Coinbase has launched tokenized shares of U.S. companies on the Base network. These shares are issued under the B20 standard and are backed by real shares held in a 1:1 ratio by the regulated broker and custodian Alpaca.
Users outside the U.S. in supported jurisdictions will be able to hold and trade fractional shares of stocks, including Apple and NVIDIA, directly through non-custodial wallets. Trading is available 24/7, and liquidity has already appeared on Aerodrome.
The tokenized shares can also be used in Base’s DeFi protocols—for example, as collateral for loans via Aave or to provide liquidity on DEXs.
B20 is based on ERC-20 and is compatible with existing wallets and DeFi infrastructure. Dividends and stock splits are accounted for via a special on-chain mechanism without changing the number of tokens on the balance.
Base announced that in the coming weeks, Coinbase’s list of available tokenized shares will be expanded, and later, other RWA assets are planned to be added to the network.