Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced Monday that it is opening commission-free access to more than 7,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs to non-U.S. customers, with fractional share purchases available from as little as $5. In an exclusive interview with Fortune, co-CEO Richard Teng said the move targets the friction and cost that overseas investors face when accessing American equities, which represent well over half of global equity market capitalization. Trades settle using stablecoins USDC or USDT, or other digital currencies including Binance’s own BNB token; brokerage is handled by Nest Trading, and New York-based Alpaca manages custody and facilitates dividends and corporate actions. Teng described the launch as part of a broader ambition to build a “multi-asset financial super app.”
Alongside the stock trading rollout, Binance announced a forthcoming product called “bStocks” that will let users tokenize the equities they hold by converting them into digital assets on the BNB blockchain. The company says the offering — expected within weeks — is distinctive in that customers can initiate the tokenization process themselves, rather than having it arranged by the platform, as is the case with similar products from Kraken and Robinhood. Tokenized stocks settle near-instantly versus the conventional T+1 process, and can be used in DeFi applications such as lending and liquidity provision. The launch is part of an accelerating convergence between crypto and traditional finance: Coinbase is building toward an “everything exchange,” BlackRock has wrapped T-bills in blockchain structures, and both NYSE and Nasdaq have announced plans to incorporate tokenization infrastructure.