Base founder Jesse Pollak announced that the Ethereum layer-2 network is collaborating with Coinbase on a tokenized equities product that would be fully backed by underlying shares. In a July 21 post on X, Pollak admitted frustration that Robinhood Chain had moved faster to bring stock-linked assets into an EVM environment but said Base was "close to fixing it with Coinbase."
The planned model contrasts sharply with Robinhood's approach. Robinhood Chain launched its mainnet on July 1 with tokenized equities as derivative contracts under MiFID II, giving users synthetic exposure without actual ownership. Pollak said Base and Coinbase will instead offer 1:1 asset-backed tokenized stocks, meaning each token would represent real equity ownership, including dividend payments and shareholder rights. He argued this structure should "scale much better from a trust, capital efficiency, and institutional acceptedness" perspective.
Coinbase had already outlined a similar vision in June, revealing plans to offer tokenized stocks to non-U.S. customers with one-for-one backing by the underlying assets. However, neither Pollak’s post nor Coinbase’s earlier statements detailed how the shares would be issued, custodied, or represented on-chain. Key questions around jurisdiction, transferability, and redemption mechanics remain unanswered.
The move places Base and Coinbase in direct competition with Robinhood, Backpack, and Kraken-backed xStocks in the growing tokenized equities market, which RWA.xyz data pegged at about $1.85 billion. Pollak’s comments underscore a broader industry push to bridge traditional stocks with onchain infrastructure, potentially offering faster settlement, fractional access, and composability with decentralized applications.
