Binance has officially rolled out options trading for more than 1,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs to eligible non-US users, facilitated through its Abu Dhabi-registered broker, Nest Trading. The execution and clearing custody for these trades are handled by the US-registered Alpaca Securities. This new product offering builds upon Binance's existing infrastructure, which already supports over 7,000 US stocks and ETFs, and marks a significant expansion of its traditional finance (TradFi) capabilities.
Unlike perpetual contracts, these new options are settled in physical shares, meaning that upon exercise, holders will actually receive or deliver the underlying stock rather than a cash equivalent. The impetus behind this expansion is the explosive growth of traditional asset trading on the platform; in August alone, the volume of TradFi perpetual contracts reached $433 billion, a fifteen-fold surge compared to January of this year.
Recent data from Woofun AI and RWA.xyz underscores the accelerating trend, showing that the total value of tokenized stocks has climbed to $2.6 billion from $346 million last year. Moreover, the monthly transfer volume has grown by 93% to $25.1 billion over the last 30 days, while the number of holders has surged by 157% to nearly 2.5 million, indicating a rapid mainstreaming of on-chain securities.
Competitors are equally aggressive in their tokenization strategies. Last week, Coinbase (COIN.US) introduced B20 tokenized stocks on its Base network, allowing non-US users to trade assets like Apple (AAPL.US), Nvidia (NVDA.US), Meta (META.US), and Alphabet (GOOGL.US) around the clock. These tokens can also function as collateral or trading instruments within DeFi protocols.
In August, Kraken gave its European qualified clients access to trade over 7,000 US-listed stocks, integrating these with its xStocks tokenized product suite. Meanwhile, Robinhood (HOOD.US) launched its Robinhood Chain in July, offering next-generation stock tokens to qualified users across more than 120 countries.
As regulatory pathways become clearer and liquidity deepens, on-chain trading of traditional equities is transitioning from a niche experiment to a standard asset allocation option. This convergence marks a definitive blurring of the lines between TradFi and DeFi, reshaping the foundational infrastructure of stock trading as both traditional financial giants and crypto-native platforms pivot toward tokenization.