Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, plans to offer tokenized shares of its COIN stock to domestic users through its Ethereum Layer-2 network, Base.
The move could combine traditional stocks with blockchain technology, giving Coinbase a head start in financial innovation.
Regulatory Clarity Key to Coinbase’s Tokenized Equity Rollout in the US
Base lead developer Jesse Pollak revealed that Coinbase is still in the early stages of exploring this initiative. He acknowledged that compliance with regulations is the main obstacle.
Pollak emphasized that Coinbase is committed to addressing these challenges to ensure secure and lawful deployment of tokenized assets.
“We are in an exploratory phase and working to understand what needs to be unlocked from a regulatory perspective to bring assets like $COIN to the grassroots in a safe, compliant and forward-looking manner,” Pollak declared.
Currently, tokenized COIN stocks are only available to international users through decentralized platforms. Pollak said expanding this access in the United States depends on clearer regulatory guidelines. Additionally, such advancements could open the door to blockchain-based financial systems to a wider audience.
Meanwhile, Pollak hinted that tokenized COIN shares could be the first of many such products on the core network. Over the past year, the Ethereum Layer-2 network has rapidly gained traction and become a significant player in the industry, with over $3.84 billion in total value locked (TVL).
Pollak expressed confidence in the platform’s potential to reach $1 trillion in assets under management. He said this would further strengthen Base’s role as a hub for next-generation financial solutions.
“We’re going to bring $1 trillion in assets to the base and it’s going to happen faster than expected,” Pollak said. added.
At the same time, Coinbase’s move toward tokenization is not surprising, given the sector’s rapid growth over the past year. Industry leaders, including Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley, believe tokenization could reshape stock markets by creating a more inclusive capital market system.
Horsley pointed out that tokenization could allow smaller companies to access equity markets without the massive scale traditionally required for public offerings.
“Today in the United States, approximately 4,600 companies can access public stock markets. The NAIC estimates that there are more than 200,000 businesses in the United States with sales of more than $10 million. Of course, not all companies want to be public; but many simply cannot because it requires immense scale. Enter tokenization, a new democratized capital market”, Horsley declared.
Indeed, Coinbase is the first publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, with a market capitalization of approximately $70 billion. Austin Campbell, assistant professor at Columbia Business School, recently rented the company for its central role in resisting what it calls excessive regulation of the crypto industry in the United States.
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