Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says that memecoins are the canary in the coal mine, foreshadowing a broader trend of the tokenization of culture.

In a new interview with CNBC, Armstrong says he expects memecoins to eventually lead to the tokenization of identities, votes and art.

“Memecoins in the broadest sense, I think we should find a way for artists to get paid. Anyone should be able to put artwork and get paid for it. I do think memecoins are a canary in the coal mine, that more and more of the world is going to get tokenized and put on-chain.

Every asset class, every vote, every identity, every song, every Instagram post, whatever – in the future I think more and more of these things are going to tokenized. Now, we also need to make sure people are following the law and not doing pump-and-dump schemes or insider trading, and there probably has been a little bit of that in the memecoin space which is not helping anybody.

In every crypto cycle, there seems to be people who rush in and they forget these lessons of the past, but insider trading should obviously be prosecuted and people should avoid doing that unless they want to go to prison.”

However, Armstrong admits that recent controversies surrounding memecoins – including Argentinian President Javier Milei’s LIBRA promotion – haven’t been a great look for the industry. But, he says that there is still a positive underlying path forward for digital assets.

“I do think we’re in the early stages of this industry so it’s the Wild West a little bit with memecoins right now. There’s good that comes with that which is a lot of innovation is happening.

There’s some bad happening as well from what I understand, it sounds like President Milei accidentally shared that information without actually understanding exactly what he was sharing if you believe his comments.

My hope is that this gets cleaned up and people continue to think long-term about how are we going to create real value for the billions of people in the world who need an updated financial system.”

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Bittensor price rose sharply on Feb. 19 after crypto exchange Coinbase announced the listing of the native token of the decentralized artificial intelligence network.

As most altcoins registered notable gains in the past 24 hour period, Bittensor (TAO) spiked 20% to hit intraday highs of $420. These gains were modest compared to outperformers in the top 100 coins by market cap such as Story, Sonic, Aptos and Floki. However, with double digit gains, Bittensor ranked among the top performers. 

The performance saw TAO recoup losses it suffered in the past few days as alts mirrored Bitcoin’s struggles. With 20% upside, bulls wiped most of the accrued losses in the month-to-date period, returning to levels seen when Bittensor price reacted positively to AI news around DeepSeek.

Coinbase to list TAO

A dose of volatility saw Bitcoin rebound above $96,000 and XRP rise 6% amid news of Hashdex’s spot XRP exchange-traded fund approval in Brazil. Cryptocurrencies traded slightly higher as investors awaited the Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes.

This, along with Coinbase’s upcoming listing of Bittensor on Feb. 20, helped push TAO higher.

In an announcement, the U.S.-based crypto exchange confirmed it would add trading support for TAO on the Bittensor network. The phased launch will offer trading with the TAO/USD pair.

“Trading will begin on or after 9AM PT on February 20 2025 if liquidity conditions are met. Once sufficient supply of this asset is established trading on our TAO-USD trading pair will launch in phases,” Coinbase wrote on X.

Bittensor’s price also soared earlier this month after the project released its Dynamic TAO whitepaper, outlining a major upgrade.

Does TAO listing on Coinbase matter?

Bittensor is a top AI token by market cap, currently the second-largest behind NEAR.  Notably, the native token is already listed on Binance, Kraken and other top exchanges. Coinbase listing is nonetheless key as it could give Bittensor further traction.

Besides, the project that launched in 2019 has received investment backing from some of the top venture capital players in the market, including Pantera Capital, Digital Currency Group and Lyrik Ventures.

Grayscale recently noted Bittensor is a crucial project in the AI space as its decentralized model can help increase transparency and democratize access.

According to Grayscale, this is key in the wake of projects such as DeepSeek. While these initiatives highlight the power and potential of open-source AI, the fact that they are centralized companies means there could be risks such as data security and embedded biases. A lack of transparency is another major concern.