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The UK’s home for tokenised equity. Independent news, insight and resources for founders raising capital, investors deploying it, and the firms supporting both — as the regulation, infrastructure and opportunity converge.

Coinbase Launches Tokenised US Stocks on Base Network - Starting With Apple and Nvidia

  • Writer: Shawn Jhanji
    Shawn Jhanji
  • Aug 20
  • 3 min read
Coinbase has gone live with tokenised US stocks on its own Base network, starting with Apple, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet, in a move that pushes one of the world's largest crypto exchanges further into the race to bring listed equities onchain. For UK founders and platforms watching how regulated tokenised equity models are actually built in practice, rather than theorised about, this is a live template worth studying. What happened Coinbase confirmed on 24 August 2026 that tokens representing shares in Apple, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet are now trading for eligible investors outside the United States. Each token is backed one to one by an underlying share held in regulated custody with Alpaca, issued under the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) framework, where Coinbase recently established an international tokenisation hub. Chainlink has been selected as the official oracle infrastructure powering the tokens, providing the price and reserve data that keeps each token's peg to its underlying share verifiable onchain. Holders can keep the tokens in self custody wallets and trade around the clock on supported onchain venues, including the decentralised exchange Aerodrome, rather than being restricted to conventional market hours. The tokens are also composable with decentralised finance applications, meaning holders could eventually borrow against them or deploy them into other onchain markets, a capability that conventional brokerage held shares do not offer. What it means Tokenised equities are one of the fastest growing categories of real world assets, with the segment reaching a record 2.3 billion dollars by mid July 2026. Coinbase's entry, following Robinhood's earlier and much scrutinised push into tokenised stock trading, confirms that regulated custody and self custody accessible tokenised equity is moving from pilot to product for large, well capitalised platforms. The choice of Abu Dhabi as the regulatory anchor, rather than the US, UK or EU, is itself a signal. It shows global platforms are actively shopping for jurisdictions that will let them combine 1:1 backed custody with permissive onchain trading and DeFi composability faster than more cautious regimes. The UK's own regulated alternative, the Digital Securities Sandbox and the FCA's PISCES framework, remains more conservative by design, prioritising custody certainty and investor protection over instant DeFi composability. That is a deliberate trade off, not an oversight, but it does mean UK platforms and policymakers should watch closely how quickly capital and product innovation gravitate to faster moving jurisdictions such as ADGM.

Coinbase has gone live with tokenised US stocks on its own Base network, starting with Apple, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet, in a move that pushes one of the world's largest crypto exchanges further into the race to bring listed equities onchain.


What happened


Coinbase confirmed on 24 August 2026 that tokens representing shares in Apple, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet are now trading for eligible investors outside the United States. Each token is backed one to one by an underlying share held in regulated custody with Alpaca, issued under the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) framework, where Coinbase recently established an international tokenisation hub. Chainlink has been selected as the official oracle infrastructure powering the tokens, providing the price and reserve data that keeps each token's peg to its underlying share verifiable onchain.


Holders can keep the tokens in self custody wallets and trade around the clock on supported onchain venues, including the decentralised exchange Aerodrome, rather than being restricted to conventional market hours. The tokens are also composable with decentralised finance applications, meaning holders could eventually borrow against them or deploy them into other onchain markets, a capability that conventional brokerage held shares do not offer.


What it means


Tokenised equities are one of the fastest growing categories of real world assets, with the segment reaching a record 2.3 billion dollars by mid July 2026. Coinbase's entry, following Robinhood's earlier and much scrutinised push into tokenised stock trading, confirms that regulated custody and self custody accessible tokenised equity is moving from pilot to product for large, well capitalised platforms.


The choice of Abu Dhabi as the regulatory anchor, rather than the US, UK or EU, is itself a signal. It shows global platforms are actively shopping for jurisdictions that will let them combine 1:1 backed custody with permissive onchain trading and DeFi composability faster than more cautious regimes. The UK's own regulated alternative, the Digital Securities Sandbox and the FCA's PISCES framework, remains more conservative by design, prioritising custody certainty and investor protection over instant DeFi composability. That is a deliberate trade off, not an oversight, but it does mean UK platforms and policymakers should watch closely how quickly capital and product innovation gravitate to faster moving jurisdictions such as ADGM.


What comes next


Coinbase's model, tokens backed by real shares in regulated custody rather than synthetic derivatives, is likely to become a reference point other platforms are measured against as more exchanges attempt similar launches. Whether UK investors and founders ever get comparable direct access will depend on how quickly the Digital Securities Sandbox and PISCES evolve to support both custody assurance and the kind of always on liquidity that platforms like Coinbase are now offering elsewhere.


Key takeaways


  • Coinbase launched tokenised versions of Apple, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet shares on its Base network on 24 August 2026, for investors outside the US.

  • Each token is backed 1:1 by shares held in regulated custody with Alpaca, issued under the Abu Dhabi Global Market framework.

  • Chainlink provides the oracle infrastructure verifying the token to share backing.

  • Tokens can be self custodied, traded around the clock on platforms such as Aerodrome, and used within DeFi applications.

  • The launch underlines that regulated tokenised equity is now a live competitive product category, with jurisdictions such as Abu Dhabi moving faster than the UK's more cautious sandbox based approach.


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