"Buying Apple Stock on a Crypto Exchange"—Top Global Players Expand Tokenized Securities [Crypto Briefing]

According to Financial News, crypto exchanges are moving beyond Bitcoin (BTC) trading and expanding into channels for traditional stocks such as Apple and Tesla. Coinbase, Binance and Kraken, which lead the global crypto market, are rapidly scaling up trading services for stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and tokenized securities, blurring the line with traditional capital markets.
On the 26th, foreign media and industry sources reported that Coinbase has formed a strategic partnership with Yahoo Finance and fully rolled out stock and ETF trading services for users across the United States. With this, U.S.-based Coinbase users can trade more than 8,000 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, 24 hours a day, five days a week. A key feature of the service is the use of USD Coin (USDC), a U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoin, as the settlement currency, along with support for fractional investing starting from as little as 1 dollar. Coinbase is pushing to transform itself into a "multi-asset trading platform" that covers not only crypto assets but also stocks, ETFs, tokenized stocks and derivatives.
Binance has resumed trading of tokenized securities for major U.S. stocks such as Apple, Tesla and Nvidia through its Binance Alpha platform in partnership with Ondo Finance, an on-chain real-world asset (RWA) tokenization project. This effectively revives the tokenized stock service that was halted in 2021 under regulatory pressure, bringing it back after roughly five years. The new service operates under the supervision of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi (FSRA) and offers 24/7 on-chain trading to investors in many countries, excluding the United States.
Kraken is expanding its tokenized stock and ETF business with "xStocks," issued by tokenized asset infrastructure firm Backed Finance. Aiming to build a tokenized securities trading hub that spans spot and derivatives products, Kraken is working to integrate xStocks into its app and futures trading lineup.
These recent moves by major global crypto exchanges show that the distribution channels for tokenized stocks and securities are extending from traditional brokerages to crypto trading platforms.
An industry official commented, "Coinbase is exploring multi-asset brokerage by linking up with a mainstream research platform, while Binance is focusing on expanding the RWA ecosystem," adding, "Kraken has chosen a channel that combines regulated derivatives with tokenization infrastructure, signaling that the distribution structure for tokenized securities has entered an early stage where multiple players and models coexist."

elikim@fnnews.com Kim Mi-hee Reporter