Overview
- Coinbase announced on Tuesday, June 16 that it will offer tokenized U.S. stocks backed one-for-one by real shares that users can trade, hold, redeem on-chain and receive automatic dividend payments.
- The company says holders will have direct equity rights rather than derivative exposure, and it is routing issuance through its Coinbase Tokenize infrastructure on the Base blockchain.
- Coinbase will initially make the product available to eligible non-U.S. customers with some reports pointing to an August start, while U.S. access remains restricted until regulators and market infrastructure provide clear rules.
- The move raises operational questions about custody, proof of one-to-one backing, on-chain redemption mechanics and corporate-action handling after recent tokenization failures involving SpaceX shares on other platforms.
- The announcement intensifies competition with exchanges and incumbent finance firms racing to tokenized equities and signals Coinbase’s broader push to become an “everything exchange” that mixes stocks, options, AI tools and consumer finance.