Coinbase debuts tokenized stocks on Base network, joining race to bring equities on blockchain

Coinbase COIN $ 183.72 debuted tokenized U.S. stocks on its Base blockchain on Monday, joining rival crypto exchanges, including Kraken and Binance, in the race to bring stock trading onchain.

The rollout starts with some of the biggest names in the U.S. market: Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA), Meta (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL). The tokens are available to eligible investors outside the U.S. and represent shares held 1:1 with Alpaca, a regulated broker and custodian, according to a Base blog post.

The stock tokens are issued under Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) regulation, where Coinbase recently established its international tokenization hub.

Coinbase said more stocks will follow the initial batch.

The rollout comes as tokenization is gathering steam across asset classes. Banks and asset managers have already moved tens of billions of dollars of U.S. Treasuries, private credit and investment funds onchain, RWA.xyz data shows. The potential market is sizable: Citi has projected that tokenized securities could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030.

Tokenizing public stocks is increasingly in the pipeline for companies, with crypto exchanges, fintech firms and traditional market operators exploring ways to enable equities to trade and settle on blockchain networks.