Coinbase has launched four tokenised US stock products on Base, allowing eligible investors outside the United States to trade exposure to Apple, NVIDIA, Meta and Alphabet around the clock.
The products are available natively on Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network, moving a service previously offered by Coinbase into an open onchain environment.
The initial tokens are NVIDIA (NVDAc), Meta (METAc), Apple (AAPLc) and Alphabet (GOOGLc). Base has published a separate prospectus and contract address for each asset, and users have been told to check those details before buying because tokens outside the official list were not issued by Coinbase.
Under the legal structure, each B20 token represents a beneficial interest in an underlying share. It is therefore different from a synthetic contract that merely tracks the price of a stock.
Coinbase Onchain SPV Ltd., a Coinbase-controlled company incorporated in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, is the formal issuer of the securities. The NVIDIA prospectus says the Financial Services Regulatory Authority approved the document on 4 August under ADGM rules.
For every token issued, the special-purpose company initially holds one corresponding share through a segregated custody account. Alpaca Securities, an SEC-registered broker-dealer and a member of FINRA and SIPC, is named as the broker and custodian responsible for purchasing, selling and holding the underlying shares.
The deposited shares are held in trust for tokenholders, according to the filing. Subject to the trust arrangements being valid under ADGM law, those assets would not become part of the issuer’s property if the special-purpose company entered bankruptcy or insolvency.
Base describes the tokens as beneficial claims that provide direct economic exposure to the listed companies. Coinbase has promoted them as “real 1:1 backed tokenized stocks”, although the prospectus distinguishes between beneficial exposure and being directly registered as the legal owner of the underlying share.
Tokenholders do not automatically receive voting rights in the companies. Verified, or “vested”, holders may send voting instructions to the issuer, which can try to vote the custodied shares on their behalf. Any such action remains subject to applicable law, timing and practical limitations.
The launch follows preparations reported in July, after Base founder Jesse Pollak acknowledged that Robinhood had moved first by placing stock-linked products in an Ethereum-compatible environment.
“We’ve been behind on this on Base and I’m frustrated that’s the case,” Pollak said at the time, adding that the companies were close to launching 1:1-backed equities.
Once issued as B20 tokens, the products can be held in self-custodial wallets and used with supported decentralised applications. Base lists Aerodrome as a source of liquidity for tokenised stocks, while Aave, Morpho and Euler provide, or plan to provide, lending and borrowing functions.
Other integrations include 0x, 1inch, KyberSwap and CoW Swap for token exchanges. Chainlink supplies price-data infrastructure, while LI.FI and Jumper support services linked to cross-chain transfers and swaps.
Those connections mean a token can be used across several applications. An eligible holder could, for example, trade a stock token through a decentralised exchange and subsequently use it as collateral on a supported lending market, depending on the rules and availability of each protocol.
Trading is available outside normal US exchange hours, including at weekends and during American market holidays. Conventional shares listed on Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange continue to trade only during their established sessions, so prices on decentralised venues may move while the primary market for the underlying security is closed.
Base said more tickers would be added in the coming weeks, subject to regulatory approval. The additional listings would use the same B20 framework, enabling applications already integrated with the standard to support new assets without creating a separate system for every stock.
The rollout follows Coinbase’s June launch of tokenised exposure linked to NVIDIA, Alphabet, Strategy, BitMine and SpaceX. Coinbase said at the time that its products would support onchain trading, redemption and distributions connected with the underlying shares.
The prospectus does not provide for dividends to be paid directly to holders in cash. Instead, the issuer generally reinvests distributions from the underlying company in additional shares. That increases the amount of underlying equity represented by each token through an adjusted deposit ratio.
US withholding tax is applied before reinvestment. Under the NVIDIA filing, dividends paid to non-US holders are currently subject to a 30% withholding rate unless an applicable tax treaty reduces it.
The issuer also charges a distribution fee equal to 5% of the gross value of dividends or other distributions before withholding tax and reinvestment. Corporate actions, fees and other costs may alter the deposit ratio over time.
Verified holders can request redemption in the underlying stock, US dollars or an accepted stablecoin such as USDC. A redemption fee of 0.05% applies. The issuer, broker and custodian may also carry out identity, anti-money laundering, sanctions and jurisdiction checks before processing a request.
Redemption does not necessarily mean the underlying stock will be sold immediately at the price shown when the request is submitted. The prospectus warns that compliance checks, settlement procedures and market transactions may delay payment. The price achieved after a sale could also differ from the value available when the holder filed the request.
People who acquire the tokens through unregulated DeFi markets may remain “unvested” until they meet the issuer’s compliance requirements. The filing says unvested holders cannot redeem their tokens, receive the underlying shares or submit voting instructions.
Despite representing shares in US-listed companies, Coinbase Tokenized Stocks on Base are not available to US persons. The securities have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933 or with any US state securities regulator.
Coinbase is offering the products under Regulation S, an SEC registration exemption covering certain securities transactions carried out outside the United States. The prospectus prohibits offering, selling or delivering the tokens within the country, or for the account or benefit of a US person.
US customers can instead use Coinbase’s regulated brokerage service for conventional stocks and exchange-traded funds. Coinbase Capital Markets provides those securities through a FINRA-member broker, with execution, clearing and custody handled by Apex Clearing. That arrangement is separate from the B20 products available on Base.
Competition in tokenised assets outside the US has continued to expand. An August comparison of the tokenised market placed the total value tracked by Token Terminal at about $2.7bn. Ondo Finance was the leading issuer, while Binance bStocks and xStocks each held more than $600m.
A separate analysis of July trading volumes found that tokenised stock trading had increased by 288% during the month, although a tokenised QQQ product accounted for most activity in decentralised secondary markets.
Coinbase’s prospectus warns that investors may lose their entire investment. It also says token prices can diverge from the underlying shares because of liquidity conditions, market closures or disruptions.
The filing further states that SIPC rules do not directly address the custody structure. As a result, it remains uncertain whether protection in the event of an Alpaca insolvency would apply separately to each holder or only at the issuer level.
