Coinbase CEO says stock tokenization will break Wall Street's monopoly

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has argued that the tokenization of stocks will break Wall Street's monopolistic structure. He stated that billions of people are unable to access the U.S. stock market due to geographical regulations and complex financial systems, emphasizing that tokenization is the solution. Acting on this vision, Coinbase launched a tokenized stock trading service last month for non-U.S. users, backed on a one-to-one basis by physical shares. The service allows users to trade fractional shares of U.S. stocks like Apple and Nvidia and receive dividends using only a smartphone. Armstrong noted that traditional financial institutions are also accelerating their tokenization efforts, citing tests by the DTCC, JPMorgan, and BlackRock to move ETFs onto the blockchain. He predicted that stock tokenization will become central to the competition for retail investors, shaking the monopoly held by existing brokerage firms.