The SEC is opening a new chapter for tokenized stocks, and some familiar names in crypto may be positioned unusually close to the door.
Coinbase, Robinhood and Circle are being identified by analysts at Goldman Sachs and Citizens as potential early beneficiaries of the agency’s new approach to bringing U.S. securities onto public blockchains.
The opportunity is still tightly contained. But the SEC’s five-year innovation exemption gives tokenized stocks a path to trade through automated market makers, or AMMs, on public blockchains.
There is a catch, and it is a significant one. The tokens must retain shareholder rights tied to the underlying shares, including dividends and voting rights. Trading venues will also face limits on both volume and the number of stocks they can list.
For Coinbase, that framework happens to overlap with several businesses it already has in motion.
Goldman Sachs analysts said the company’s existing tokenized-equity offering already resembles many of the SEC’s requirements. The products provide shareholder rights and dividends linked to the underlying stock, while Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said earlier this week that voting rights are “coming soon.”
That would give Coinbase a potentially broader role as tokenized stocks move beyond simple price exposure.
The company already operates an institutional custody business and offers Coinbase Tokenize, an infrastructure service designed to help other firms bring assets onchain. Citizens analysts also pointed to Coinbase’s exposure across custody, tokenized assets, stablecoins and Base, its Ethereum-based blockchain.
There is, however, an infrastructure mismatch.
Coinbase’s exchanges currently rely on central limit order books, where buyers and sellers submit orders directly. The SEC’s exemption, by contrast, is designed around automated market makers. To participate directly under the new framework, Coinbase would therefore need to build additional infrastructure or potentially route activity through AMM-based decentralized exchanges, including protocols operating on Base.
Tokenized Stocks Are Giving Brokers a New Product to Build
Robinhood arrives from a different angle.
The company already offers stock tokens outside the U.S., but those products do not currently satisfy the SEC’s framework. They offer exposure to the price of U.S. shares through derivatives rather than transferring the complete ownership rights associated with the stock.
For a U.S. launch under the exemption, Goldman analysts said Robinhood would need to develop its products further.
That issue became particularly visible earlier this month when AMC Entertainment CEO criticized Robinhood for offering AMC-linked stock tokens without the theater company’s approval.
The SEC’s new framework addresses part of that dispute by giving stock issuers the ability to object before third-party tokenized versions of their shares can begin trading.
Still, Citizens analysts expect Robinhood to move quickly, pointing to the traction of its tokenized-equity business outside the U.S. and the company’s wider push around its Arbitrum-based Robinhood Chain.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has also indicated that additional shareholder features are on the way, including share redemptions and voting rights. Those additions could bring its offshore products closer to the rights-based structure required by the SEC.
Then there is Circle, which sits slightly farther from the action but could benefit from the plumbing underneath it.
Tokenized Stocks Need Tokenized Cash, Too
More securities trading onchain could create more demand for digital cash that can move through the same infrastructure.
Both Goldman Sachs and Citizens flagged Circle as a potential indirect beneficiary, particularly through USDC. The stablecoin could be used for settlement, collateral and other transactions tied to onchain markets.
Coinbase could have exposure here as well, given its relationship with USDC and its role in distributing the stablecoin.
That leaves traditional exchange operators in a somewhat different position.
Goldman Sachs analysts said Nasdaq and Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the NYSE, appear less exposed for now. The new venues are unlikely to pull meaningful trading volume away from established exchanges while the SEC’s restrictions remain in place.
Trading caps, issuer opt-outs and the limitations of AMM-based markets in deeper liquidity all constrain how far the new system can scale.
So while the SEC’s tokenized-stock experiment is still narrow, it is already reshaping where investors and analysts are looking for opportunity.
Coinbase is positioned across custody, tokenization infrastructure and stablecoins. Robinhood has an existing stock-token business to adapt for the U.S. Circle could provide some of the digital cash needed to make those markets function.
None of that guarantees who benefits most. But the SEC has created a regulatory opening, and the companies already building around onchain finance now have a much clearer reason to pay attention.