Coinbase adds Sensible leadership to build onchain consumer tools

The company says the acquisition strengthens its push to simplify DeFi for consumers

by Blockworks /

September 9, 2025 10:45 am

Vladimir Kazakov/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks

Coinbase announced that it has acquired the founders of Sensible, a team specializing in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, to strengthen its onchain consumer roadmap.

Co-founders Jacob Frantz and Zachary Salmon will lead teams tasked with making DeFi tools easier to use, part of Coinbase’s broader ambition to become what it calls an “everything exchange.”

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Sensible’s co-founders previously built applications that brought DeFi to retail users, an area Coinbase has been steadily expanding through initiatives like Coinbase Wallet and its layer-2 network, Base.

By integrating their expertise, Coinbase aims to reduce the complexity of decentralized lending, staking, and rewards programs, which often remain out of reach for newcomers. The company highlighted examples such as non-custodial smart wallets for crypto-backed loans and staking services that allow users to earn rewards for helping secure blockchain networks.

This acquisition follows a series of Coinbase moves in 2024 and 2025 aimed at bolstering its onchain ecosystem. The company bought the Utopia Labs team in late 2024 to accelerate its payments roadmap and added Spindl in early 2025 to expand onchain advertising. More recently, Coinbase welcomed leaders from Opyn Markets to develop market infrastructure.

This is a developing story.

This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor Jeffrey Albus before publication.

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