Summary: Felix, PANews
On the evening of December 17, Coinbase hosted an online live-streamed launch event titled "System Update 2025," featuring appearances by CEO Brian Armstrong and other executives. During the event, Coinbase announced a series of new products, expanding its business into stocks, advanced trading, and prediction markets, while increasing its investment in the on-chain ecosystem and providing new tools for businesses and developers. Although many of these products were previewed months ago, Coinbase stated that they are now fully developed and ready for launch.
Launching Stock Trading Functionality
At the core of this business expansion is Coinbase's entry into the stock trading sector, which has already begun rolling out to U.S. users. This feature allows users to buy, sell, and manage stocks, ETFs, and crypto assets within the same Coinbase account using USD or USDC.
The trading feature offers permanent zero commissions, with extended trading hours for select stocks—24 hours a day, five days a week. Initially, it will support a curated list of popular stocks and ETFs, with plans to expand to thousands of assets in the coming months.
In addition to spot stock trading, Coinbase is preparing to launch stock-linked perpetual futures, enabling users outside the U.S. to invest continuously and efficiently in U.S. stocks. The company stated that it plans to expand the coverage of stock perpetual futures early next year.
Furthermore, although tokenized stocks have not yet officially launched, Coinbase plans to introduce Coinbase Tokenize, an institutional platform designed to support the issuance and management of tokenized real-world assets, including stocks. More details are expected to be announced in 2026.
By integrating cryptocurrency with traditional stock trading in a single app, Coinbase aims to directly challenge traditional brokers like Robinhood.
Entering Prediction Markets
Coinbase also announced its entry into prediction markets. Through a partnership with the regulated prediction market platform Kalshi, it will offer event-based contract trading services, allowing users to bet on events such as elections, sports events, and economic indicators. The price of event contracts will be determined by the collective trading activity of market participants.
Coinbase stated that initially, all prediction market contracts will be sourced from Kalshi, with plans to support contracts from more prediction market platforms in the coming months.
This feature is currently being rolled out gradually to U.S. users, with contract trading starting at just $1 and available in USD or USDC. In the Coinbase app, users' positions will be displayed alongside their existing cryptocurrency, stock, and cash balances.
Other New Products and Features
Simplified Perpetual Contract Trading
Coinbase will introduce a simplified futures and perpetual contract trading experience within the app. The new interface is designed to make futures and perpetual contracts more accessible, allowing users to engage in leveraged trading with less upfront capital through a streamlined experience similar to spot trading.
Expanded In-App DEX Trading
Coinbase will also support instant trading of all Solana assets. The Solana ecosystem DEX aggregator Jupiter has been integrated into the Coinbase interface. This integration enables users to trade Solana tokens immediately after their issuance. Jupiter will handle price discovery and routing, while Coinbase will manage the user experience and wallet processes.
This service will be rolled out gradually over the coming weeks, initially prioritizing U.S. users before expanding further. Coinbase stated that users can currently access millions of assets on Solana and its own Base network, with plans to extend DEX functionality integration to other networks in the future.
Coinbase Advisor
Coinbase will launch Coinbase Advisor, an AI-driven wealth management tool that provides users with professional-level financial advice. This AI financial assistant is embedded directly into the app, allowing users to ask questions, build investment portfolios, and receive personalized recommendations based on Coinbase's product and market data. The beta version of Coinbase Advisor is currently being rolled out to early users.
Coinbase Business
Coinbase is further expanding its financial services for businesses. Coinbase Business is now fully available to eligible enterprises in the U.S. and Singapore. This is an exclusive financial platform for startups and small to medium-sized businesses, designed to help them leverage the speed, reach, and efficiency of cryptocurrency for daily operations.
This product allows startups and small businesses to send and receive payments globally, manage crypto assets, earn rewards on USDC balances, and automate financial workflows. Coinbase stated that business users will soon gain access to the same expanded trading features available on the retail platform.
Custom Stablecoins
Coinbase also highlighted new features related to stablecoins, introducing a custom branded stablecoin service. Businesses or projects can create their own branded stablecoins, supported by flexible collateralization of assets like USDC. Coinbase mentioned that early partners exploring this product include Flipcash, Solflare, and R2.
This move positions Coinbase in more direct competition with stablecoin infrastructure providers like Paxos and Anchorage. Coinbase has also applied for a National Trust Company (NTC) charter with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The application is still under review.
Enhancing Payment Infrastructure
Coinbase will expand its developer platform, offering APIs covering custody, payments, trading, and stablecoins. The company noted that companies like Deel, Papaya, Routable, and dLocal are already using Coinbase's payment APIs.
At the same time, Coinbase highlighted x402, an open payment protocol that allows stablecoin payments to be attached to web requests. Coinbase stated that it is collaborating with Cloudflare and other partners to develop the x402 Foundation to further advance this standard.
Coinbase emphasized that this system update is aimed at building the financial system of the future: always online, more efficient, and more inclusive. Following the announcement, Coinbase's stock price saw a slight after-hours increase of approximately 1.5%. Some analysts believe that while these new features may not significantly boost revenue in the short term, they could open up new revenue opportunities worth tens of billions of dollars in the long run (e.g., prediction markets, tokenized stocks).
This launch event may mark a critical step in Coinbase's transformation from a pure crypto exchange to a comprehensive financial platform. Coinbase previously proposed creating an "Everything Exchange"—a one-stop platform supporting users in trading various assets anytime, anywhere. If these features are successfully implemented, they will further drive the integration of crypto and traditional finance.
Related reading: Coinbase's Ecosystem "Testing Ground": Based APP and x402's Frequent Moves—How to Position in the BASE Ecosystem?
