Coinbase, the largest crypto exchagein the United States , officially announced a large-scale product expansion plan on Wednesday, covering multiple areas such as stock trading, prediction markets, perpetual contracts, and decentralized exchange (DEX) integration. This marks the official launch of the company's strategy to transform from a pure crypto exchage into a "universal exchange" covering traditional finance and digital assets.
Coinbase says it is significantly expanding the types of assets that can be traded on its platform, including new cryptocurrencies, perpetual contracts, stocks, and prediction markets. The prediction market will initially integrate with Kalshi, a platform valued at $11 billion , with more partners to follow.
Stock trading: Hundreds of US stocks, zero commission, 24/7 trading.
Max Branzburg, Head of Consumer and Enterprise Products at Coinbase, revealed that while the initial list of tradable stocks is still being adjusted, it will cover hundreds of top stocks , with selection criteria including market capitalization and trading volume, and plans to expand to thousands of stocks and ETFs in the coming months.
This integration simplifies portfolio management, allowing users to buy, sell, and manage stocks, ETFs, and crypto assets using USD or USDC within the same Coinbase account and app. The official blog states:
Traders will enjoy zero-commission trading and will not be restricted by traditional market trading hours—they can trade their top stocks 24/7, 5 days a week.
Early next year, Coinbase plans to expand its stock perpetual contract functionality, allowing traders outside the U.S. to access 24/7, more capital-efficient U.S. stock exposure through its app. This service will be powered by Coinbase Tokenize—the company's new end-to-end institutional-grade RWA tokenization platform, which will provide retail investors with a gateway to trading tokenized stocks.
Prediction Markets: Integrating Kalshi to trade elections, sports, and economic events.
By integrating with Kalshi, a prediction market platform valued at $11 billion, Coinbase users will be able to trade on the outcomes of real-world events such as elections, sporting events, collectibles, and economic indicators . The price of event contracts is determined by the collective trading activity of market participants.
According to market research, the global prediction market is worth approximately $15 billion , making it a highly competitive market for major platforms. Several months ago, Coinbase expanded its internal policy to prohibit employees, including senior executives, from participating in prediction market trading to avoid concerns about insider trading.
Perpetual contracts integrated with Solana DEX
Coinbase says it has streamlined the derivatives trading process, allowing users to trade larger volumes with less upfront capital and enjoy better tax treatment when trading in cryptocurrency and commodity markets.
Branzburg stated, "We currently offer over 30 futures and perpetual contracts in the US, covering asset classes from cryptocurrencies and commodities to stock indices, with plans to expand to hundreds of contracts in the future. As of this week, we have 15 perpetual futures contracts for cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP."
In the coming weeks, Coinbase will expand its decentralized exchange (DEX) integration to include trading support for the Solana token . The main trading app will integrate Jupiter, a popular Solana DEX aggregator, allowing users to securely exchange tokens without leaving the app.
AI financial advisors and enterprise services
Coinbase also launched Coinbase Business —a financial platform designed for startups and SMEs using cryptocurrency—now available to all eligible businesses in the US and Singapore. Business users can make and receive payments globally via payment links and invoices, manage crypto assets through Coinbase Advanced, and automate financial workflows using Coinbase's compliance infrastructure.
In addition, Coinbase has launched an AI-powered financial advisor tool called Coinbase Advisor . The official statement says, "Users don't need to manually piece together trades; they simply tell the AI their goals and questions—such as 'Help me build an investment portfolio,' or 'What's the latest market news and how will it affect me?'—to receive personalized advice driven by Coinbase products, data, and tools."
Base blockchain globalization and token issuance are still under exploration.
Coinbase's Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain, Base, has officially launched in over 140 countries worldwide. Analysts previously speculated that this product launch might include an announcement of Base's native token.
In response, Branzburg stated, "We continue to explore the potential of the Base token, but there are no updates to share at the moment."
fierce market competition
Offering a "Swiss knife" style, fully-featured trading platform has become a recent competitive focus. Coinbase's major crypto trading counterparts, such as Robinhood, Kraken, and Gemini , have all launched tokenized equity products for users outside the United States and are also exploring the prediction market space.
The regulatory environment in the United States has undergone significant changes in recent years, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) tacitly allowing certain tokenized stocks to be traded 24/7 on the blockchain. However, at a meeting of the SEC's Investor Advisory Committee in early December, market-making giants Citadel and Coinbase engaged in a heated debate over the regulation of tokenized stocks in the US, indicating that regulatory uncertainty still exists in this area.
For Coinbase, this massive product expansion marks a key step in its transformation from a crypto exchage into a "financial operating system." If it successfully integrates equity, prediction market, and DeFi functionalities and obtains regulatory approval, Coinbase is poised to guide its 11 million monthly active users into a new era of multi-asset trading.
