Coinbase wants to put real stock ownership on the blockchain. The twist is simple.
Most people who use Coinbase can't buy it yet. The first version skips the U.S.
A tokenized stock is a digital token. It stands in for a real share of a company.
Think of it as a blockchain copy of the same stock. It is not a side bet on the price.
Most older crypto stock products just tracked the price. This one is meant to hand you the real thing.
CEO Brian Armstrong drew a hard line on Tuesday. "No derivatives, no IOUs," the company posted.
Each token is backed one-for-one by a real share. Holders also get dividends paid out on their own.
The perks go beyond ownership. Tokens trade around the clock, settle on the spot, and can be bought in small slices.
The tokens live on Base, the blockchain Coinbase built. They can move straight between users, with no broker in the middle.
We break down what crypto's push into stocks means for your money in Market Briefs - five minutes each morning, plus a free investing masterclass when you join.
Here is the part that matters for American readers. You can't buy these yet.
Coinbase is launching first in markets outside the U.S. In many of those places, regular folks can't easily get American stocks.
That access is on hold at home. American regulators are still writing the rules for this kind of trading.
Armstrong sees a huge untapped crowd. He says billions of people want a piece of big U.S. companies and have no easy way in.
Coinbase is not first to the idea. Kraken already offers one-for-one tokenized stocks on Solana.
Robinhood rolled out tokenized shares in Europe too. So the lane is already crowded.
Coinbase is leaning on what it already has. It is betting its size and name win the race anyway.
The company laid out this plan back in December. It said that, in time, it expects almost everything to be tokenized.
Armstrong also pointed to pre-IPO contracts. Those let some users bet on private companies before they go public.
For now, the company is keeping the launch short on specifics. It promised to share more on a live broadcast.
The plan still fits a pattern for Coinbase. It keeps adding new ways to trade beyond plain crypto.
The full picture is still missing. Coinbase has not named the stocks, the fees, or how you turn a token back into a share.
One risk is worth holding onto. Even with one-for-one backing, the real shares sit with a custodian.
That means you are trusting someone else to hold the stock. If they slip, you feel it.
For a company built on crypto, the future it is pitching looks a lot like the stock market. It is just rebuilt on blockchain rails.
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