Coin, stocks and chains, one article understands the ultimate ambition behind the expansion of Coinbase's "Empire"

Author: Fairy, ChainCatcher

Edited by: TB, ChainCatcher

Coinbase has been doing a lot lately.

While applying to launch stock tokenized transactions from the US SEC, we joined hands with Shopify to allow consumers in 34 countries to shop with USDC on the Base chain; and also supported all Base ecological assets through DEX.

Coins, stocks, payments, contracts... are all-round layout, and a closed loop is completed on its own public chain Base. Coinbase’s ambitions are fully revealed.

"On-chain brokerage": Coinbase's super entrance dream

According to Reuters, Coinbase is seeking US SEC approval to provide users with stock tokenized trading services. Once approved, users will be able to trade tokenized assets representing U.S. stocks through blockchain technology. Coinbase will directly compete with traditional retail brokers such as Robinhood and Schwab Financial Management, and is also expected to open up its new on-chain securities business landscape.

Behind this move is a rapidly rising market: since the beginning of this year, the overall market value of the RWA field has increased from US$15.7 billion in January to US$23.9 billion, an increase of more than 50% in just a few months.

Picture: rwa.xyz

Coinbase is not the only player who is looking at this trend. Last month, its main competitor Kraken announced that it would launch the US stock token product "xStocks" outside the United States, covering more than 50 stocks and ETFs including Apple, Tesla, Nvidia, etc. The product is deployed on the Solana blockchain and supports 7×24 hours of transactions.

However, if Coinbase wants to implement this model in the United States, it still needs to overcome the high regulatory threshold: it must obtain a "no objection letter" or exemption license from the US SEC. According to current regulations, all institutions that provide securities trading services must hold a brokerage license. Fortunately, Coinbase acquired Keystone Capital, which owns the license, as early as 2018. Although the subsidiary has not yet been actually enabled, Coinbase is theoretically qualified to provide similar services.

In addition, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal also made it clear that the stock tokenization business is the company's current "high priority" strategic direction. If this model is successfully implemented, Coinbase is expected to break the traditional brokerage structure and create a positive impact on Wall Street on the chain.

Coinbase’s strategic fulcrum: Base

Coinbase is fully promoting the Base chain, trying to build it into the underlying infrastructure and strategic center of the on-chain financial closed loop.

Recently, Base head Jesse said that Coinbase launched all Base ecological assets through the DEX mechanism, and users can directly use CEX account funds to seamlessly trade. This means that once the projects on Base are released, they can reach all users of Coinbase platform as soon as possible. This has brought huge gains to Base, both liquidity and market attention.

In the real payment scenario, Coinbase is also pushing Base to accelerate the breaking circle. On June 13, e-commerce platform Shopify announced a cooperation with Coinbase and Stripe to allow merchants to accept USDC as a payment method. Consumers can now checkout shopping in 34 countries using USDC on the Base chain.

Traditional financial giants have also included Base in their on-chain experiments. Today, JPMorgan Chase announced that it will pilot the issuance of JPMD tokens on Base, representing US dollar deposits. JPMD is scalable and may support interest calculation and deposit insurance in the future, and is regarded as a compliant alternative to stablecoins. This shows that large institutions are actively exploring the compliant issuance, circulation and settlement paths of on-chain assets, and Base may become an important endpoint for "on-chain" such as banks, securities companies, and payment platforms.

From a strategic perspective, Base is a key bridge for Coinbase to the primary market on-chain, on-chain securities companies, on-chain payments and even "on-chain banks". Base carries ecological activity, while Coinbase returns revenue and assets with CEX.

From stock tokenization, to on-chain payments and stablecoins, to the issuance of large institutional assets, Coinbase attempts to build a "on-chain financial empire" that can operate in compliance with the three major tools of coins, stocks and chains. However, the changing regulatory policies, fierce competition among competitors, and the deep integration of technology and compliance are all unavoidable tests for the expansion of this "imperial".