Coinbase has taken another major step in its bid to become a broader trading platform, launching stock perpetual futures for eligible traders outside the United States. The company says the new product is designed to give users 24/7 leveraged synthetic exposure to leading U.S. stocks on a regulated, centralized venue, while advancing its long-term “Everything Exchange” vision of letting traders access crypto, traditional assets, and emerging markets in one place.
The new contracts allow traders to speculate on publicly listed U.S. equities without owning the underlying shares, and they can trade around the clock, including weekends. Coinbase says the launch is aimed at meeting rising demand for round-the-clock equity exposure, especially in markets where access to U.S. stocks can be costly or limited. The company also argues that a lot of this activity has already migrated to decentralized venues with substantial daily volume, and that bringing it to a centralized platform adds institutional-grade risk controls to the mix.
At launch, Coinbase is offering perpetual futures tied to a curated list of highly liquid U.S. names, including the so-called Magnificent 7: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, NVIDIA, Meta Platforms, and Tesla. ETF perpetual futures, including SPY and QQQ, where permitted, are also available. Coinbase says it plans to expand the lineup over time as customer demand grows, eventually adding more equities across sectors, indices, commodities, and other globally traded assets.
Expanding Beyond Crypto
The product comes with several features that will likely appeal to active traders. Coinbase says stock perpetuals can be traded 24/7, are offered with up to 10x leverage on single-name stocks and up to 20x on ETF perpetuals, settle in USDC, and support cross-margining across perpetual futures and spot positions. Retail users can access the product through Coinbase Advanced and APIs, while institutions can trade through Coinbase International Exchange.
Coinbase is also positioning the offering as part of a broader push to give traders more tools under one roof. Its derivatives platform already includes futures products tied to crypto, commodities, and indices, and the company has been steadily expanding that infrastructure in recent months. Coinbase also says the new stock perpetuals are built on the same perpetual futures engine and risk framework it uses across its crypto derivatives markets.
The timing is notable. Traditional U.S. equity markets still operate on a 24/5 schedule, while global news, macro data, and crypto volatility do not wait for market hours. Coinbase says stock perpetuals can help retail traders manage capital more efficiently and give institutions a way to hedge weekend risk or adjust exposure in real time. That message fits with the exchange’s broader effort to become more than a crypto-only venue and compete more directly with multi-asset trading platforms.
Coinbase has been pushing deeper into stocks and event contracts as it seeks to broaden its business beyond crypto trading. There are limits, though. Coinbase says the new product is not available to U.S. persons and may be restricted in certain jurisdictions. It is currently being rolled out to eligible retail traders and institutions outside the United States, with the company saying it plans to expand access to additional regions later.
The launch underscores how quickly Coinbase is evolving from a crypto exchange into a wider derivatives platform. For traders, it opens the door to a new kind of market access, one that blends familiar Wall Street names with the fast, always-on structure of crypto trading. For Coinbase, it is another sign that the company wants to own more of the trading experience, from digital assets to equities and beyond.
