Coinbase Debuts Tokenized Stocks on Base, Joining Race to Bring Equities On-Chain

Tokenized versions of major US stocks landed on Base Monday. Coinbase put Apple, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet on its Ethereum layer-2 network, giving eligible non-US users round-the-clock trading and DeFi access.

The move pushes Coinbase into an already crowded field. Multiple exchanges are racing to bring equities on-chain. The tokens are issued under a structure supervised by the Abu Dhabi Global Market, with shares held by regulated broker and custodian Alpaca, the Base team wrote on X.

“If you hold the token, you hold a direct claim on the share,” the Base team wrote. “Coinbase Tokenized Stocks are the real deal.”

The tokens run on Coinbase’s B20 standard. It handles dividends and stock splits without changing token balances or disrupting positions in decentralized finance protocols, according to Decrypt. Holders can keep tokens in self-custody wallets. They can trade them on Aerodrome. They can post them as collateral on Aave. The tokens also slot into liquidity pools, automated portfolios, indexes and derivatives. Availability varies by jurisdiction and may carry identity-check requirements, the team said.

Chainlink Data Feeds supply continuous on-chain pricing for the four initial stocks. Each token is valued at the underlying share price plus a Coinbase-supplied multiplier that accounts for dividends and corporate actions, according to Chainlink documentation cited by Cointelegraph.

“Markets shouldn’t sleep,” the Base team wrote on X. “Tokenized stocks can trade across always-on AMM pools, so users can react to an earnings call at 3am, a macro event, or weekend news, instead of trading hours designed for a pre-internet era.”

The broader market already has real scale. Total tokenized-stock value sat near $2.48 billion as of this month, up 5.2% over the past 30 days. Monthly transfer volume hit $27.28 billion. More than 2.1 million holders. Those figures come from RWA.xyz data cited by Cointelegraph and cover the whole market, not Coinbase alone.

Coinbase first unveiled its tokenized-stock plans in June. Each token, it said, would be backed 1:1 by a real share, with dividends paid automatically and products expected to reach non-US users in July. Decrypt noted Robinhood’s layer-2 launch last month also included tokenized stocks.

More stocks and real-world assets are coming, Base said. No specific tickers yet.

“The financial system is being rebuilt onchain, and the builders on Base are the ones making it happen,” the Base team wrote.

Holders, as ever, are divided.