Coinbase announced a strategic collaboration with Chainlink to provide price infrastructure for its new tokenized stocks, allowing digital representations of companies such as Apple and NVIDIA to be freely used across decentralized lending and trading platforms. This move expands access to blockchain-based US equities, especially for users outside the United States, and mirrors how the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has leveraged stablecoins and tokenized Treasury bonds.
Enabling tokenized stocks in DeFi with Chainlink oracles
Blockchain networks require reliable pricing data, or oracles, to integrate real-world assets like shares into DeFi. According to technical material from Base, the Layer-2 Ethereum network by Coinbase, these tokenized stocks follow real share prices but are adjusted by a multiplier on-chain to account for dividends and stock splits without changing token amounts.
Previously, DeFi protocols struggled to accept tokenized equities as collateral because of the absence of trusted price feeds. Without accurate data, lending platforms cannot correctly value collaterals or liquidate them when thresholds are breached.
Chainlink, a well-established provider of decentralized oracles, will deliver these crucial pricing functions for Coinbase. Industry research from Galaxy has indicated that Chainlink’s price feeds were previously integrated into Robinhood Chain, underscoring the growing demand for accurate tokenized equity data.
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AAPLMini dictionary: Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that connects smart contracts to external data sources to enable reliable on-chain data feeds for DeFi and tokenized assets.
Trading and collateralizing tokenized shares on Base
Tokenized shares of Apple and NVIDIA are already live on Base. This Layer-2 solution by Coinbase relies on regulation by Alpaca to ensure that each digital token represents an actual share, with robust protections in place against bankruptcy scenarios.
Through self-custody wallets, users can own fractions of these companies, trade them through decentralized exchanges like Aerodrome, or use tokenized positions such as NVIDIA shares as collateral for loans on Aave. The tokens are issued under Base’s B20 standard, which extends the ERC-20 specification to facilitate seamless interaction with other DeFi applications.
Secondary-market trading is open, as there are no restrictions for specific whitelisted wallets, increasing the liquidity and accessibility of these digital equity assets.
Regulatory structure and access limitations
Coinbase established its global tokenization hub in Abu Dhabi after securing approval from the region’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). Under this framework, each token is backed by underlying shares, allowing verified holders to receive dividends and voting rights similar to traditional stockholders.
However, access is restricted to non-US users in supported jurisdictions. All transfers are subject to sanctions screening, and Coinbase retains the ability to freeze assets at the wallet level when required.
Mini dictionary: The Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) is an international financial center and free zone in Abu Dhabi, offering a regulatory framework for fintech and virtual asset projects serving global markets.
Tokenized asset use and growing market size
The tokenized equity sector has experienced significant growth. According to a16z crypto, tokenized stocks reached an estimated $1.7 billion in market capitalization by the end of June 2026, a fivefold increase compared to $329 million at the same point a year prior. Monthly on-chain transfer volume for these assets jumped from $53 million in June 2025 to $9.22 billion in June 2026.
| Metric | Earlier period | Latest period | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokenized-stock market cap | $329M, end-June 2025 | ~$1.7B, end-June 2026 | More than 5x |
| Monthly tokenized-stock on-chain transfer volume | $53M, June 2025 | $9.22B, June 2026 | More than 170x |
| RWA deposits in DeFi lending platforms and exchanges | $2.3B, Q2 2025 | $7.4B, Q2 2026 | More than 3x |
CoinShares and Token Terminal reported that deposits of tokenized real-world assets in DeFi protocols rose to $7.4 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up from $2.3 billion one year earlier, even as overall DeFi deposits declined by 15% during the same period.
Coinbase faces competition in this sector. Nasdaq, for instance, is developing a gateway with Kraken’s parent company, Payward, to connect tokenized equities to blockchain. Meanwhile, Robinhood Chain is currently the market leader for tokenized-stock holders.
For Coinbase, the critical question is whether users will actively integrate tokenized equities into DeFi applications, such as collateral and liquidity sources, rather than simply storing them. The integration with Chainlink could drive tokenized stocks from passive assets to an integral part of decentralized financial markets.
Sentora co-founder Jesus Rodriguez has argued that tokenized equities should do more than simply “exist onchain.” They need to serve practical functions, such as acting as productive collateral. The Coinbase-Chainlink partnership supports this vision, providing the infrastructure required for tokenized equities to become active components in DeFi ecosystems.
