On August 25, 2026, two of the largest crypto exchanges made significant moves into tokenized traditional equities. Binance Futures launched five USDT-margined perpetual contracts tied to U.S. stocks and leveraged exchange-traded funds, while Coinbase went live with tokenized stocks natively on its Base network for non-U.S. users.
The Binance listings began trading at five-minute intervals between 09:00 and 09:20 UTC. The new contracts include SKUUUSDT and SKDDUSDT, which reference GraniteShares 2x Long and 2x Short SK Hynix Daily ETFs; RAMUSDT, tied to the Roundhill T-REX 2X Long DRAM Daily Target ETF; and DJTUSDT and MRNAUSDT, referencing Trump Media & Technology Group and Moderna shares. Eligible traders can access up to 20x leverage, with a minimum notional trade size of 5 USDT and funding settlements every eight hours. Binance said the initial funding-rate cap is set at +2% and the floor at -2%, and the contracts are operated through ADGM-regulated entities Nest Exchange Limited and Nest Clearing and Custody Limited.
Separately, Coinbase launched tokenized stocks on Base using the new B20 token standard built for stablecoins and real-world assets. The initial offering covers fractional, self-custodied claims on Nvidia, Meta, Apple and Alphabet. Each token represents a direct claim on a real share held by Alpaca, a regulated broker and custodian, in a bankruptcy-remote structure supervised by the Abu Dhabi Global Market. The issuer is Coinbase Onchain SPV Ltd, incorporated in ADGM in June and owned through Coinbase Global's Onchain Marketplace Holdings subsidiary. Chainlink provides continuous price data, and around 50 protocols—including Aave, Morpho, Euler, Aerodrome, 0x, 1inch and Wasabi—had committed support by launch day.
The launches intensify competition among crypto exchanges pushing into tokenized equities. Kraken and Binance have already promoted similar products this year, while Ondo Finance's structure wires shareholder voting rights into more than 250 tokenized stocks. According to RWA.xyz, the tokenized stock market has reached about $2.48 billion in value, up 5.2% over the past month, with monthly transfer volume of $27.28 billion and more than 2.1 million holders. Citigroup has estimated the tokenized securities market could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030.
Both products carry notable risks and restrictions. Binance warned that the leveraged ETFs already have daily investment objectives, so adding up to 20x perpetual leverage creates an additional layer of compounding and volatility risk, and prices can diverge when U.S. stock markets are closed. Coinbase's tokenized stocks are offered under Regulation S, meaning they are unavailable to U.S. persons, and the issuer retains the ability to freeze or blacklist wallets in restricted jurisdictions. Coinbase said more tokenized stocks will follow in the coming weeks.
