Binance is making another push to blur the line between digital assets and traditional markets. In an announcement made Monday, the company said its users will soon be able to trade more than 7,000 US stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
It also detailed a plan to let customers convert the stocks they hold into tokenized, crypto-style digital assets, as part of what Binance describes as a wider effort to evolve into a “multi-asset financial super app.”
Binance Targets ‘Friction-Free’ Stock Trading
Speaking to Fortune, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng highlighted why the move is aimed particularly at customers outside the United States. The executive said US stocks already account for well over half of the global equity market, but for many overseas investors, buying them can entail high costs and friction.
Binance’s solution, according to Teng, is to offer zero-commission stock trading for non-US users, along with fractional share purchases starting at $5, lowering both the price barrier and the complexity of participation.
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Operationally, Binance said the new stock trading service will be set up with support from a broker-dealer called Nest Trading. For custody and settlement functions, a New York-based firm, Alpaca, is expected to handle custody and facilitate dividend payments and corporate actions.
Customers will be able to fund stock purchases using stablecoins such as Circle’s USDC stablecoin or Tether’s USDT, as well as a selection of other digital currencies, including Binance’s BNB.
Binance also introduced a more ambitious concept alongside the trading program: “bStocks.” The company’s position is that bStocks will let users tokenize equities they purchase.
Hyperliquid Might Feel The Heat
In Teng’s explanation, this would work by creating a synthetic, digital token representation of certain stocks—achieved by converting the equities into tokens on Binance’s BNB blockchain. The company says this functionality is expected to become available in the coming weeks.
While other major platforms have experimented with similar models over the past year, Binance claims its approach could stand out in one important way.
Competitors such as Kraken and Robinhood have launched offerings in this space, but Binance says its bStocks plan is potentially different because it would allow customers to begin the tokenization process themselves rather than relying solely on the platform’s pre-set conversion paths.
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The exchange’s announcement has also triggered reactions. On X (formerly Twitter), analyst Zero Kyle argued that the development could be negative for decentralized exchange (DEX) Hyperliquid (HYPE).
Kyle’s view was that while the expanded availability may not necessarily be “24/7 like” Hyperliquid’s trading venues in the way some trading systems are structured, Binance is likely to intensify competition and could create a head-to-head fight for market share.
The analyst added that the news may not be “bad for HYPE the token” specifically, but it could be “bad for Hyperliquid the exchange” due to increased competition.
Meanwhile, the exchange’s native token, BNB, was trading at $692 at the time of writing. This mirrors the broader crypto market’s retracement on Monday, with a 2.3% drop recorded so far.
Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com