Coinbase Goes Full-Stack Broker With AI Advisor and Options

• Coinbase adds AI advisor, stock options, full brokerage stack
• ZetaChain bets on private AI [partner]
• Kalshi eyes broader assets after $5.5B regulated-perps launch
• Litecoin ETF sits at $9M, testing the altcoin-ETF demand thesis
• Zama, Morpho, Steakhouse open confidential USDC yield vault
• Illinois enacts the strictest US digital-asset tax
• AetherStrike tokenizes material holding US infra together [partner]

Coinbase used its quarterly System Update to roll out an SEC-registered AI investment advisor, stock and ETF trading on its professional platform, and options markets for both equities and crypto; all on a single US-regulated venue. The bundle moves Coinbase's competitive frame from Binance and Kraken toward Robinhood, Schwab, and Interactive Brokers. Last week's 1:1-backed tokenized-US-stocks tease and the USDC lending vaults routed through Morpho-curated Steakhouse pools are now tied into a single full-stack-broker product line.

Read more below!

Nexo is a digital wealth platform offering crypto yield up to 15% and crypto-backed credit lines from 1.9%. Join and get 30-day access to exclusive rates. Terms apply.

WATCH

$175M: Inside Morpho's Record Raise w/ Merlin Egalite

Camila Russo sits with Merlin Egalite, co-founder of Morpho, to walk through the $175 million round Morpho closed last week — co-led by Paradigm, a16z Crypto, and Ribbit Capital, with Apollo Funds and VanEck as strategic participants. The investor mix is the bigger signal than the headline number: Apollo and VanEck both run tokenization roadmaps that need an onchain credit engine underneath.

SPONSORED

Where do DeFi natives look first?
Right here. This could be your project.

Reserve this spot and get in front of DeFi's most active audience.

CEFI

Coinbase Stakes Out Brokerage Territory With SEC-Registered AI Advisor and Stock Options Push

Coinbase rolled out an SEC-registered AI investment advisor, stock and ETF trading on its professional platform, and equity- and crypto-options markets in a single quarterly System Update Tuesday. The advisor is registered with the SEC under Coinbase Asset Management, with the AI handling portfolio-level recommendations under human oversight. Stock and ETF trading lives inside Coinbase Advanced; options ship for both regulated equities and crypto reference tickers. The bundle moves the exchange's competitive frame from Binance and Kraken toward Robinhood, Schwab, and Interactive Brokers.

Why this matters: The structural pivot is clearer than any one product: Coinbase is no longer competing for retail's crypto wallet — it's competing for retail's whole brokerage account.

CEFI

Kalshi Eyes Broader Asset Classes for Perpetual Futures After $5.5B Crypto Launch

Kalshi is pushing to extend its CFTC-regulated perpetual futures beyond crypto after generating $5.5 billion in trading volume in two weeks on the inaugural crypto-perps book. The roadmap reaches into equity-index, commodity, and FX perps; all on the same regulated-DCM rail and same CFTC oversight.

Why this matters: $5.5B in two weeks is fast enough that the regulator and the competing venues both have to take Kalshi seriously. The broader-asset push lands directly in CME's lane — and the gaming-industry amicus briefs (below) are the political pushback already starting to organize.

MARKETS

Litecoin Spot ETF Sits at $9M as Altcoin-ETF Era Tests Its Demand Thesis

Canary Capital's LTCC has drawn under $10 million in eight months of trading, per fund flow data — making the first US spot Litecoin ETF an early case study in the limits of the altcoin-ETF demand thesis. Litecoin trades 89% below its all-time high; the wrapper did nothing to reset that. Solana and XRP spot ETFs are next in the queue, with at least seven other altcoin ETF applications pending.

Why this matters: The post-BTC-ETF playbook of 'just get the next altcoin approved' is hitting its empirical ceiling.

DEFI

Zama, Morpho and Steakhouse Open First Confidential USDC Yield Vault on Ethereum

Zama, Morpho, and Steakhouse Financial open the first DeFi yield vault for Confidential USDC on June 23, routing encrypted cUSDC — Circle's privacy-wrapped dollar — into Steakhouse Prime v2 on Morpho. The vault uses fully homomorphic encryption to compute interest accruals and collateral checks without decrypting the underlying balances. Same Morpho-Steakhouse plumbing Coinbase tapped last week for its USDC lending product.

Why this matters: FHE in live DeFi is the structural prerequisite for institutional participation: trading desks and treasuries that can't post transparent positions onchain finally have a compliant venue.

REGULATION

Illinois Enacts the Strictest Digital-Asset Tax in the US as Industry Group Urges Veto

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed SB 3019, the Digital Asset Privilege Tax Act, on Tuesday, making Illinois the first US state to impose a transaction-based tax on everyday digital-asset activity. The Crypto Council for Innovation is pushing the governor to use a line-item veto on Article 3 — the section establishing the tax base — before the law's January 2027 effective date.

Why this matters: Federal regulatory tailwind doesn't reach state-level tax policy. Illinois sets a template other Democratic-controlled states are likely to copy.

Other Stories Worth Your Time

Ethereum's Glamsterdam Upgrade Enters Final Devnet Phase With 200M Gas-Limit Target — Glamsterdam reached its final devnet phase, locking in ten EIPs including ePBS and Block-Level Access Lists. The bundle clears the path for a 200 million gas-limit floor and mainnet activation in the second half of 2026.

Matter Labs Cuts Staff, Pivots Fully to Institutional Privacy Platform Prividium — Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski announced layoffs and a full strategic pivot Tuesday, committing the company behind zkSync entirely to Prividium — its institutional on-chain privacy infrastructure platform. The zkSync rollup roadmap continues; new commercial focus is enterprise-grade confidential transactions.

Congress Strikes Housing-Bill Deal That Bans Fed CBDC Through 2030 — Congressional negotiators folded a statutory ban on a Fed central bank digital currency into the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, blocking any Fed-issued retail digital dollar until December 31, 2030. The text now heads back to the Senate floor.

Gaming Industry, Tribes and Unions Press Senate to Ban Sports Prediction Markets in Crypto Bill — The American Gaming Association, Indian Gaming Association, and two hospitality unions are pressing senators to insert sports-betting carve-out language into the CLARITY Act. The push targets Kalshi and Polymarket — and lands the same week Kalshi's regulated-perps book hit $5.5B (Article 2 above).

World Chain Bridge TVL Climbs 33% Over Seven Days as Worldcoin Token Posts Matching Rally — World Chain's canonical-bridge TVL climbed 32.87% over seven days to about $602M, with WLD up 33.6% in tandem. The growth concentrates in Re7 Labs vaults on Morpho Blue; on-chain DeFi TVL remains near $40M, so the inflow is largely staged collateral, not application activity.

Trending on The Defiant

• Kraken and Coinbase Bring Perps Onshore as US Derivatives Markets Shift
• Coinbase Adds Two USDC Lending Vaults on Morpho, With a Choice of Risk Tier
• Morpho Raises $175M in One of DeFi's Largest-Ever Funding Rounds
• Coinbase Teases 1:1-Backed Tokenized U.S. Stocks With On-Chain Dividends