Coinbase launched tokenized stocks on its Base blockchain, with B20 tokens representing real shares held by Alpaca under ADGM rules, available 24/7 outside the US.
Coinbase launched tokenized stocks on its Base blockchain, using a new standard called B20. The company said the tokens represent real shares held by a custodian, not synthetic products or wrappers.
The underlying shares are bought by authorized participants and placed with Alpaca, a regulated broker and custodian, under a bankruptcy-remote structure supervised by Abu Dhabi Global Market's (ADGM) rules. Coinbase said the structure gives users "real ownership, not a workaround."
The tokens trade 24/7 and are available globally except in the U.S., where the regulatory framework for tokenized securities is still unclear. The initial lineup includes Apple, Nvidia, Meta, and Alphabet.
This is Coinbase's latest push to become what it calls an "everything exchange" – a single platform for crypto, traditional assets, banking, and securities. The company has said private securities and secondary transactions are next. Most online brokerages have been slow to embrace digital assets; Coinbase is betting that direct ownership onchain will draw traders who want to lend or use their stocks as collateral inside DeFi.
Coinbase previously said tokenized shares were coming. The launch puts it ahead of competitors that offer only synthetic exposure, the company said.
For investors, the key question is how much demand the product will generate outside the U.S. and whether regulators in other jurisdictions will follow ADGM's approach. The Base network, an Ethereum Layer 2 that went live in August 2023, handles the settlement.
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