Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has launched U.S. stock trading for non-U.S. customers, opening access to more than 7,000 American equities and ETFs as part of co-CEO Richard Teng’s push to position the exchange as a “multi-asset financial super app.”
The announcement, made on June 1 in an exclusive interview with Fortune and confirmed in an official Binance support announcement the same day, also previewed a more ambitious step: a tokenization product called bStocks that will allow users to convert their stock holdings into digital tokens on BNB Chain. The bStocks feature is expected to launch in the coming weeks.
What Binance Is Offering
Non-U.S. customers can now purchase U.S. stocks and ETFs on Binance with zero commission, with fractional share purchases starting at $5. Customers can fund their trades using stablecoins USDC or USDT, Binance’s own BNB token, or a selection of other digital currencies.
The platform offers 24/5 trading hours, meaning users can place trades 24 hours a day, five days a week—extending well beyond traditional U.S. equity market hours and matching the always-on rhythm crypto users already expect. The fee structure includes zero commission but a minimum platform fee of $0.35 per order, or 10 basis points for orders above $350.
The trades themselves are arranged through Nest Trading Limited, which acts as the introducing broker and routes orders to Alpaca Securities LLC. Alpaca, a New York-based firm, handles execution, clearing, settlement, custody, dividend payments, and corporate actions. Binance has been explicit that it does not handle or custody the securities itself—a structural distinction that keeps the exchange outside direct U.S. securities regulation while still offering access through its app.
Binance also disclosed that it may receive payment for order flow remuneration for directing customer orders — a common practice among retail brokerages like Robinhood that has drawn regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. equities market.
This is not Binance’s first move outside crypto. The exchange already offers derivatives that give exposure to gold, petrochemicals, and pre-IPO shares including SpaceX, the latter launched on May 21 as part of the same super-app strategy.
bStocks: User-Initiated Tokenization on BNB Chain
The bStocks feature is what distinguishes Binance’s offering from earlier tokenized stock products launched by Kraken, Robinhood, and Bitget. According to Teng, customers will be able to convert their purchased equities into synthetic blockchain tokens themselves, rather than relying on the platform to mint pre-set tokenized versions.
In a statement, Binance described bStocks as a “native bridge from traditional stock ownership to programmable, always-on tokenized assets at a global scale,” adding that the product will unlock “continuous on-chain access and potential DeFi applications, from lending to liquidity provision.”
The tokens will be issued on BNB Chain, adding a potential new source of on-chain volume and TVL to the Binance-affiliated network. The launch arrives at a moment of accelerating institutional attention to BNB itself — VanEck launched the first U.S. spot BNB ETF, giving Wall Street investors regulated exposure to the BNB ecosystem for the first time.
bStocks Are Not Actually Stocks
One important nuance buried in Binance’s official announcement: bStocks are not stocks. According to Binance’s disclosure, bStocks are classified as “Certificates representing certain Financial Instruments” under paragraph 92, Schedule 1 of the Financial Services and Markets Regulations (FSMR). The disclosure explicitly states that bStocks “are not stocks and bStocks do not allow holders to directly own a share or stock in the underlying listed company.”
This is a meaningful distinction. Holders of bStocks will have economic exposure to the price of the underlying U.S. equity, but they will not be shareholders of record in the underlying company. They will not receive voting rights, will not be entitled to direct dividends from the company itself (though Binance’s separate custodial structure with Alpaca handles dividend pass-through on the underlying spot stock holdings), and will not have the legal claim that direct equity ownership provides in events like bankruptcy or corporate restructuring.
The structural advantage of tokenized stocks remains settlement speed. Traditional U.S. equity trades rely on Wall Street intermediaries that take a full business day or more to finalize, while blockchain-based stock tokens can settle in seconds. That speed differential is what has pushed NYSE and Nasdaq to announce their own tokenization plans, and what has drawn BlackRock into offering tokenized T-bills.
A Crowded Race for the Same Product Surface
Binance’s move puts it in direct competition with a growing list of platforms racing toward the same “everything exchange” product. Coinbase added stock trading in December 2025, positioning itself similarly as an everything exchange. Robinhood has aggressively expanded tokenized stock offerings, with CEO Vlad Tenev describing a “tokenization supercycle” underway. Kraken launched tokenized U.S. stocks earlier this year, and Bitget’s regulated subsidiary, Reality Platform, began tokenizing stocks in late May, working with licensed brokers connected to Nasdaq and NYSE.
The total tokenized RWA market has now surpassed $34 billion with U.S. Treasury debt holding the largest share. Tokenized equities remain a smaller but rapidly growing category, and the DTCC’s coordinated tokenization initiative with over 50 firms—targeting $114 trillion in assets with pilot trades beginning in July 2026 — signals where the broader industry is heading.
For Binance, the bStocks rollout is also a strategic hedge. As U.S. crypto regulation crystallizes around frameworks like the CLARITY Act and the CFTC’s recent perps onshoring push, exchanges are racing to diversify revenue beyond pure crypto trading. Adding equity trading and tokenized stocks gives Binance product depth that competes with traditional brokerages while preserving its crypto-native infrastructure.
What Comes Next
The U.S. stocks rollout is live now for eligible non-U.S. users. The bStocks tokenization feature is expected to go live in the coming weeks, though Binance has not confirmed a specific launch date or initial list of tokenized equities.
Some analysts have raised concerns that user-initiated tokenization of equities could introduce regulatory and market structure risks, particularly around price discovery between on-chain synthetic tokens and underlying spot markets. TCT previously reported on similar concerns raised by DWF Labs around the tokenized pre-IPO market, where pricing distortions and liquidity fragmentation have emerged as recurring issues.
For now, the launch confirms what has become the dominant strategic pattern of 2026 among major crypto exchanges: every venue is becoming a brokerage, and every brokerage is becoming a tokenization platform. Binance’s scale—over 250 million users globally—means its move likely accelerates the convergence rather than just participating in it.
