Vikramaditya Khanna, the William W. Cook Professor of Law, has joined the advisory board of the Coinbase Institute, a global crypto-native think tank grounded in evidence-based research that publicly launched this week. The Institute aims to accelerate rigorous, novel research and bring together the best minds across disciplines to fuel progress on decentralization, web3, and the future of finance. The work will help provide expert analysis and insights about what’s happening in the global cryptoeconomy.
The Coinbase Institute launched with its first three initiatives to advance the understanding of crypto research and policymaking, including a research partnership with the University of Michigan. The institute will work with the University’s Institute for Social Research to conduct a comprehensive survey of U.S. households’ adoption of and sentiments toward crypto over time, the first such study of crypto-asset adoption.
“We intend for this to become a critical benchmark through which to understand the growth, development, and regulatory issues facing digital assets markets and web3,” Khanna said.
He noted that the project’s goal is to gain a better understanding of crypto assets, who uses crypto-assets, and what leads to the adoption and use of crypto assets, which, in turn, will lead to better-informed policy responses.
The data provided by the survey will eventually be made available to researchers, news media, and policymakers. Khanna and his fellow researchers envision this study becoming the gold standard to reference on the adoption and use of crypto assets and providing insight to the interconnection crypto has to the overall economy.
“The Coinbase Institute is excited to partner on this incredibly important survey,” said Hermine Wong, director of the Coinbase Institute. “Many U.S. households now hold crypto. With a diverse and interconnected U.S. population, how diverse and interconnected are crypto holders and their journeys to learning about and using crypto? To really empower economic freedom at scale, these are fundamental questions that we can all benefit from learning more about.”
The Institute’s other launched initiatives are the Coinbase Primer series, which is designed to unpack high-profile concepts around crypto and web3 while providing clear explanations of key issues along with the latest numbers and analysis.
In addition, the Institute’s monthly insight report will provide real-time trends and insights on particular themes of the cryptoeconomy; over time, the reports will return to these themes to reflect the changing nature of the issues previously covered.
Khanna brings expertise in corporate and securities laws, corporate and white-collar crime, law and legal issues in India, law and technology, global business and law practice, and law and economics to the Institute’s advisory board.
He is co-director of the Joint Centre for Global Corporate and Financial Law and Policy, a collaboration between Michigan Law and India’s Jindal Global Law School. He also is a research member of the European Corporate Governance Institute and the founding and current editor of White Collar Crime eJournal and India Law eJournal.
During the fall 2022 term, Khanna will teach an interdisciplinary course, Cryptoassets: Business and Regulatory Issues, as part of Michigan Law’s Problem Solving Initiative.
He said he sees true potential in the Institute’s capabilities.
“The Coinbase Institute has a potentially transformative mission—to enhance our understanding of the critical issues in the development of digital assets markets and web3.”