If you thought ETFs or Strategy’s STRD, STRK offerings were the pinnacle of crypto based financial innovation, think again.
Coinbase has confirmed it’s seeking SEC approval to offer blockchain-based tokenized stocks.
Stocks, not crypto, not synthetic exposure, not CFDs, actual equity… tokenized, tradable 24/7, programmable, and importantly borderless and time zone neutral.
This could change capital markets forever. And it could be what sends layer-1 crypto parabolic.
Crypto's ‘Once Per Cycle’ Wealth-Building Moment Is Here
We’ve entered the next phase of the crypto cycle—where smart capital moves early and retail follows late. With fundamentals stronger than ever and institutional adoption accelerating, the window to act is now. While others wait for certainty, the informed few are positioning for outsized gains.
Tokenized stocks means company equity issued and settled entirely on-chain. No more delay in settlement days, no more third-party custodians, no more clearinghouses.
Instead, instant, final, frictionless settlement on layer-1 blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, Tron.
And if you’re wondering why this matters… imagine a 17-year-old in Indonesia buying Apple stock on a Sunday night using USDC. No broker, no bank, no middleman. That’s the future of investing.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because in crypto we’ve seen this before… only to be crushed by regulation or mismanagement.
In 2020–2021, Mirror Protocol tried it on Terra. Synthetic versions of Tesla and Amazon were minted and traded like DeFi assets. The tech worked, until the SEC sued them, and then the whole thing (and token price) crumbled.
FTX also dabbled in it. Tokenized stocks, indices and futures were offered on the platform, but as we know, when your exchange is a house of cards, and built on a table of fraud, it doesn’t matter what assets you list.
There were also lesser-known projects like Synthetix and Injective that toyed with on-chain equities. But all hit a ceiling: regulatory haze, an SEC ruling by enforcement, lack of access to real capital markets, and the absence of institutional partners.
This time is different.
Don’t forget Larry Fink has been pushing for tokenized public equities for well over a year now. In his 2025 annual letter to BlackRock investors, he wrote that ‘every asset can be tokenized’.
While BlackRock is doing that with treasuries right now, he also means stocks.
There were rumours in mid-2024 that BlackRock and other investors like Citadel were looking to launch a tokenized stock exchange in Texas, for this very outcome[1]. That hasn’t seemed to eventuate…yet, but where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Galaxy Digital too has openly declared its intent to tokenize their own stock with their recent NASDAQ listing[2].
Tokenization isn’t just a crypto obsession anymore, it’s the TradFi endgame.
The Dawn of Borderless Investing
The benefits are obvious, global liquidity, fractional ownership, real-time compliance, and 24/7 markets. For Wall Street, it’s the holy grail of capital efficiency. For individual investors, it’s an invitation to the table.
Let’s not forget that global investing is still incredibly walled off, restrictive and inaccessible for most people.
Have you ever tried investing in the U.K., Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia? It’s hard, and often there are hurdles too high for someone with a few hundred bucks that just wants to make a start.
That’s what makes crypto so popular. It’s easy, and accessible. But now what if you took the best of crypto and merged it with access to the world’s great companies?
Tokenized stocks are the killer use case for blockchain that no one outside of the crypto faithful is paying attention to… yet.
If this system launches, anyone with an internet connection and stablecoins could own a piece of any company, anywhere. You won’t need a brokerage account. You won’t need to live in the U.S., you won’t even need to wait for the market to open, it will never close!
This doesn’t just disrupt brokers and exchanges. It disrupts entire geographies.
Imagine the Nairobi teenager who can now invest in Nvidia. The Brazilian café owner building a stock portfolio with 24/7 liquidity. The Indian freelancer who finally gets access U.S. equities without being milked by intermediaries.
Tokenized stocks unlock something we’ve never had before: a truly global, open, unstoppable capital market. It unlocks all capital not geographic restricted capital.
That’s a win for companies, for capital markets…for investors.
This may just be the most powerful, most transformative, most underhyped use of blockchain we’ve ever seen.
When it lands, it will land on layer-1 crypto, like those mentioned earlier. And I think it’s going to send the market for layer-1 crypto parabolic, and the rest of the market will rip higher with them.
This was a great read. Crypto and blockchain will change the financial markets for the better!