According to BlockBeats, on June 17, as reported by TheBlock, Coinbase's Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal revealed that the company is actively applying to the SEC for a no-action letter or exemption to launch a traditional stock trading service based on blockchain. Tokenized stocks will enable T+0 settlement, 24/7 trading, and lower costs, but currently, U.S. investors are still prohibited from participating. This move will directly challenge traditional brokers like Robinhood and Charles Schwab, while Coinbase's competitor Kraken has launched the xStocks service in Europe, Asia, and Africa, which includes over 50 tokenized stocks and ETFs.
Coinbase is continuing to expand its non-crypto asset footprint following last week's launch of the American Express co-branded credit card and the USDC payment collaboration with Shopify/Stripe. When attempting an IPO in 2021, it had tried to issue tokenized COIN stock but was rejected by the SEC. In 2023, Coinbase was sued by the SEC for operating without registration, but the lawsuit was withdrawn earlier this year, yet it still has not obtained a broker-dealer license.
If Coinbase's application is approved, it will break the liquidity barrier between the traditional equity market and the crypto market, potentially accelerating the SEC's process of formulating the (Securities Token Classification Guidelines).
