Coinbase Gears Up to Launch Tokenized Stock Trading, Crypto and Equities Options

Publicly traded crypto exchange Coinbase has long been a popular destination for buying Bitcoin and Ethereum—but the firm’s ambitions are growing in various directions as it seeks to become a one-stop shop for all things finance.

On Tuesday, Coinbase unveiled new product plans including the future launch of options trading for crypto and traditional equities, tokenized stock trading with automatic dividend payments, the ability to borrow against staked Solana, and a new travel portal for its Coinbase One Card that pays out larger Bitcoin rewards.

“The throughline, in terms of Coinbase’s overall mission, is economic empowerment,” Coinbase Head of Financial Services Ben Shen told Decrypt. “It is essentially allowing customers to use money in their everyday lives, the way they want.” 

According to Shen, the firm’s foundations remain focused on crypto traders and investors, but it is working towards becoming the primary financial account for its users, allowing them to spend, send, trade, invest, and borrow all in one spot—with a goal of ultimately becoming the “everything exchange.”

Ahead of its equity options trading launch in the coming months, the firm will also allow users to transfer in existing stock portfolios and trade them directly on Coinbase, where it is building out a more robust trading platform for equities holders.

Earlier Tuesday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong took to social media to promote the firm’s incoming tokenized stock initiative, differentiating it from other tokenized product offerings which are “some form of derivative or IOU.” Coinbase said the product will provide automatically paid dividends on held stocks.

“For the first time, these are real 1:1 backed tokenized stocks you can trust,” Armstrong said on X. “You own an actual chunk of the company on-chain.

Recently, the firm announced the launch of pre-IPO perps, allowing traders to make a short or long bet on firms ahead of their public listings, starting with the record-breaking SpaceX IPO. 

The company’s signature credit card, the Coinbase One Card, is getting a boost too. The Bitcoin rewards card will offer 5% in Bitcoin back on purchases made via its new travel portal powered by Rocket Travel by Agoda, instead of the typical 2-4% in rewards. The card will also now be accessible with USDC backing, expanding its potential user base to include those who may not have an approved credit history. 

To date, the firm’s expansion beyond just spot crypto trading has been well received, Shen said.

“We’ve seen a lot of customers once again kind of embrace this concept of I can hold it all in one place, I can grow it, and I can use it,” he added.

Coinbase’s push into becoming the “everything exchange” also led to its recent participation in the first government-guaranteed Bitcoin-backed mortgage, and the launch of a tool that lets AI agents make trades and transfers on a user’s behalf. In May, it also became the first U.S. centralized exchange to earn approval to offer crypto perpetual futures. 

“We think that a lot more people are going to want to buy crypto, even far beyond our existing customer base,” Shen told Decrypt. “Coinbase is a great place for them to do that, in addition to fulfilling their other needs.” 

The firm also announced new prediction market contracts for time-based crypto price predictions, instant access to new token launches on Solana and the Coinbase-incubated Ethereum layer-2 network Base, and new transfer controls for additional account security.