[RustyRussell]

To be fair, Brian is a businessman who saw an opportunity in spending time and money to navigate the regulatory morasd required for fiat access in the US.

This entire model does not sit comfortably with a permissionless, even anarchic construction like Bitcoin. Partially because it puts you in constant conflict with regulators whose relationship is your business. Secondly because if Bitcoin becomes a major currency in its own right, your role as an onramp is no longer necessary, or at least far more competitive.

And as every other exchange discovered, the real money is in offering a blistering array of coins and taking a percentage on trade between them.

Thus, it might be disappointing to cypherpunks that Coinbase is only a reluctant proponent of Bitcoin, but it's also quite predictable.