Coinbase (COIN +3.26%) CEO Brian Armstrong recently claimed crypto “doesn’t get enough credit for the financial access it’s already unlocked for the world” in a post on X. Armstrong noted that stablecoins allowed “anyone, anywhere” to access a low-inflation currency and send it “24/7 for a fraction of a cent”, that decentralized finance (DeFi) applications gave “anyone access to credit” and unbanked individuals access to financial services, and that tokenized stocks would expose four billion “unbrokered people” to the U.S. stock market.

Armstrong’s bullish take isn’t surprising, since Coinbase is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. If you agree with Armstrong’s perspective, then it might be a good time to review how…