Coinbase Expands Beyond Crypto: Adds Stock Trading, Prediction Markets, and Derivatives to Its Platform

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 hub, adding stock trading, prediction markets, and derivatives to its arsenal. This isn't an expansion; it's a declaration of war on traditional finance.

The All-in-One Gambit

Forget switching apps. Coinbase users can now juggle stocks, bet on future events, and trade complex derivatives right next to their Bitcoin stash. The platform is betting big that convenience trumps brand loyalty, offering a one-stop shop for every kind of speculative itch. It's a direct challenge to legacy brokers who still treat crypto like a fringe asset.

Prediction Markets: Betting on Everything

This is the wild card. By integrating prediction markets, Coinbase lets users wager on real-world outcomes—elections, sports, even corporate earnings. It blurs the line between investing and gambling, packaged neatly as 'market sentiment.' A cynical take? It's a brilliant way to monetize uncertainty, turning the daily news cycle into a casino floor.

Derivatives: Doubling Down on Volatility

The derivatives launch targets the pros. Leveraged products amplify gains and losses, catering to traders who find plain old spot trading too tame. It's a high-margin, high-risk move that deepens Coinbase's hooks into the most active—and profitable—segment of the market. More tools, more trading, more fees. Simple math.

Coinbase isn't just adding features; it's building a moat. By aggregating every major asset class, it aims to become indispensable. The endgame? A single platform so entrenched that leaving feels like financial self-sabotage. For traditional finance, it's a wake-up call: adapt or get absorbed. The future of trading isn't just digital—it's consolidated.

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.