After a weekend of anticipation, Binance's US stock trading product has finally arrived. Within the Binance app, almost all US stocks are tradable.

This time, Binance isn't just testing the waters with a few tokenized blue-chip stocks but has instead opened up trading for over 7,000 US stocks and ETFs. The positioning is that of a "multi-asset financial super app," as described by co-CEO Richard Teng. According to his comments to Fortune, US stocks account for over half of the global stock market, but overseas users face high costs and friction when trying to buy them. Binance's goal is to eliminate this barrier.

A CoinTime editor conducted a full order placement test using NVDA to experience this product from start to finish.

Product Test: What's the Experience Like with Binance's US Stock Trading Product

Upon opening the Binance app and navigating to the "Settings" page, the first task is to confirm the version number: v3.15.0, the latest version. The language has been switched to Traditional Chinese. A previously reported prerequisite by the community is validated here: Chinese users who wish to participate in US stock trading must switch the language from Simplified Chinese to Traditional Chinese or other languages, with Simplified Chinese being the only exclusion.

Switching to the "Markets" page, a top tab now shows the "Traditional Finance" entry alongside "Cryptocurrency" and "Alpha." Further down, it is divided into three sub-sections: Stocks, Spot, and USD-M Futures. Under the Stocks section, there are filters for "US Stocks" and "ETFs."

Scrolling through the list, the first stocks seen are not Apple and Tesla but rather lesser-known small-cap stocks such as ZCMD (with a market cap of around $46.76 million), SVC ($23.31 million), and WOK ($18.15 million) – names even experienced US stock traders may not recognize. Next to NOK, there is an ADR tag, indicating that the coverage of 7,000 stocks is not just a few blue-chip stocks for show; it truly extends to small-cap and even ADR levels.

However, if there were other filtering and sorting options to display mainstream large-cap stocks like Nvidia and Intel at the forefront, the experience might be enhanced.

The capability to trade 7,000 US stocks is possible because Binance has taken a different approach, opting for a real brokerage channel instead of tokenization on the blockchain. The assets are not limited by the issuing company's tokenization progress. To put it into perspective: Kraken's xStocks covers over 60 blue-chip stocks, the underlying issuer Backed Finance currently offers around 100 stocks with a target of reaching over 500 by the year's end, and Robinhood's tokenization coverage in the EU includes approximately 200 companies. While others start by tokenizing one asset at a time, Binance has directly adopted the entire US stock market.

Go to the NVDA page. The price is $216.209, labeled "Pre-market," with a pre-market increase of 1.83% and a previous day's close decrease of 0.79%. The candlestick chart supports a time range from 1 week to 5 years, similar to mainstream brokerage apps.

Scrolling down reveals a set of "Key Statistics" panels: Trading volume of 4.1946 million shares, opening price of 213.05, average volume of 156 million shares, 52-week high of 236.54, low of 135.40, market cap of $5.11 trillion, P/E ratio of 32.04, EPS of $6.59, dividend yield of 0.02%, and free cash flow of $119.076 billion. The data granularity is on par with platforms like Webull or Robinhood. Further down, there is a "Corporate Actions" section indicating a cash dividend on June 4.

The "Related News" section aggregates third-party sources such as Benzinga, The Motley Fool, Investing.com, and more. At the very bottom is the company's overview. The overall information architecture is sufficient for stock beginners but lacks in-depth data such as financial statements, analyst ratings, institutional holdings, etc., falling short compared to Bloomberg or Tonghuashun by an order of magnitude. It may suffice for Binance's target users, but for heavy stock players, it may still lack in information density and professionalism.

Next, let's proceed with placing an order.

Click on "Buy," enter 100 USDT. The system automatically converts: 100 USDT is first exchanged at a rate of approximately 1 USDT ≈ 0.998859 USDC, resulting in about 99.88 USDC. Then, at the market price (best ask price of $218.97), it purchases approximately 0.4545 shares of NVDA, with a trading value of 99.53 USDC and an estimated fee of 0.35 USDC.

Here is an unavoidable intermediate step: regardless of whether you use USDT or BNB for payment, all funds will be first converted to USDC and then settled to buy shares using USDC. The conversion fee between USDC and USD is 0 (the spread is covered by Binance), but the conversion from USDT, BNB, or other currencies to USDC incurs an "applicable market spread." In other words, buying directly with USDC is the lowest-cost path, while using USDT or BNB will incur an additional layer of exchange loss.

The order types currently consist of only two: market orders and limit orders. The order is valid for the same trading day (Day). The payer is a combination of the Cash Account and Spot, meaning the system will automatically pull balances from both wallets.

