Base Wants 24/7 Trading in Samsung, SK Hynix Shares, Seeks Tie-Ups With Kakao and Line: Coin Interview

Interview with Nick See Tong, Base's head of Asia-Pacific

Building on-chain financial infrastructure linking trading, payments and lending

Expanding Base use to global companies including JPMorgan and Shopify

Targeting AI-agent payments, with a focus on micropayments and agentic commerce

"Korea is a market with strong trading demand"; eyes stock and stablecoin partnerships

"Coinbase ultimately sees a future where all assets move on-chain and trade around the clock," Nick See Tong, Base's head of Asia-Pacific, told Bloomingbit in an interview on Oct. 20. "Base is designed to connect trading, payments and finance on a single on-chain infrastructure, allowing institutions and developers to build new services on top of it. As AI agents emerge as new economic actors, the scope of on-chain finance will widen further."

See Tong said use cases in the on-chain economy are expanding quickly, from tokenized institutional assets to AI agent-based payments. He also highlighted potential in Korea for stock tokenization, stablecoins and partnerships with major platform companies.

Base is an open blockchain network incubated by Coinbase, the U.S. crypto exchange. Drawing on Coinbase's institutional and retail user base, it is building infrastructure that connects trading, payments and financial services on-chain.

Why Coinbase Built Base: Beyond an Exchange to Financial Infrastructure

Base was created as part of Coinbase's push to build on-chain financial infrastructure that would be difficult to deliver through a centralized exchange alone. It initially grew on Optimism's technology, but this year shifted to its own operating stack to improve scalability and take direct control of upgrades and its technical roadmap, expanding its role as an independent public on-chain infrastructure. The network is aimed at being open and permissionless, allowing outside developers and financial institutions to participate freely.

With its own on-chain network, Base can connect trading, settlement and lending around a single asset rather than keeping them separated, as in traditional finance. That can also lower costs and barriers to entry. See Tong cited some structured financial products as an example, saying minimum deal sizes at banks can reach $100,000 to $200,000 because of operational, settlement and legal costs. On-chain, those processes can be automated and made programmable, allowing transactions to be split into smaller units.

Web3 infrastructure can also sharply reduce the time needed for trading and capital deployment compared with traditional finance. In conventional markets, he said, it can take four to five days to sell one stock, wait for settlement, exchange currencies and buy another stock. On-chain, that swap can happen immediately.

The same applies to lending. Borrowing against a stock portfolio at a bank can take three to four days because of loan-to-value reviews. On-chain, a user can post collateral and receive a loan within seconds. In finance, where time is money, speed is one of the biggest advantages, he said.

"JPMorgan, AmEx and Shopify Are Also Building on Base" as Institutional Adoption Expands

Institutional adoption is another core focus for Base. See Tong said he is seeing more institutions in Asia move toward the on-chain market. As firms begin to recognize that U.S. crypto regulation is becoming clearer, Asian institutions are also paying closer attention to on-chain use cases. Another key driver is tokenization, which can broaden the distribution of financial products to global markets.

Base is also strengthening the technology needed to bring institutional assets on-chain. One example is B20, a framework developed by Base. It is designed to let institutions embed regulatory requirements such as know-your-customer checks and sanctions screening when they tokenize stocks, stablecoins and other assets.

For institutions bringing large-scale assets on-chain, preventing money laundering, terrorist financing and flows to sanctioned countries is a critical issue, he said. Base Chain's role is to ensure firms do not have to build that infrastructure from scratch.

Participation from global companies is also growing. See Tong cited JPMorgan's tokenized deposits for institutional clients, Shopify's USDC payments and efforts involving American Express. Global finance and payments companies are building products and services on Base, which he called evidence of the usefulness of open, permissionless blockchains.

"Now AI Agents Will Spend Money Directly" as Base Eyes Micropayments and Agentic Commerce

Another area Base is watching is the on-chain market that could open up as AI agents emerge as new economic actors. "In the past, there was digital money, but there was no economic actor that could use it on its own," See Tong said. "AI agents could become the bridge that drives blockchain adoption." Blockchain provides the foundation for agents to access programmable digital assets and carry out transactions and payments directly, he added. AI agents refer to software that can independently handle tasks ranging from e-commerce and price checks to trading and payments.

To support that push, Coinbase has also developed x402, its own protocol for AI-agent payments. The core idea is micropayments in stablecoins, allowing users to pay only for the services they actually use. For example, if an AI agent uses a pricing-data API, it can call the data once and pay automatically for that single use instead of paying a monthly subscription fee. That differs from existing subscription models because AI can access and pay for multiple data sources and services in small increments whenever needed.

Base also places builders at the center of its technology ecosystem. The strategy is to expand the number of developers and services to increase network value. "Builders are in Base's DNA, and supporting developers who create strong apps and innovation is the most important thing," See Tong said. In that environment, he added, memecoins are beginning to move beyond purely speculative assets into actual services. Efforts are also continuing to add utility to memecoins, including "stock memes" tied to tokenized equities.

"Korea Is a Market With Strong Trading Demand" as Base Eyes Stock Tokenization and Platform Partnerships

Base's interest in Korea is also high as it focuses on expanding tokenized assets such as U.S. equities. "Korea is a market with very strong demand for crypto and stock trading," he said. "We hope to eventually bring Korean stocks such as SK Hynix and Samsung on-chain as well."

He also pointed to the potential to combine agentic capabilities with trading in Korea. AI agents could analyze financial statements from hundreds or thousands of microcap companies around the world and identify companies worth a closer look, he said.

See Tong also expressed interest in working with major Korean platform companies including Kakao and Line. "We'd like to partner with major brands such as Kakao and Line," he said. "Those companies already have large distribution networks, so various forms of integration would be possible, including payments and on-chain access."

He added that Coinbase has 100 million users who have completed KYC verification. That could help Asian companies reach a global user base if they partner with Base and Coinbase.

He also expressed interest in a won-denominated stablecoin under discussion in South Korea. "For now, we are waiting for legal and regulatory clarity," he said. "If a stablecoin launches on Base, we would be happy to support its growth and its integration into multiple services, and we would also like to work with the Korean government."

He added that B20, developed by Base, is an asset standard that can reflect regulatory requirements in programmable form and could also be applied to stablecoins.

For now, Base plans to accelerate the expansion of tokenized stocks. "Over the next few months, our goal is to bring about 10 new stocks on-chain each day and secure more than 100 tokenized stocks by year-end," See Tong said. "After that, we want to bring thousands, and ultimately tens of thousands, of stocks on-chain."

He added that Base is also working with market makers and liquidity providers to supply liquidity for those assets.

Kang Min-seung, Bloomingbit reporter minriver@bloomingbit.io