Coinbase Completes Seventh Acqui-hire of 2025, Integrating Sensible Founders to Advance 'Everything Exchange' Vision

Coinbase has announced the acqui-hire of Jacob Frantz and Zachary Salmon, the co-founders of crypto yield platform Sensible, a strategic move aimed at accelerating its onchain consumer roadmap. The announcement, made on September 9, 2025, by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, underscores the exchange's aggressive push towards its "everything exchange" vision. Armstrong stated in a tweet, "> The everything exchange is getting closer. Thrilled to have the founders of @holdsensible joining Coinbase to accelerate our onchain consumer roadmap."

Sensible, founded in 2022, specialized in building user-friendly, DeFi-powered applications that helped individuals earn yields on their crypto assets. Frantz and Salmon bring significant expertise in simplifying complex decentralized finance (DeFi) concepts for retail users, an area Coinbase is keen to expand. Sensible is slated to wind down its operations by October 10, with its founders transitioning to leadership roles within Coinbase's onchain consumer product strategy.

This acqui-hire marks Coinbase's seventh such deal in 2025, highlighting its rapid expansion efforts. The company's "everything exchange" strategy aims to transform Coinbase into a comprehensive, one-stop financial platform where users can trade, borrow, stake, spend, and earn across a wide array of assets. This vision includes integrating tokenized stocks, prediction markets, and early-stage token sales, all built on blockchain rails.

The strategic integration of Sensible's founders is particularly pertinent as Coinbase seeks to diversify its revenue streams and enhance user engagement. Recent reports indicated a decline in Coinbase's Q2 2025 revenue and trading volumes, making the push for broader financial services and simplified DeFi access crucial for long-term growth. By bringing in talent focused on consumer-centric DeFi, Coinbase intends to make the onchain economy more accessible and intuitive for a wider audience, solidifying its position in the evolving digital assets landscape.