Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) has grand plans for broadening its product offering and geographical presence, even though some of those jurisdictions aren’t exactly rolling out the welcome mat for the digital asset exchange.
On December 17, Coinbase confirmed some of the worst-kept secrets in crypto, including the fact that it was adding traditional stock trading for its United States-based users, 24 hours a day, five days a week, with zero commissions using USD or the USDC stablecoin issued by Coinbase’s former partner, Circle (NASDAQ: CRCL).
For the moment, only certain stocks are eligible to trade on Coinbase, but the company plans to add “thousands of additional stocks over the coming months.” Coinbase also plans to “broaden stock perpetuals” for non-U.S. traders “early next year.”
Early next year will also see the launch of Coinbase Tokenize, the exchange’s new “end-to-end institutional platform for tokenizing real-world assets.” The idea is to enable tokenized stocks that can be traded “24/7 anywhere in the world, use the stocks you own onchain, and even make instant payments.”
Trading of futures and perpetual futures is currently limited to the more experienced users of the Coinbase Advance platform, but the company has begun “rolling out a new, simplified trading experience in the Coinbase app.”
Don’t know what kind of portfolio to build? Coinbase Advisor is now embedded into the main Coinbase app, offering AI-powered financial management capacity.
Fan of the Solana network and its millions of memecoins? Coinbase is expanding its decentralized exchange (DEX) integration through the use of Solana’s leading DEX aggregator Jupiter to allow access to the network’s millions of tokens “from the moment they launch.”
The millions of tokens available on Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network Base, are also being made available via the Base App, which is now live in over 140 countries. And don’t forget that in September, Base announced that it was “beginning to explore” the possibility of launching its own network token after years of Coinbase denials that such a token was in the works.
Coinbase Business is now available to eligible businesses in the U.S. and Singapore, allowing them to send/receive payment links and invoices, manage crypto assets, and earn rewards on USDC held on the platform. These businesses will “soon” be offered the same trading experience available via the Coinbase retail platform.
Coinbase also plans to offer users the ability to create their own “custom-branded” stablecoins “backed by flexible collateral, including USDC.” The move is coupled with the recent launch of x402, Coinbase’s agentic-AI protocol for stablecoin payments/transactions.
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Launch prediction market, file lawsuits
Coinbase is also launching its own prediction market, joining an ever-widening market dominated by the likes of Kalshi and Polymarket. Kalshi is providing the “market flow” for Coinbase’s nascent prediction market, offering bets on the outcomes of “real-world events like elections, sports, collectibles, and economic indicators.”
On December 22, Coinbase announced that it was acquiring The Clearing Company, “a startup with a strong vision for the future of prediction markets.” Coinbase Ventures previously participated in The Clearing Company’s seed round in August, and the acquisition (expected to close in January) is intended to help scale Coinbase’s current offering.
Prediction markets’ reliance on sports ‘contracts’ that resemble sports betting in all but name hasn’t endeared it to actual sportsbook operators, who must endure rigorous and costly licensing regimes in each of the U.S. states that they operate.
How much and what type of gambling these licensees are allowed to offer has always been a matter for individual states to decide, but prediction markets operate under national ‘designated contract market’ licenses issued by a federal agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
In late November, the states (or, at least, one of them) emerged triumphant in this skirmish, as a federal judge ruled that Kalshi could no longer offer sports ‘contracts’ to Nevada residents without a license issued by a Nevada gaming regulator.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon’s ruling stated that Kalshi’s “interpretation” of the scope of its CFTC license “would require all sports betting across the country to come within the jurisdiction of the CFTC rather than the states and Indian tribes.” Gordon said Kalshi’s attempt to “evade state regulation … upsets decades of federalism regarding gaming regulation, is contrary to Congress’s intent behind the [Commodity Exchange Act] and cannot be sustained.”
Gordon’s ruling lifted the preliminary injunction that Kalshi secured this spring that prevented Nevada regulators from blocking Kalshi’s ‘contract’ offers. Kalshi filed a motion to stay Gordon’s November ruling, but Gordon denied the motion on December 16. Kalshi’s next stop is an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Nevada isn’t alone in pressing back on prediction markets’ horning in on their gaming turf. On December 2, Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection issued cease & desist letters to Kalshi, Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD), and Crypto.com, ordering them to halt their “unlicensed online gambling” offers to state residents.
As with Nevada, the prediction markets were able to obtain a preliminary injunction against Connecticut’s desire to enforce its gambling rules. The U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut will hear oral arguments on the parties’ respective positions on February 12, 2026.
On December 18, Coinbase joined this fight, filing lawsuits in Connecticut, Illinois, and Michigan (Illinois suit viewable here) to prevent the states from “unlawfully applying [state] gambling laws to federally regulated transactions.” Coinbase warned that it will “suffer multiple species of immediate and irreparable harm” from the states’ desire to protect their legal turf.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted that the CFTC has oversight of prediction markets and that “any state saying otherwise is keeping Americans from accessing tools that help them get ahead.” That’s only slightly nonsensical, given that sports betting has far more participants ‘falling behind’ than ‘getting ahead,’ but it’s on brand for the tone of Armstrong’s traditional advocacy.
Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal offered a more restrained argument, claiming that prediction markets “are fundamentally different from sportsbooks” as they are “neutral exchanges, indifferent to price, that match buyers and sellers.” Grewal added that Congress “deliberately chose to exclude only a handful of specific underliers … from the definition of ‘commodity.’”
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Humble return to India
In October, Coinbase announced that it had made an investment of unspecified size in CoinDCX, an India-licensed exchange focused on local and Middle Eastern markets with over 20 million customers. Last week, the Competition Commission of India approved Coinbase taking a minority stake in CoinDCX.
Earlier this month, TechCrunch reported that Coinbase had begun welcoming Indian customers registering with its Coinbase App. Coinbase announced this spring that it had registered with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit, marking a return that is being handled in a far more humble approach than last time.
Coinbase cut off the country entirely in 2023 after launching its India-facing service the year before. Coinbase launched operations without first securing full local approval, prompting the country’s financial authorities to lower the boom and Coinbase to make an ignominious retreat shortly thereafter.
For now, Coinbase’s India customers are only eligible to trade one type of digital asset for another. Fiat onramps—the key factor in Coinbase’s 2022 comeuppance—aren’t coming until sometime next year.
John O’Loghlen, Coinbase’s APAC director, said the company “wanted to kind of burn the boats, have a clean slate here … We want to be known as that trusted exchange, ensure that your funds are safe with us.” In October, Coinbase hired Karan Malik as its India marketing lead.
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Philippines pulls welcome mat
On December 22, multiple Philippine media outlets reported that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) had directed the nation’s internet service providers to block 50 virtual asset service providers (VASPs) currently operating without the permission of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country’s central bank.
The NTC said it was acting to “safeguard Filipino users against illicit activities in the burgeoning virtual asset space.” The NTC cited Section 902-N of the Manual of Regulations for Non-bank Financial Institutions, recently updated by BSP Circular No. 1206, series of 2024, which governs VASP activities.
The full list of the unauthorized VASPs wasn’t made public, but social media users reported that Coinbase and Gemini (NASDAQ: GEMI) were among those that were now inaccessible to Philippines-based users. Local media reported that Interactive Brokers (NASDAQ: IBKR) appears to have also had its access cut (although the mobile app was apparently accessible), while other names on the VASP naughty list include Bitfinex, Crypto.com, HTX, Kraken, and more.
Last August, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) flagged 10 digital asset platforms it deemed to be operating without permission, but neither Coinbase nor Gemini were among the names listed. Some of the nation’s ISPs duly blocked access to the sites later that month.
The NTC has targeted other exchanges with its ISP ban-hammer, most notably Binance, which was ordered blocked in March 2024 after failing to meet a 90-day deadline for coming into compliance. The following month, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) to remove the Binance app from the Philippine versions of their app marketplaces.
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USDC rewards now subscriber-only
Coinbase is deeply invested in the U.S. effort to craft digital asset market structure legislation, particularly regarding the exchange’s ability to continue offering ‘rewards’ to customers holding USDC on its platform. Stablecoin revenue was nearly $354 million in Coinbase’s most recent earnings report, roughly one-fifth of total revenue in Q3.
Traditional banks have objected to these rewards, which pay higher interest than most bank deposits, in the belief that they contravene the spirit of the GENIUS Act, which prohibits U.S. stablecoin issuers from offering ‘yield’ or interest to stablecoin holders. Banks believe non-issuers like Coinbase should be similarly banned from offering such incentives, as banks fear they will produce a ‘run’ on deposits that could impact their ability to offer loans to customers.
And yet, Coinbase cut off these rewards for average users as of December 15, seemingly slitting the throat of their golden USDC goose. In emails sent to customers, Coinbase said only those who signed up for the company’s Coinbase One accounts would continue to receive the top 3.5% rewards rate, while average users who don’t wish to pay the $4.99/month Coinbase One fee would get bupkis.
Coinbase has yet to provide any official motivation behind the switch (beyond forcing people to sign up for Coinbase One), although ongoing cuts to interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve likely played a role. Coinbase’s USDC rewards rates have mirrored the Fed’s quarter-point rate cuts, as the Coinbase One top rate was 4.5% as recently as August. Coinbase launched its rewards program in 2019, back when Coinbase was still part of the Centre consortium behind USDC (with Circle).
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Ozzy! Ozzy!
Finally, Coinbase announced a week before Christmas that it had appointed former U.K. Chancellor George Osborne to chair its Global Advisory Council. Osborne, who’d joined the council in January 2024, tweeted his delight at the promotion, claiming to have “seen the blockchain revolution—and the potential to spread ownership to many left behind by the system.”
A couple of days before that announcement, Osborne took on a new gig at AI giant OpenAI, where Osborne will lead its ‘OpenAI for Countries’ program. Osborne claimed that he’d asked himself, “what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI.” Nobody tell Coinbase.
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Source: https://coingeek.com/coinbase-forging-ahead-with-world-domination-plans/
