they can trust. Coinbase Exchanges is building specifically for those requirements — not retrofitting a retail product for institutional use, but designing from the ground up for the institutional client.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you. Great to be here.