Upon clicking Preview, a "Securities Trading Disclaimer and Data Sharing" document will pop up. The core terms, drafted in a formal tone, state that Nest Trading Limited acts as the introducing broker, transmitting orders to Alpaca Securities LLC for execution, clearing, settlement, and custody. Binance does not handle or custody your securities. Two mandatory checkboxes: acceptance of the Securities Trading Product Terms and agreement to share personal information with Alpaca Securities LLC.

The Fee Details popup clearly states: Commission Fee 0 USDC, Platform Fee 0.35 USDC, Spread 0 USDC, Total 0.35 USDC. Worth noting in the three explanations below: first, Binance does not charge commission, but orders are subject to platform fees or spreads; second, BNB fee discounts are currently not supported; third, there may be future regulatory fees (CAT, TAF, SEC fees).

The Fee Schedule page breaks down the structure further: Trading Spread 0.10%, minimum of $0.35 per trade; Fractional shares incur the same rate, with a minimum investment of $1; Account opening, maintenance, inactivity, and custody fees are all $0. Regarding regulatory fees, the SEC Transaction Fee (seller-only) is covered by Binance, with users paying 0.

So, what does "Zero Commission" really mean? While the commission is indeed zero, the platform fee of 0.10% (minimum $0.35) is a hard cost, along with the exchange rate spread for non-USDC currencies being a soft cost. Taking the example of buying NVDA with 100 USDT this time, the $0.35 USDC platform fee corresponds to a $99.53 USDC trade value, resulting in an effective fee rate of around 0.35%. This number, while not high compared to traditional brokerage firms (both Robinhood and Webull are zero), is not high within the cryptocurrency exchange platform landscape (where the spot trading fee rate baseline is 0.10%). As for BNB fee discounts not being supported currently, in a Binance ecosystem where BNB can be used to offset fees across almost all products, this represents a clear expectation gap.

There is another number that has a greater impact on long-term holders: the dividend processing fee is 0, but the default U.S. tax withholding on dividends is 30% of the total dividend amount, which is deducted before being credited to your account. This is the standard withholding tax rate in the U.S. for non-resident foreigners, not a fee charged by Binance, but it means that you will only receive 70% of the dividend amount. NVIDIA's dividend yield is only 0.02%, which has a minimal impact, but if you buy a high-dividend ETF, this 30% cannot be ignored.

It is important to note that market orders placed before the market opens will not be executed immediately, but will be filled at the best available price when the market opens.

Trading is 24/7 from Monday to Friday, but the liquidity during non-core hours is very low, and market orders may face significant slippage. The disclaimer also clearly states: "Securities are subject to high market and liquidity risks and price fluctuations, especially outside of traditional market trading hours."

For crypto users, 24/7 trading is common knowledge; however, stock market liquidity cannot be replicated simply by extending trading hours. Market makers' quotes, institutional participation, and order flow density are all concentrated within the window of 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET. The meaning of 24-hour trading is more about being able to place orders at any time rather than being able to execute trades at a reasonable price at any time.

Securities Lending, Another Key Weapon for Binance

After experiencing the trading process, let's further analyze Binance's U.S. stock products.

For a crypto exchange to operate in the U.S. stock market, the front-end Buy button is just the tip of the iceberg, with the real weight lying in matching, custody, and lending. Binance's approach this time is to strictly limit its role to the front-end interface and delegate the backend operations to two entities.

The first is Nest Trading Limited. The disclaimer describes it as an "introducing broker," sounding like an external partner, but further investigation reveals that it is Binance's own company. In December 2025, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) approved licenses for three entities under Binance: Nest Exchange Limited, responsible for the trading platform business (spot and derivatives); Nest Clearing and Custody Limited, responsible for clearing, settlement, and digital asset custody; and Nest Trading Limited (formerly BCI Limited), holding a broker-dealer license and handling over-the-counter trading, exchange services, and other non-trading platform businesses. In other words, Nest Trading is not a third party brought in by Binance but its own licensed entity under the ADGM framework, specifically handling businesses that do not go through the trading platform matching engine. The referral of U.S. stock orders is an extension of this type of "off-platform" business.

