E ligible traders outside the United States can now speculate on leading U.S. equities without owning the underlying shares. These contracts trade 24/7, including weekends, and settle in USDC. Single-name stocks are offered with up to 10x leverage, while ETF perpetuals are offered with up to 20x leverage.
Related Brief Just now
cryptocurrency regulation The ECB’s Push for Centralized Crypto Oversight Ends Regulatory Arbitrage for Binance and Coinbase
Firms that built their European operations around regulatory arbitrage now face a single, stricter supervisor replacing the national regimes they once chose. The European Central Bank endorsed a proposal on April 9 to shift direct supervision of major crypto exchanges to ESMA in Paris, ending the ability of firms like Coinbase and Binance to exploit jurisdictional advantages across EU member states. Direct supervisory authority would move from national regulators to ESMA for firms deemed systemically important under MiCA. Systemic importance is defined by quantitative thresholds: over 1 million yearly active EU users, €3 billion in assets, or 200,000+ cross-border users. Qualitative criteria include acting as a liquidity or custody hub, integration with traditional banks, or operating as exchange, custodian, and stablecoin issuer simultaneously. Binance, Coinbase, Bybit EU, Kraken, Bitpanda, and others meet at least one quantitative or qualitative criterion for ESMA oversight. Coinbase operates its EU entity from Ireland to benefit from favorable national supervision, a structure the proposal directly targets. Binance has 300 million global users, $170 billion in customer assets, and 39.2% of global spot market share, exceeding all quantitative thresholds. Bitpanda has 7 million users and a Deutsche Bank partnership, triggering qualitative oversight due to integration with traditional finance. ESMA supervision imposes stricter standards than most national regimes, including mandatory independent compliance and enhanced risk management. Ireland, Luxembourg, and Malta oppose the proposal because it threatens their economic model of attracting crypto firms via lighter regulation. The proposal enters EU legislative negotiation, where opposition may raise thresholds or narrow qualitative discretion to reduce the number of firms captured. Even a weakened version of the proposal will end the assumption that national regulatory choice remains a permanent competitive advantage for large crypto platforms.
This access is provided through Coinbase Advanced and APIs for retail users, and through Coinbase International Exchange for institutions. The product is part of a broader push by Coinbase to expand beyond crypto-only trading into a multi-asset derivatives platform.
Related Brief 8h ago
cryptocurrency markets U.S. buyers drive Bitcoin premium as global markets remain in retreat
Bitcoin is trading at a premium on Coinbase compared to Binance as of April 12, 2026, signaling renewed buying interest from U.S.-based investors. This shift means American buyers are paying more for Bitcoin than their global counterparts, a sign of localized demand driven by both institutions and retail participants. The premium — a gap that opens when domestic demand outpaces supply on U.S. exchanges — often appears during phases of tactical accumulation. Historically, such flips have preceded short-term price rallies, even within longer bear markets. But this momentum does not yet indicate a structural turnaround. Analysts including Crypto Rover caution that the broader market remains bearish, with global exchanges like Binance and OKX still reflecting negative sentiment. A similar dynamic occurred in past cycles when brief U.S. buying surges created bull traps — deceptive rallies that reversed once global selling pressure resumed. For the current move to sustain, on-chain activity must rise and global demand must shift. Until then, the premium reflects a narrow pocket of strength in an otherwise fragile market.
Coinbase is offering perpetual futures tied to a curated list of liquid U.S. names, including Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, NVIDIA, Meta Platforms, and Tesla, as well as ETF perpetuals including SPY and QQQ where permitted.
Related Brief 1d ago
cryptocurrency regulation A 2.4 BTC Move by the U.S. Government Doesn’t Signal a Sale — But It Reveals How Tightly Controlled Federal Crypto Assets Are
The U.S. government moved 2.4 BTC — worth about $177,000 — to Coinbase Prime on April 10, 2026. That transfer, split into two transactions of 0.459637 BTC and 1.97854 BTC, did not trigger a market sell-off. It wasn’t meant to. Instead, it fit within a tightly defined legal structure that governs how federal agencies can handle Bitcoin. The movement occurred under the March 6, 2025 court order that established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. That order restricts the government from selling its seized BTC except under specific legal exceptions. This was not one of them. The transfer was an internal reallocation, not a liquidation. Yet it still entered the public eye. Reports from Crypto Briefing and RootData identified the movement, even though the exact transaction hashes were not independently verified. That visibility underscores a shift: government-held crypto is no longer invisible. Every movement is potentially traceable. And while 2.4 BTC is negligible against Bitcoin’s $1.456 trillion market cap, the precedent matters. The government isn’t dumping Bitcoin. It’s managing it — on a ledger anyone can watch.
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