Coinbase is launching a major new product line, including prediction markets and stock trading, transforming itself into a comprehensive financial platform.

Overview: Felix, PANews

On the evening of December 17th, Coinbase held an online livestream launch event titled "System Update 2025," featuring CEO Brian Armstrong and other executives. During the event, Coinbase announced a series of new products, expanding its business into stocks, more advanced trading, and prediction markets, while also increasing investment in its on-chain ecosystem and providing new tools for businesses and developers. Although many of these products had been teased months ago, Coinbase stated that they are now fully developed and ready for launch.

Stock trading function launched

At the heart of this business expansion is Coinbase's foray into the stock trading arena, which is now being rolled out to US users. This feature allows users to buy, sell, and manage stocks, ETFs, and crypto assets using USD or USDC within the same Coinbase account.

This trading feature is permanently commission-free, and some stocks will also have extended trading hours, 24 hours a day, 5 days a week; initially supporting a selection of popular stocks and ETFs, it will be expanded to thousands of assets in the coming months.

In addition to spot stock trading, Coinbase is also preparing to launch stock-linked perpetual futures, allowing users outside the US to invest in US stocks continuously and efficiently. The company stated that it plans to expand the coverage of stock perpetual futures early next year.

In addition, while tokenized stocks have not yet been officially launched, Coinbase plans to launch Coinbase Tokenize, an institutional platform designed to support the issuance and management of tokenized real-world assets, including stocks, with more details expected to be announced in 2026.

By integrating cryptocurrency trading with traditional stock trading into a single app, Coinbase aims to directly challenge traditional brokerages like Robinhood.

Entering the prediction market

Coinbase also announced its foray into prediction markets. Through a partnership with the regulated prediction market Kalshi, it will launch an event-based contract trading service where users can bet on events such as elections, sporting events, and economic indicators. The price of the event contracts will be determined by the collective trading activity of market participants.

Coinbase stated that all prediction market contracts launched initially will be from Kalshi, and more prediction market platforms will be supported in the coming months.

This feature is currently being rolled out gradually to US users, with a minimum entry price of just $1 for contract trading, and transactions can be conducted using either US dollars or USDC. In the Coinbase app, users' holdings will be displayed alongside their existing cryptocurrency, stock, and cash balances.

Other new products and features

Simplify perpetual contract trading

Coinbase will be rolling out a simplified futures and perpetual contract trading experience within its app. The new interface is designed to make futures and perpetual contracts easier to use, allowing users to trade with leverage and less upfront capital through a simplified experience similar to spot trading.

Expand in-app DEX trading

Coinbase will also support instant trading of all Solana assets. Jupiter, the Solana ecosystem DEX aggregator, has been integrated into the Coinbase interface. This integration allows users to trade immediately after the Solana token launch. Jupiter will handle price discovery and routing, while Coinbase will handle user experience and wallet processes.

The service will roll out gradually over the next few weeks, initially targeting US users before expanding. Coinbase stated that users can currently access millions of assets on Solana and its own Base network, with plans to integrate DEX functionality and expand to other networks in the future.

Coinbase Advisor

Coinbase will launch Coinbase Advisor, an AI-powered wealth management tool that will provide users with professional-grade financial advice. This AI financial assistant is directly embedded in the app, allowing users to ask questions, build portfolios, and receive personalized advice based on Coinbase's product and market data. A beta version of Coinbase Advisor is currently rolling out to early adopters.

Coinbase Business

Coinbase is further expanding its business-facing financial services. Coinbase Business is now fully available to eligible businesses in the US and Singapore. This is a dedicated financial platform for startups and SMEs, designed to help them leverage the speed, reach, and efficiency of cryptocurrency for their day-to-day operations.

This product allows startups and small businesses to send and receive funds globally, manage crypto assets, earn USDC balance rewards, and automate financial workflows. Coinbase states that enterprise users will soon also have the same expanded trading capabilities as the retail platform.

Custom stablecoins

Coinbase also highlighted new features related to stablecoins, including a custom-branded stablecoin service that allows businesses or projects to create their own branded stablecoins, supporting flexible collateralization with assets such as USDC. Coinbase stated that early partners exploring this product include Flipcash, Solflare, and R2.

This move puts Coinbase in more direct competition with stablecoin infrastructure providers such as Paxos and Anchorage. Coinbase has also applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a National Trust Company (NTC) license. This application is still under review.

Improve payment infrastructure

Coinbase will also expand its developer platform to offer APIs covering areas such as custody, payments, trading, and stablecoins. Coinbase states that companies like Deel, Papaya, Routable, and dLocal are already using Coinbase's payments API.

At the same time, Coinbase also highlighted x402, an open payment standard that allows stablecoin payments to be attached to web requests. Coinbase stated that it is working with Cloudflare and other partners to develop the x402 Foundation to further advance the standard.

Coinbase emphasized that this system update is designed to build the financial system of the future: always online, more efficient, and more inclusive. Following the announcement, Coinbase's stock price rose slightly by about 1.5% in after-hours trading. Some analysts believe that while these new features may not significantly increase revenue in the short term, they are expected to unlock hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue opportunities in the long term (such as prediction markets and tokenized stocks).

This press conference may mark a key step in Coinbase's transformation from a pure crypto exchange to a comprehensive financial platform. Coinbase previously announced its goal of creating an "Everything Exchange," a one-stop platform that allows users to trade various assets anytime, anywhere. If these features are successfully implemented, they will further promote the integration of crypto and traditional finance.

Related reading: Coinbase's ecosystem "testing ground": Frequent moves by Based App and x402, how are they laying the groundwork for the BASE ecosystem?