PodcastBanklessJesse Pollock

Coinbase Launches Tokenized Stocks on Base

The discussion examines Coinbase's tokenized-stock rollout on Base, including one-to-one equity representation, rebased dividends, permissionless access, and an expanding DeFi use case spanning trading, lending, borrowing, and yield strategies. The speakers also address the infrastructure and economics needed for global stock access, local-currency stablecoins, and broader on-chain financial services. Base's DeFi growth and the still-fragmented tokenized-stock market frame forecasts for substantial expansion in both liquidity and tokenized assets.

TokenizationDeFiStablecoins

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Key Takeaways

The guest presents tokenized equities on Base as more than a 24/7 trading product: one-to-one stock representations could support borrowing, lending, yield generation, and other programmable financial applications. Rebasing dividends would increase the token balance and improve composability across those uses.

Coinbase’s initial tokenization roadmap—Nvidia, Meta, Apple, and Google, followed by eight more stocks and eventually thousands of assets—is designed to connect with Base’s existing DeFi infrastructure. Aerodrome is intended to provide trading liquidity, while Morpho, Aave, and other platforms could add lending and borrowing products.

The offering is intended to remain permissionless at the Base layer, with U.S. restrictions applied at the interface rather than to the underlying assets; trading could occur across decentralized exchanges such as Aerodrome. Coinbase initially plans to limit token minting and burning to a small group of entities, with broader access envisioned as demand and liquidity increase.

The speaker argues that tokenized stocks could expand Coinbase’s reach beyond the United States by avoiding the slow, costly integration of legacy equity systems across regions, potentially bringing stock access to roughly four billion currently unbrokered people. He also describes portfolio borrowing and yield strategies such as covered-call selling as important additional uses.

The guest expects tokenized stocks to develop into a broader programmable treasury and financial-management layer, including strategies such as an AI company holding Nvidia in its treasury because of its operating exposure to Nvidia products. He also expects Coinbase to expand the assets beyond Base to additional networks, with Base serving as the hub across chains.

TECHNOLOGY

Equity Utility — The guest argues that tokenizing equities on Base would make stocks available globally, 24/7, 365 days a year, with faster and cheaper transactions. He expects trading to be the first use case, followed by borrowing, lending, yield generation, and other applications built around tokenized equities.

“And so when you look at the world's assets, one of the biggest asset classes in the world is stocks, equities. And that's what we're doing…”—

One-To-One Stocks — The guest says Coinbase's tokenized stocks are real, one-to-one representations of underlying stocks that give users a direct claim. The structure was developed with Abu Dhabi and Alpaca, which he presents as a basis for greater consumer and institutional trust.

“Well, one of the things that we've really focused on is making it so that these are real one-to-one stocks…”—

Rebased Dividends — The guest explains that dividends are handled through a rebasing structure: the dividend is credited to the stock token, increasing the balance that represents the stock. He says this improves composability across borrowing, lending, and yield-generation applications.

“So, these are they're they're set up to be rebasing. And so, that basically means that when the dividend comes, it'll basically get credited to the stock token…”—

ECONOMY

Reserve Yield — The guest explains that local stablecoin issuers can monetize yield on currency reserves, allowing them to offer one-to-one onramps while preserving a business incentive. He says this mechanism is important for making crypto access economically viable in countries without dollar stablecoins.

“The cool thing just to connect up the dots is the powerful thing about issuing a local currency is just like the dollar stable coin issuers can monetize the float…”—

Nigeria Onchain — The guest predicts that Nigeria will come on-chain over the next decade while remaining denominated in naira because countries will not surrender their sovereign currencies. He says Nigerian builders could create naira-based lending markets for U.S. stocks, with similar opportunities in Argentina, Brazil, and Turkey.

“it's going to make sense for someone and if you're a Nigerian builder that's a huge opportunity because I can tell you over the next decade Nigeria will come on…”—

MARKETS

Base DeFi Growth — The guest says Base's DeFi ecosystem grew roughly 30% to 40% through the bear market, while most crypto ecosystems saw total value locked decline. He says Base is now the second-largest on-chain financing ecosystem after Ethereum, having passed Solana, with growth driven mainly by users earning yield on dollars and borrowing dollars against crypto.

“Yeah, I mean I just on BAS's DeFi ecosystem, you know, if you look at over the last two years, BAS is the DeFi ecosystem that has grown through the…”—

Fragmented Liquidity — The guest characterizes tokenized stocks as a growing but fragmented market: no product has established a clear lead, liquidity remains fragmented, and growth has not matched the pace familiar to many crypto-native markets. He compares this with stablecoins, which took four years to become material parts of the conversation.

“The landscape of tokenized stocks is a pretty like competitive landscape and I wouldn't say any one product has really captured a lead here. It's liquidity has been pretty fragmented…”—

Expanded Access — The guest says tokenized equities could expand stock access to roughly four billion people who are currently unbrokered. He also highlights portfolio borrowing and yield strategies such as covered-call selling as additional uses.

“Whether that's for consumers who now have more access to this new asset class because previously they're unbrokered, four billion unbrokered people in the world who now actually have access…”—

FORECASTS

DeFi Growth Targets — The guest expects Base DeFi to grow from about $5 billion currently to $10 billion, $20 billion, $50 billion, and $100 billion or more in the years ahead. He links that potential growth to deep USDC liquidity, low-rate borrowing against tokenized stocks, and a borrowing-and-lending flywheel.

“And I think because we already have super deep USDC liquidity that's looking for yield and that's kind of aggregated a bunch of demand when we have these new stocks…”—

Coinbase Brings Tokenized Stocks to Base

Jesse Pollak presents Coinbase tokenized stocks as one-to-one equity representations on Base, offering continuous global access and opening stocks to programmable DeFi applications.

Permissionless Stocks and the First Assets Going Live

The first assets include Nvidia, Meta, Apple, and Google, with permissionless onchain availability while Coinbase interfaces restrict trading by geography, especially for U.S. users.

Plugging Stocks Into Base DeFi

Base's existing DeFi ecosystem, including Aerodrome, Morpho, and Aave, supplies liquidity and lending infrastructure that Jesse expects to drive tokenized-stock adoption and substantial TVL growth.

From Tokenized Stocks to Neo Brokerages

Jesse describes a rollout beginning with limited minting and burning, ultimately moving toward user-controlled tokenization and neo-brokerage products built on Coinbase's global financial rails.

Crypto as a Global Financial System

Crypto provides a global financial system where one programmable infrastructure stack can reduce technology complexity across jurisdictions while interfaces still handle local compliance requirements.

What Builders Can Create With Onchain Stocks

Tokenized stocks could support institutional products, meme-coin communities, NFTs, lending, yield strategies, and other experiments spanning Base's enterprise and long-tail builder ecosystems.

Bringing Every Currency Onchain

Jesse argues that local-currency stablecoins need distribution, liquidity, and financial infrastructure to bring global users onchain without forcing them to transact in dollars or crypto-native assets.

Jesse’s Role at Base and the Everything Exchange

Jesse focuses on Base's chain leadership, rapid upgrades, and vision for an everything exchange connecting trading, payments, financing, Ethereum, and Coinbase's broader products.

Tokenized Stocks Beyond Base

Coinbase intends to expand tokenized stocks beyond Base and connect them across multiple networks, with Base serving as the central hub for a broader platform.

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Important Disclaimers

Not Investment Advice: For education only — not financial, tax or legal advice.

AI-Generated: Made by AI from source transcripts and may contain errors.

No Guarantees: Past performance does not predict future results; investing carries risk.

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