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Coinbase just opened stock trading inside its app, letting users buy U.S. equities with USDC, according to a press release on Wednesday night.
Coinbase said it is rolling out a full set of new features that push the platform into stocks, advanced trading tools, and a full prediction-market setup, as well as adding on-chain products for businesses, developers, and users who want automated financial guidance.
The company said these features have been in the pipeline for months but are now finished and ready for customers. CEO Brian Armstrong said he wants the platform to become the place where people trade every major asset.
Coinbase expands trading lineup with stocks, futures, and prediction markets
Brian said the plan includes stocks, a simpler futures and perpetuals layout, and prediction markets built through Kalshi.
Coinbase is also building a tokenization roadmap that aims to bring more traditional assets on-chain, including equities. He said this push is meant to take the first step toward a world where stock trading and tokenized assets sit in the same app.
The prediction-market space is getting crowded fast. DraftKings is buying its own exchange. FanDuel is teaming up with CME. Polymarket is entering the U.S. through a new approved venue.
Robinhood is putting LedgerX at the center of its regulated derivatives plan. The main rivalry remains Kalshi versus Polymarket, which Brian described as regulated rails against crypto-native liquidity. He said prediction markets are not only for trading but for reading what people expect to happen next.
“If you look at things like economic indicators … or elections, people are using prediction markets to try to figure out what is going to happen next month,” Brian told CNBC. He added that only a small group use them for trading, while most use them to check sentiment, saying it can feel like an alternative to traditional media or even entertainment.
During the company’s third-quarter earnings call in October, Brian joked about how prediction markets can be influenced.
“I was a little distracted because I was tracking the prediction market about what Coinbase will say on their next earnings call,” he said. “And I just want to add here the words bitcoin, ethereum, blockchain, staking and Web3 to make sure we get those in before the end of the call.”
Robinhood expanded its own prediction-market push this week with parlays and prop-style contracts.It also said the category is now its fastest-growing business by revenue.
Coinbase is adding the same kind of outcome trading to its ecosystem as part of a bigger model where one app holds traditional assets, derivatives, and on-chain activity.
Moving assets on-chain and building tools for businesses and developers
Coinbase tied this expansion to its tokenization plans.It is launching Coinbase Tokenize, a stack for institutions that want support for real-world asset tokenization. Brian said stock trading is “a good first step,” but the real goal is tokenized equities.
Brian said tokenized equity could “democratize access for people over the world,” and open the door for new market structures in the U.S., including stronger futures markets tied to equities. “So this is the starting point,” he said.
The rollout also widens Coinbase’s on-chain liquidity role. The company said it wants to be more than a place where tokens are listed. It wants to be a core provider of liquidity across markets. For businesses and developers, the company is expanding its reach beyond retail users.
Coinbase Business is opening to eligible customers in the U.S. and Singapore. Coinbase is also releasing a larger API suite that spans custody, payments, trading, and stablecoins.
Brian said, “Crypto is updating all financial services,” predicting that every major asset class will move on-chain, from equities and prediction markets to commodities and real-world assets like real estate.
Coinbase is also introducing “custom stablecoins” for businesses that want their own branded payment rails. It is promoting x402, a payments standard designed to attach stablecoin payments to web requests, including automated commerce and agent-driven transactions.
Coinbase said the long-term goal behind all of this is to keep users on the platform across every market cycle. It already owns a large crypto-native base and wants those users to stay and trade other asset classes even when volumes fall and spot-trade revenue dips.
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