By Nate Wolf
Shares of Coinbase Global on Wednesday jumped for the second consecutive session after the cryptocurrency exchange launched stock trading -- a major step in the race to dominate younger consumers' wallets.
U.S. investors can now trade stocks and exchange-traded funds on the Coinbase platform for 0% commission, the company announced Tuesday. Trading is available 24 hours a day on weekdays, and investors can buy fractional shares for as little as $1. The company first began rolling out the offering in December.
Coinbase stock was up 6.5% in Wednesday trading. It rose 1.1% on Tuesday.
"Big moment -- you can now trade stocks on Coinbase. The everything exchange is growing," CEO Brian Armstrong said in a social media post. "We're not stopping until Coinbase is the #1 financial app in the world."
Having made its hay as a crypto exchange, Coinbase is expanding into other areas to become the go-to financial app for younger generations. The company launched prediction markets in December and a credit card in partnership with American Express last June.
Armstrong said the company's ultimate goal for the stock-trading product is to offer tokenized equities. These tokens mirror real-world securities and trade over blockchain rails rather than traditional exchanges.
Fintech names seem to view scale as a differentiator in a world where the barrier to entry for equities and crypto trading is eroding.
Robinhood Markets is heading toward the same destination from the opposite direction: It started as a brokerage for retail traders and has moved into crypto trading, consumer banking, and prediction markets. In Europe, customers can trade tokenized U.S. equities 24 hours a day, five days a week.
Steve Quirk, Robinhood's chief brokerage officer, told Barron's last May that the company needed to grow its offerings to win more business from active traders: "In order to deliver for those customers, we have to continue to expand our product capabilities," Quirk said.
SoFi Technologies, meanwhile, has expanded from personal and student lending to credit cards, investing, and crypto trading.
It is difficult to assess exactly how Wall Street views the arms race between Coinbase and Robinhood, in particular, given their stocks are correlated with the price of Bitcoin. Trading volumes tend to decline alongside crypto prices, which weighs on the companies' transaction revenue.
Bitcoin has fallen nearly 50% from its peak of $126,196, on Oct. 6, 2025. In that same period, Coinbase shares have plummeted 56%. Robinhood hasn't fared much better, dropping 48% over those four-plus months.
Bitcoin has risen 5.3% over the past 24 hours to $67,387.
Further diversification should help Coinbase reduce its dependence on crypto trading volume but the company will need to prove its other offerings can draw in and retain customers.
Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 25, 2026 10:45 ET (15:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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