Coinbase (COIN) Stock Surges as Exchange Expands Beyond Crypto: Adds Stock Trading and Prediction Markets

Coinbase just rewrote its own playbook. The crypto giant isn't just a crypto exchange anymore—it's morphing into a full-spectrum financial platform. The latest move? Launching stock trading and prediction markets directly within its ecosystem.

From Crypto Corner to Main Street

Forget jumping between apps. Coinbase users can now trade traditional equities alongside their Bitcoin and Ethereum, all from a single, familiar interface. It’s a seamless bridge between the old guard and the new frontier of finance.

Betting on Everything

Then there are the prediction markets. Think of them as financial crystal balls where users can speculate on future events—from election outcomes to tech product launches. It’s a bold foray into decentralized information markets, turning speculation into a tradable asset.

Why This Isn't Just Another Feature Drop

This isn't a side project. It's a strategic pivot. By adding stocks, Coinbase directly competes with legacy brokerages, capturing more of its users' total net worth. The prediction markets? That's a pure crypto-native play, tapping into a multi-billion dollar potential market that traditional finance can't—or won't—touch.

Wall Street's reaction was predictably bullish, sending COIN stock climbing. Because nothing makes traditional investors happier than a crypto company starting to look a lot more like, well, them. A cynical take? They're finally building the diversified revenue streams the suits have been begging for since the last crypto winter.

The bottom line: Coinbase is no longer just riding the crypto wave. It's building a dam to control the entire flow of capital, digital and otherwise. The future of finance might not be decentralized—it might just be consolidated under one very ambitious roof.

TLDR

• Coinbase now offers stock trading with hundreds of top stocks available at launch, planning to add thousands more stocks and ETFs in coming months
• Users can trade stocks 24/7 from Monday through Friday with zero commission fees using USD or USDC
• Prediction markets launched through Kalshi partnership, allowing trading on real-world events like elections and sports
• Platform added Solana DEX integration via Jupiter and expanded perpetuals trading to over 30 contracts
• Coinbase Business rolled out for startups and small businesses, plus new AI-powered Coinbase Advisor wealth management tool

Coinbase dropped a bundle of new features on Wednesday that transforms the crypto exchange into something much bigger. The company announced stock trading, prediction markets, and a bunch of other tools during its System Update stream.

Coinbase System, updated.

→ Stocks
→ Prediction markets
→ Millions of DEX assets

And a whole lot more.
The future of finance is on Coinbase. pic.twitter.com/U24yqpEUEO

— Coinbase(@coinbase) December 17, 2025

The exchange is bringing hundreds of stocks to its platform right now. Market cap and trading volume determine which ones make the cut. Over the next few months, thousands more stocks and ETFs will get added.

Users can buy and sell stocks alongside their crypto holdings. They can use regular dollars or USDC stablecoin. The real kicker is the 24/7 trading schedule five days a week with zero commission fees.

Coinbase Global, Inc., COIN

Coinbase head of consumer and business products Max Branzburg says the company is focused on enabling real-world assets and tokenized assets. The mechanism is still being worked out. More details are coming soon.

Trading Beyond Crypto

The exchange partnered with Kalshi to bring prediction markets to the platform. Users can now bet on real-world events. Elections, sports games, collectibles, and economic indicators are all fair game.

Market participants determine the prices through their collective trading activity. The Kalshi integration starts rolling out today.

Perpetuals trading got simplified too. Users can make bigger moves with less money upfront. The platform offers more than 30 futures and perps contracts across different asset classes.

Crypto, commodities, and equity indices are all covered. Coinbase plans to expand to hundreds more contracts over time. Fifteen perpetual-style futures contracts for cryptocurrencies went live this week, including BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP.

The exchange integrated Jupiter, a popular solana DEX aggregator. Users can swap Solana tokens without leaving the Coinbase app. This integration rolls out over the coming weeks.

New Business Tools

Coinbase Business launched for all eligible businesses in the US and Singapore. The platform helps startups and small businesses work with crypto. They can send and receive global payments with payment links and invoices.

The service lets businesses manage crypto assets through Coinbase Advanced. They can automate financial workflows using the exchange’s regulated infrastructure.

Coinbase Advisor brings AI-powered wealth management to the platform. Users can ask questions and get personalized answers. The AI suggests recommendations based on Coinbase’s products, data, and tools.

Base, the exchange’s ethereum layer-2 network, expanded to over 140 countries. Some analysts thought a Base token might get announced. Branzburg said the company continues exploring that possibility but has no updates right now.

Coinbase Tokenize powers the retail access to tokenized stocks. The new institutional platform handles tokenizing real-world assets end-to-end. Early next year, stock perpetuals will expand so international traders can get 24/7 exposure to US stocks.

The company calls this push toward becoming the “everything exchange.” Robinhood, Kraken, and Gemini have launched similar offerings. Some crypto exchanges already offer tokenized equity to users outside the US.

Brian Huang, CEO of Glider, questioned why Coinbase isn’t building onchain stocks. He said the new offerings make Coinbase look more like Robinhood. Huang noted Coinbase trades at under $66 billion market value while Robinhood sits over $104 billion.

Coinbase shares dropped 3.3% on Wednesday but recovered 1.5% in after-hours trading to $247.85. Huang believes Coinbase is undervalued and will close the gap to Robinhood as tokenized assets grow.

The exchange simplified derivatives trading for better tax benefits when trading across crypto markets and commodities. Users can access these features through the main Coinbase app with a simple interface.