The second one is Alpaca Securities LLC. This one is the true independent third party. Alpaca, headquartered in New York, is a self-clearing SEC-registered broker-dealer, a member of FINRA, protected by SIPC (up to $500,000 per customer account), and also a clearing member of DTCC, FICC, and OCC. However, it is not a retail brokerage but a B2B infrastructure provider for fintech companies. Its core product is the Broker API, allowing partners to embed stock, options, fixed income, and cryptocurrency trading into their apps. To date, Alpaca's API serves over 200 fintech clients in 40+ countries globally, supporting over 10 million brokerage accounts. Early partners include Gotrade and Midas, with Binance being its largest on-ramped crypto platform.

Another very noteworthy update is the upcoming launch on June 4th of securities lending.

Fully Paid Securities Lending (FPSL) service allows users to lend out fully paid-up eligible stocks to market participants (usually institutions needing to short, arbitrage, or make markets) and earn interest income.

FPSL is an extremely mature business in traditional financial markets. Charles Schwab's securities lending program is split 50/50 with a minimum asset threshold of $100,000; Fidelity requires a minimum account size of $25,000; Interactive Brokers' Stock Yield Enhancement Program also follows a 50% split with a $25,000 threshold; Robinhood launched its securities lending program in 2022 with the lowest threshold, offering daily interest. The entire securities lending market contributes nearly $10 billion in global revenue annually.

In the cryptocurrency exchange space, Kraken is a pioneer. It launched FPSL for US equities in 2025, allowing eligible users to lend out fully paid-up stocks to earn interest. This is also one of Kraken's key hooks to attract users to transfer their stock positions from other brokerages through ACATS. Alpaca itself introduced the FPSL feature for Broker API partners in May 2025, and Binance's securities lending this time likely directly reused Alpaca's underlying capabilities.

For Binance, FPSL is not just another feature tag. It is a key step towards transitioning users from “buy and hold” to “buy and earn,” and is also a precursor to the future tokenization of stocks, enabling stock integration into DeFi lending protocols. The path of first testing lending within the traditional brokerage framework and then moving the same logic to the blockchain is cohesive.

Beyond Binance: A Race Among Various Exchange Platforms

Taking a step back, Binance's move is not isolated. In early 2026, the race track was already crowded.

Coinbase, OKX, Kraken, and Bybit all announced or launched tokenized stock trading at the beginning of the year. The market value of tokenized stocks surged from $32 million to nearly $1 billion in less than a year.

Coinbase is following the “everything exchange” route. In early 2026, it launched traditional stock and ETF trading for its U.S. users, offering zero commission, 24/5 trading, and fractional shares starting at $1. With a marketing partnership with Yahoo Finance, it directly targets Robinhood. However, in the fine print of its announcement, it intentionally excluded tokenized equities from its licensed broker-dealer and main operating company, leaving a regulatory suspense.

Robinhood initiated this tokenization narrative. In June 2025, CEO Vlad Tenev unveiled a three-step plan at an event called To Catch a Token, starting with tokenized stock offerings in the EU covering over 200 U.S. companies. The core idea is to make tokenization a seamless experience for users. At its core is a proprietary chain, an Ethereum L2 based on Arbitrum Orbit, dedicated to real asset tokenization, with plans for a full launch in 2026.

Kraken focuses on DeFi integration and self-custody. Its xStocks allow investors to use 1:1 collateralized equity tokens in their private wallets, settled on Solana and Ethereum, covering over 60 blue-chip stocks and partnering with Nasdaq. On the capital front, Deutsche Boerse made a strategic $200 million investment in Kraken in April.

OKX also made a significant move. In March 2026, ICE, the parent company of NYSE, announced a $25 billion strategic investment in OKX, centered around a “unified matching engine” ecosystem, placing NYSE-associated tokenized equities at its core. This marks a traditional exchange operator's first investment in a top-tier crypto platform for this purpose, securing a board seat.

The remaining players are also making moves.

Coinbase and Bybit are discussing a collaboration on tokenization, custody, and the distribution of U.S. public and Pre-IPO stock. Bitget and Ondo Finance have partnered to list over 100 tokenized U.S. stocks, with spot volumes surpassing $1 billion in January 2026. On the underlying issuance engine front, Backed Finance's xStocks currently cover approximately 100 assets, with a target of over 500 by the end of 2026, and total trading volume exceeding $25 billion as of March this year. On-chain, trading of tokenized stock derivatives hit a single-day record of $3.57 billion on May 18th, primarily driven by Binance and Hyperliquid.

Of note, this convergence is not unidirectional from crypto to stocks. Traditional institutions are also moving onto the blockchain. BlackRock has already tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds into blockchain-wrapped products, while the NYSE and Nasdaq have announced plans to incorporate tokenization technology into their ecosystems.

These two rivers are flowing towards each other, and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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