Coinbase and Robinhood are breaking the fragmentation of Financial Service by launching a super app that integrates functions such as stocks, Crypto Assets, futures, and prediction markets, allowing users to trade across asset classes in real-time with a single account, ending a decade-long era of fragmented Financial Service. This article is sourced from a piece written by Nishil Jain, organized, compiled, and authored by Luffy, Foresight News. (Previous Summary: Coinbase launches stock trading, prediction market, perpetual contracts! Integrating Kalshi, Solana DEX upgrading to a “Universal Exchange”) (Background Information: x402 Upgrade V2 “Supports Single Format Cross-Chain”, how does Coinbase create fully automated payments for AI agents?)

Table of Contents

• Fragmented pain points
• Cornerstone of Transformation: Improvement of Infrastructure
  • Tokenization breaks down time barriers
  • The regulatory framework is becoming clearer
  • The infrastructure of mobile wallets is mature
• The core logic of liquidity integration
• Coinbase Integration Blueprint
• Social Trading: Emerging Differentiated Competitiveness
• Pessimistic Perspective: Potential Risks and Controversies
• The essence behind the phenomenon

Last week, Coinbase launched a new product touted as the “Financial Future.” An application that can achieve five major functions: 5×24 hours stock trading, centralized exchange and on-chain Crypto Assets trading, futures and perpetual contract trading, prediction market, and it is equipped with an AI financial analyst. All functions can be operated via mobile, and users' single account balance can be instantly switched among different asset classes.

Not long ago, Robinhood has taken the lead by launching tokenized stock trading in Europe, 5×24 hour futures trading, Crypto Assets interest services, and plans to launch the social trading feature Robinhood Social in 2026.

The mainstream discourse on platform X interprets this trend as the evolution of “super apps”, but people overlook a key point: this is by no means a simple stacking of functions, but rather breaks down the artificial boundaries of financial asset categories imposed by regulatory and technical limitations.

Why, after ten years of fragmented development, is the financial application迎來整合浪潮? What does this mean for users and platforms involved? Next, we officially enter the topic.

Fragmented pain points

In the past decade, numerous financial technology applications have emerged, but most only cover a single aspect of Financial Service, with functions such as stock trading, Crypto Assets, payment, and savings scattered across different applications.

This model provides users with more choices and allows companies to focus on refining a single solution, but in actual use, it is fraught with problems.

Want to sell stocks and then buy Crypto Assets? Stock trading needs to be executed on Monday and can only complete T+1 settlement on Tuesday; after that, initiate a withdrawal, and the funds will take 2-3 days to arrive in the bank account; then transferring the funds to Coinbase will take another 1-2 days. From “deciding to adjust fund allocation” to “funds actually landing,” the whole process takes about 5 days. During these 5 days, the investment opportunity you were eyeing may have already disappeared, while the funds are stagnating in the cumbersome process.

For example, if you want to buy Bitcoin at a price of $86,000 on December 18, but due to process delays, you end up trading at $90,000 five days later. For investment opportunities with even greater volatility, such as meme coins, Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), or Initial Public Offerings (IPO), the losses caused by such delays can be more severe.

The issue of fragmentation exists not only in a single region. An Indian investor who wants to purchase Nvidia stocks must repeatedly complete multiple KYC certifications, open an account with a broker that supports Indian users investing in U.S. stocks, and also deposit additional funds, all just to buy this one stock.

We have all experienced this operational friction, but it is only recently that the infrastructure capable of addressing this issue has gradually taken shape.

The Cornerstone of Transformation: Improvement of Infrastructure

Tokenization Breaks Down Time Barriers

Traditional stocks can only be traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) during trading hours ( from 9:30 AM to 4 PM Eastern Time, 5 days a week), while Crypto Assets enable 24/7 uninterrupted trading. By implementing stock tokenization on a layer two network, it proves that with reasonable technical mechanisms, stocks can theoretically achieve all-day trading.

Currently, Robinhood's tokenized stocks launched in Europe support 5×24 hours trading, and Coinbase will follow this model.

The regulatory framework is becoming clearer.

In recent years, Bitcoin spot ETFs have successfully been listed, the legalization process of stablecoins has advanced, the tokenization regulatory framework has entered the deliberation stage, and the prediction market has also received approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Although the regulatory environment is not perfect, it is clear enough for platforms to confidently develop multi-asset products without worrying about being completely halted.

The infrastructure for mobile wallets is mature.

Embedded wallets can now seamlessly handle complex cross-chain operations. The Privy platform, acquired by Stripe, allows users to create wallets through existing email addresses without having to touch mnemonic phrases; the recently launched crypto assets trading app Fomo enables non-crypto assets users to trade Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, and other on-chain coins without manually selecting the network, and it also supports Apple Pay deposits. The backend automatically handles all complex processes, allowing users to simply click “Buy Tokens” to complete the operation.

The core logic of liquidity integration

The core driving force behind this transformation is that the funds scattered across different applications are essentially idle funds.

In an integrated model, users only need to hold one account balance: after selling stocks, the funds can be immediately used to purchase Crypto Assets, without the need to wait for the settlement window, withdrawal review period, or go through intermediary steps such as banks. The original 5-day opportunity cost has completely disappeared.

Platforms that integrate liquidity excel in efficiency. Due to the deeper liquidity pools, they can provide better execution speeds; since all trading pairs share the same underlying liquidity, they can support more trading pairs; they can offer returns on idle capital similar to banks; moreover, with reduced friction and increased user trading volume, they can also earn more fee income.

Coinbase integration blueprint

Coinbase is the most typical case in this wave of financial integration. This company was founded in 2012 and initially was just a simple Crypto Assets exchange, supporting only the buying and selling of Bitcoin and Ethereum. In the following years, Coinbase successively added institutional custody, staking services, and Crypto Assets lending interest products, and by 2021, it had developed into a full-service Crypto Assets platform.

Its expansion has not stopped: it launched the Coinbase Card that supports Crypto Assets consumption, the payment solution Coinbase Commerce for merchants, and has created its own layer-2 blockchain Base.

The new product launch on December 17 marks the full realization of Coinbase's “super app” vision. Now, Coinbase supports 24-hour stock trading and plans to launch its real-world asset tokenization service, Coinbase Tokenize, aimed at institutions in early next year. This will be integrated with prediction markets through a partnership with Kalshi, and will include futures and perpetual contract trading, as well as the integration of decentralized exchange trading features from the Solana ecosystem within the app. Additionally, the Base app has expanded to 140 countries and enhanced the social trading experience.

Coinbase is gradually becoming the operating system for on-chain finance. Through a single interface and a single account balance, it covers the trading needs of all asset classes, aiming to allow users to complete all financial operations without leaving the platform.

Robinhood is also following a similar development path: starting with commission-free stock trading, gradually adding Crypto Assets trading, offering a gold subscription service with 3% cash back and 3.5% deposit interest, futures trading, and subsequently launching tokenized stocks in Europe.

Both platforms are betting on the same core logic: users do not want to download different applications for stocks, Crypto Assets, and derivatives. What they need is a single account balance, a unified operating interface, and the ability to adjust fund allocations in real-time.