Crypto and TradFi platforms are converging rapidly, and the convergence is happening in both directions. For retail traders, the important shift is that the distinction between a crypto account and a brokerage account is starting to disappear.
One of the best examples of a crypto platform becoming a multi-asset brokerage is Coinbase, which is moving beyond spot crypto into crypto derivatives, prediction markets, stablecoin payments, tokenised assets, equity-linked products and potentially single-stock perpetual futures.
London's trading industry is coming home!
Last week, the firm filed with the CFTC to offer perpetual futures on roughly 50-60 US stocks, including Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Nvidia. If approved, this would be the first time perpetual futures were traded on a regulated US venue.
Coinbase’s Q2 2026 results show how far the diversification has gone: prediction market revenue more than doubled quarter-on-quarter, while average USDC balances on the platform reached $20 billion. Prediction market contracts grew 106%, and non-BTC spot trading now accounts for 88% of net revenue.
Coinbase Q2 Revenue Falls 14% as Prediction Markets Revenue Jumps 106%
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 30, 2026
Coinbase reported Q2 2026 total revenue of $1.22 billion, down 19% year over year and 14% quarter over quarter, while transaction revenue fell 21% to $599 million. The company recorded a net loss of $359… pic.twitter.com/83CHvnG72m
The Mix of TradFi and Crypto
The reverse migration is arguably even more significant. The European Central Bank has just launched Pontes, connecting its payment system to blockchain-based financial markets to allow investors to settle blockchain transactions using ECB-backed euros rather than stablecoins.
The Bank of England is similarly exploring a financial system in which conventional deposits, tokenised bank deposits and regulated stablecoins coexist. It explicitly envisages tokenised equities, bonds, funds and private assets moving through more automated trade, settlement and collateral processes.
The question isn't really whether crypto will replace TradFi but rather which parts of the latter will migrate onto blockchain infrastructure and which crypto products will become regulated financial market products.
Tokenised stocks will be particularly important for retail investors. The SEC currently recognises several models, including issuer-sponsored securities, custodial representations and synthetic exposure, and the boundaries are already becoming blurred.
The London Stock Exchange is working with Payward, the company behind Kraken, on tokenised UK equities. The proposed system would allow tokenised shares to trade through digital market infrastructure outside conventional stock market hours.
That creates a potentially compelling retail proposition of traditional asset plus crypto infrastructure rather than crypto asset versus traditional asset.
The implications can be divided into five main areas:
One platform, many asset classes - crypto, stocks, derivatives, stablecoins and tokenised assets are increasingly available together
Longer trading hours - less dependence on traditional exchange opening hours
Fractionalisation - smaller amounts potentially sufficient to access expensive assets
Faster settlement - potentially near-real-time transfer and settlement
More leverage/products - much greater choice, but also substantially greater risk
The last point is particularly important. The convergence isn't necessarily making investing simpler - it could make sophisticated trading dramatically easier for ordinary investors.
A retail trader could eventually have a single wallet or account containing Bitcoin and Ether, stablecoins, tokenised shares, conventional ETFs, perpetual futures, prediction contracts, money market/tokenised cash products, and even tokenised bonds and private market assets, which they could move between almost instantaneously.
An Always-on Capital Market
The concept of always-on markets is where crypto's market structure could have a particularly significant influence on TradFi. If tokenised securities adopt some of crypto’s infrastructure, the retail investor could eventually experience something closer to an always-on capital market, which is one reason the LSE's proposed digital market infrastructure is interesting, as is the ECB's blockchain settlement initiative.
Of course, tokenised stock doesn't necessarily mean stock ownership. A token representing Nvidia isn't necessarily equivalent to owning Nvidia shares.
The SEC distinguishes between different structures, and a synthetic token can provide price exposure without giving the investor the rights associated with owning the underlying security.
The LSE/Kraken initiative illustrates the issue: some proposed tokenised equities would be backed 1:1 by conventional shares but would not provide voting rights or dividends. So retail investors would need to ask what exactly they own rather than simply what the token tracks.
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Stablecoins may be the most important piece of infrastructure in the convergence. The 2026 Strategy&/PwC crypto survey found that more than 75% of surveyed retail investors said they were likely to invest in tokenised assets if they could access them through their bank or trading platform (up from 38% in 2025). It also found that 31% had already used stablecoins for cross-border transfers.
That suggests an important behavioural transition where retail investors may not particularly care whether something is crypto or TradFi and simply want to know whether they can buy it, sell it, transfer it and use it cheaply and conveniently.
Wall Street is moving onchain.
— Crypto.com (@cryptocom) September 17, 2026
The SEC’s latest move brings tokenized U.S. stocks one step closer to wider adoption.
The rails are changing.
The Greater the Mix, the Greater the Risk
The challenge here is that the convergence imports crypto’s risks into TradFi. The OECD has highlighted the increasing interconnectedness between crypto and traditional financial markets, particularly through stablecoins and their reserves. It also warns about leverage, liquidity mismatches, opaque governance, cyber risks and consumer protection.
For retail investors, risk factors include:
Platform risk (one account may contain many different types of financial exposure)
Counterparty risk (a token may represent a claim on an intermediary rather than direct ownership)
Liquidity risk (24/7 trading doesn't guarantee 24/7 liquidity)
Leverage risk (perpetual futures and similar products can turn relatively small market moves into very large gains or losses)
Regulatory fragmentation (the protections attached to an ordinary share may differ substantially from those attached to a tokenised representation of that share)
Complexity risk (the user interface may become simpler while the underlying financial product becomes more complicated)
The most significant trend arguably isn't crypto exchanges becoming stockbrokers but rather the emergence of a single digital market infrastructure layer where crypto, equities, ETFs, bonds, stablecoins, derivatives, payments and tokenised real-world assets can coexist.
The SEC is already permitting limited trading of tokenised National Market System stocks on regulated on-chain venues under its 2026 innovation exemption. Meanwhile, traditional institutions are building blockchain settlement infrastructure and crypto platforms are moving towards traditional financial products.
These developments create a potentially significant competitive battle between Coinbase/Kraken-style crypto platforms, conventional brokers, banks, exchanges and fintech platforms for the retail investor's entire financial relationship.
The real disruption may be the disappearance of the boundary between the crypto exchange and the brokerage account.
