Coinbase Expands Beyond Crypto: Stock Trading, Prediction Markets, Derivatives Now Live

Coinbase just blew up its own playbook. The crypto giant isn't just a crypto exchange anymore—it's morphing into a full-spectrum financial platform overnight.

The New Trading Floor

Forget switching apps. Users can now juggle stocks, crypto, and speculative prediction markets in one feed. It's a direct shot across the bow of traditional brokerages, bundling volatility from Wall Street to Web3 into a single, seamless interface. The move effectively turns every crypto trader into a potential stock day-trader—and vice versa.

Betting on Everything

The prediction market addition is the real curveball. It lets users wager on real-world events, from election outcomes to box office numbers. It's decentralized gambling dressed in a fintech suit, creating a market for information where sentiment is the ultimate currency. Some call it innovative hedging; others see a casino masquerading as a brokerage.

The Derivatives Dive

Then there are the derivatives. Leveraged futures and options contracts are now in the mix, catering to the high-risk, high-reward crowd. This isn't for the faint of heart—it's turbocharged speculation that can amplify gains or vaporize accounts in minutes. It’s the kind of tool that makes regulators twitch and degens salivate.

Coinbase's masterstroke? Recognizing that the modern investor doesn't segment 'crypto' and 'finance.' They want exposure to all of it, from blue-chip stocks to the wildest crypto alpha, in one place. The platform is betting that convenience and consolidated chaos will win over user loyalty. Just another day in finance, where the line between investing and betting gets blurrier by the minute.

Coinbase has begun rolling out stock trading and prediction markets in the United States, a move that broadens the platform’s scope beyond cryptocurrency and into traditional and event-driven financial products. The expansion was detailed in a blog post yesterday.

U.S. users can now trade leading stocks and ETFs within the Coinbase app using USD or USDC, with zero-commission trading available during standard market days. Coinbase plans to expand its stock offerings over the coming months and has indicated a long-term ambition to introduce tokenized stocks, which could enable 24/7 global trading onchain.

The platform is also launching prediction markets, allowing users to trade contracts on outcomes of real-world events such as elections, sports, and economic indicators. Initial trading will be powered by Kalshi, with Coinbase signaling plans to integrate additional prediction market providers over time. Trades can be executed alongside crypto and cash balances in a single interface, with positions starting from $1.

Coinbase is further expanding access to derivatives, introducing a simplified futures and perpetual futures trading experience for millions of U.S. users. Separately, the company is integrating Solana decentralized exchange (DEX) trading into the main app, enabling users to trade newly launched tokens immediately via the Jupiter DEX aggregator.

These developments come amid a broader industry trend to combine traditional and digital finance on unified platforms. By offering equities, crypto, derivatives, and prediction markets in a single interface, Coinbase aims to position itself as a comprehensive financial hub for retail, institutional, and developer users.

Additional expansions include the global launch of the Base App, an onchain social and trading platform, and general availability of Coinbase Business for companies in the U.S. and Singapore. Coinbase has also introduced Coinbase Advisor, an AI-powered tool for automated portfolio guidance.