For much of the last decade, cryptocurrencies have existed in a parallel universe. Its champions spoke the language of disruption and decentralization, promising to rebuild the global financial system from the ground up. But while enthusiasts coded and evangelized, the rest of the world remained skeptical watching headlines about volatility, hacks, and the spectacular collapse of players like FTX.
Now, in a calmer but more substantial phase, crypto is taking a new path: legitimacy through association. The sector’s most ambitious companies are no longer seeking to replace the old financial order; they associate themselves with that.
“One of the best ways for us to accomplish our mission is not to do it alone. » Mark Troianovskydirector and head of product partnerships at Coinbasetold PYMNTS. “We know it’s critical to do this with brands and partners that people have grown up with, brands that have been around much longer than Coinbase or the Bitcoin white paper.”
The most recent and perhaps most visible example of this strategy is the recent collaboration between Coinbase and Samsung to integrate Coinbase One, the company’s premium membership program, into the Samsung Wallet app for US users.
This is not the old model of crypto adoption, where users had to download an exchange app, memorize seed phrases, and deal with the volatility of trading tokens.
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“It’s all about meeting our users where they are,” Troianovski said. “People expect their phone to be a place to store payment information, and for digital wallets to serve as a sort of financial hub.”
For the 75 million Americans with a Galaxy device, this means the ability to access Coinbase’s ecosystem directly through Samsung’s own digital wallet, including a free three-month trial of Coinbase One and a 25 USDC bonus upon completion of a first transaction.
Learn more: Samsung Wallet Enables Access to Crypto Through Coinbase One Membership Program
Reframing crypto through familiar gateways
In the early years of crypto, companies took pride in their underdog status. Exchanges, wallets and blockchain networks were designed to operate independently of banks and governments. The ideal was sovereignty, financial systems built entirely outside traditional frameworks.
This philosophy resonated with early adopters, but alienated the general public. For the average consumer, the lack of familiar safeguards like FDIC protection, customer help lines, or even recognizable logos was disconcerting.
The collaborations with Samsung highlight a strategic pivot: crypto no longer needs to shout from the margins. Instead, it fits into ecosystems that people already trust.
As for the reality of the offer, Troianovski presents it as a sort of “choose your own adventure in crypto”. Users can send USDC payments to friends, share bills, explore decentralized finance, or even “take out a loan against your bitcoin.”
“In fact, we recently surpassed $1 billion in loans issued,” Troianovski added, emphasizing Coinbase’s goal of making crypto holdings more dynamic and less static. “You don’t have to sell your bitcoin to have purchasing power.”
Here, crypto is not an abstraction or an ideology; it’s utility.
“We are excited about the utility aspect of crypto,” he said. “That’s where we hope this will end up.”
The meaning is subtle but transformative. Crypto is no longer a business; it’s a feature. It is moving from a separate ecosystem to a layer within the existing financial stack.
Everyday finance, not parallel finance
All of this is important because financial behavior is shaped by context. When crypto rubs shoulders with credit cards and loyalty points, it becomes familiar, even commonplace. The psychological distance between “traditional money” and “digital assets” is shrinking.
“What we pride ourselves on is being the most trusted crypto exchange, the easiest bridge to the crypto economy,” Troianovski said. “We want to make it easy for people to understand all these developments and discover new ways to use their crypto that they didn’t know about a year ago.”
At the same time, the company’s partnerships reinforce a feedback loop: the more it works with established brands, the more legitimate it becomes; the more legitimate it becomes, the more partnerships it can form. In a market still rebuilding its reputation, this loop is invaluable.
A collaboration with Samsung or JPMorgan signals not only technical capability but also institutional endorsement. And in the post-crisis market, this approval is the ultimate currency.
Mark Troianovskydirector and head of product partnerships at Coinbaseleads the team providing global coverage for the consumer, institutional and platform product groups.
