$USDC

“I expect every crypto exchange and every fintech company to run their own blockchain in the next five years,” McIngvale said in an interview. “If you own bitcoin on Coinbase, in one button, they will take that bitcoin, move it to Base, which then lets you borrow USDC from it. And now you can go do whatever you want with that USDC.”

There’s clearly been a bit of Base envy happening in crypto land. Global exchange Kraken has introduced Ink, a layer-2 blockchain that also uses Optimism. Bybit, Bitget, OKX and fintech firms like Robinhood are also exploring their own L2s linked to Ethereum.