Coinbase to launch stock trading, prediction market, AI ‘advisor’

Crypto exchange Coinbase significantly expanded its product suite on Wednesday, detailing plans for stock trading, prediction markets, an AI-powered financial advisor, and more.

The announcements were billed as a major step in Coinbase’s effort to build an “everything exchange.”

“Coinbase is no longer a place to just trade crypto, it’s a place where you can trade everything,” CEO Brian Armstrong said during a live-streamed event announcing the new products.

“The everything exchange creates a future where every asset is tokenised and accessible to everyone in one seamless, secure, user-friendly experience.”

Beginning Wednesday, US users will be able to trade stocks and ETFs 24 hours a day, five days a week, in the Coinbase app alongside crypto, said Max Branzburg, the company’s head of consumer products.

“The best part is that you only need one account, so you can trade stocks and a huge selection of crypto all in one place,” Branzburg said. “One portfolio view, one wallet, one transaction history.”

A blog post that accompanied Wednesday’s event noted extended-hours trading was only available for “eligible symbols,” which could suffer “reduced liquidity and wider spreads.”

Next year, the company will also roll out Coinbase Tokenize, a platform that will allow users to tokenise stocks and other real-world assets.

Solana expansion

Coinbase wasn’t just focused on expanding beyond crypto, however. The exchange also detailed plans to expand crypto trading.

In the next couple of weeks, users will be able to trade on Jupiter, a Solana-based decentralised exchange aggregator, within the Coinbase app.

It’s the company’s first expansion of in-app DEX trading, a feature it first announced in June. In-app use of decentralised exchanges was initially limited to those on Base, a layer 2 blockchain built by Coinbase.

Integrating decentralised exchanges dramatically expands the number of crypto assets available to trade on Coinbase.

Coinbase’s long-running centralised exchange — owned and managed entirely by the company — only lists tokens that pass a “rigorous vetting/review process that evaluates assets against legal, compliance, and technical security standards,” its website states.

But creating new tokens requires little effort, and millions exist in the world of decentralised finance.

Kalshi and AI

Coinbase will also offer prediction markets to US users through a partnership with Kalshi. The company said it will support contracts from other prediction market platforms “in the coming months.”

Users looking to invest in stocks, crypto, or event contracts now have access to an an AI-powered “advisor” that can recommend investments.

Lincoln Murr, the head of the team that built Coinbase Advisor, pitched the product as a way to democratise success in financial markets.

“Historically high quality financial guidance has been locked behind a velvet rope,” he said on Wednesday. “It was a luxury product designed for the wealthy.”

In order to generate investment advice based on user prompts, the tool will ask clarifying questions, such as the user’s risk tolerance.

“It can even spot the opportunities you never would have thought to ask about,” Murr said.

He did not detail what safeguards may have been built into the tool — despite significant progress in the field, artificial intelligence remains error-prone — but he said it was “actively curated by a team of portfolio managers with 75 years of combined experience.”

Finally, executives said the exchange would also simplify the process of launching new, branded stablecoins backed by USDC.

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi reporter. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.