Coinbase used its latest "System Update" Tuesday to push deep into territory long held by retail brokerages, rolling out an SEC-registered AI investment advisor, stock and ETF trading on its professional platform, and options markets for both equities and crypto. The bundle moves the exchange's competitive frame from Binance and Kraken toward Robinhood, Schwab, and Interactive Brokers.

Coinbase announced plans for what it calls the first tokenized U.S. stocks backed 1:1 by actual shares, with automatic on-chain dividend distribution. The exchange described the product as 'no derivatives, no IOUs,' a direct contrast to the synthetic equity structures currently dominating on-chain equity trading.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong called Monday for an overhaul of the U.S. accredited-investor framework, arguing that wealth-based gatekeeping concentrates private-market gains among the already wealthy. He proposed replacing the net worth and income test with a financial literacy exam, or removing the requirement entirely.

Coinbase has launched two onchain USDC lending vaults built on Morpho and curated by Steakhouse Financial: a conservative Prime tier backed by BTC and ETH collateral, and a Higher Yield tier drawing on Ethena-powered assets.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong disclosed three platform-scale metrics on Thursday: approximately $1 trillion in annual stablecoin movement, $20 billion in USDC held on platform, and more than 160 million autonomous transactions via the x402 agentic payments protocol in the last year.

Coinbase International Exchange, operating through its BMA-licensed Bermuda entity, now offers USDC-settled perpetual futures on private-company valuations, with SpaceX as the first listing.

The exchange's venture arm bought ENA tokens directly on the open market rather than through a private round, the first such disclosed purchase, alongside a partnership to push Ethena's onchain dollar and savings products into Coinbase's userbase.

Coinbase is expanding its trading offerings by launching perpetual-style equity index futures on June 8, allowing users to go long or short on market sectors and trends.

Bedrock AgentCore Payments turns Amazon's agent platform into a transactional layer, with Coinbase supplying x402 stablecoin rails and Stripe contributing wallet infrastructure via Privy.

The exchange's strategic investment cements Centrifuge as the go-to issuance layer for compliant onchain assets, starting with a tokenized S&P 500 product for non-U.S. users.