financement out this morning from the Middle East, leading crypto exchange Coinbase has received a license from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Markets to establish an international tokenization hub in Abu Dhabi.
Now this license allows Coinbase to arrange deals and investments and also provide custody in order to facilitate its launch of tokenized securities.
This is also part of Coinbase's expansion plans in the UAE as it brings tokenization.
On markets along with derivatives hubs to Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Well joining us live here at the New York Stock Exchange, fresh off this announcement is John Agostino, head of strategy for Coinbase Institutional and board member for AM.
Well John, great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Always great to be here, Remy.
Thanks for having me.
Well, of course this big announcement that came out earlier this morning.
Tell us about the significance.
This is really exciting.
I've been working on this for a fair amount of time.
And we are now, I think what a wonderful place to announce it here in this sort of cathedral built on the backs of US equities.
And what we've discovered over the last 6 months is that there's this insatiable appetite for US equities around the world, and there's lots and lots of people, several billion in fact, who don't have the ability to open up a brokerage account and buy equities the way you or I could here in the US, so we've seen.
Those numbers grow from about 90 million per day to over $250 million per day.
It's about 3x growth over the last 6 months.
So Coinbase now is launching out of Abu Dhabi the first pure play tokenized equities platform.
So every equity will be purchased, backed 1 to 1, and then a token issued on our base chain that can be traded through the DeFi landscape, and it's pretty extraordinary and it's the first time anybody has done it.
Congratulations and thank you so much for sharing this announcement with us this morning.
But when it comes to tokenized equities, we have been hearing announcements here stateside, especially here at the New York Stock Exchange.
So tell us about how the world's financial markets are coming on chain and what this means as we move forward.
So if you think about how stablecoins have grown, it's an extraordinary way since the Genius Act was passed.
It's a fairly simple thesis.
They took this wonderful asset, US Treasuries, that's safe, stable, secure, credible, good collateral, and they made it easier to work with.
So you can move treasuries now.
Simply and easily through stable coins 24/7 365.
So that's the model.
So there's another incredible gold standard asset which is US equities.
If you think about we have the envy of the world in US equity capital markets, but there's lots and lots of people who can't access it and they're somewhat.
Inefficient in some ways.
The floor closes, the markets close.
If you want to be able to hedge your exposure because an announcement comes out at 1 a.m. on a Friday, you can't do that until 9:30 a.m.
Monday morning.
That's a problem.
And so if we think about the way in which stablecoins unlocked and monetized US Treasuries, I think we're seeing a similar pattern with this tokenization model for US equities.
It makes this wonderful economic asset.
US equities available to anyone around the world 24/7.
Yes, and John, as you mentioned here in the US, we might take what we have here at the New York Stock Exchange for granted, but given some of the volatility we've seen in 2026, we know that markets refuse to sleep when there's a lot happening around the world.
So I do want to get your perspective when it comes to tokenization, what's working, what's not, and for the layperson who's sitting at the airport right now and watching, break it down for us.
Yes, sure.
So it's fairly simple. what's not working. is tokenizing bad assets, right?
So tokenization, putting something on a blockchain doesn't magically improve the quality of the underlying asset.
It doesn't magically create liquidity where none exists.
But if you have an asset that has latent demands, people want to buy it.
You just think about it from the average person.
If you have a bicycle you want to sell before eBay, it was kind of difficult.
You could put flyers up.
You can tell your friends.
Now if you have a bicycle that a lot of people People want a picture of it on eBay or any other social media platform, and everyone around the world can bid on that bicycle.
You've created, you've unlocked latent liquidity for an asset that has real value.
If no one wants your bicycle, putting it on eBay is not going to solve your problem.
We have in this country this extraordinary economic engine that is the envy of the world, which is right here around us, US equity capital markets.
We want the to be able to view this as their saving and investment vehicle, but to do that right now is challenging.
So what tokenization does is make it simpler and easier for anyone with a phone to buy and hold this extraordinary asset.
And the way we're doing it is a lot safer because unlike an instrument that just represents economic value, we will buy the stock.
So every time we mint a token on a share of IBM, there will be a Physical.
There will be a digital share of IBM held in custody in Abu Dhabi with a regulated custodian through Coinbase, and then we have a token that's issued on the base chain that allows for dividends, voting rights, all the same things you would have if you owned the actual equity, but you can do it 24/7 anywhere in the world.
And then the point of view of the market, it opens up tremendous amounts of liquidity through the DeFi landscape.
And John, finally, before I let you go, we've been paying attention to the regulatory landscape here in the US but also overseas.
So what do you think the US can actually learn from ADGM as well as the FSRA?
You know, it's a tough lesson.
It's one that I tell my daughter all the time.
The world keeps moving whether you want to or not.
So really, really good ideas and better technology win over time.
And so Unfortunately we're sort of hemming and hawing and moving from openly hostile to obfuscated regulatory clarity, there's a lot of places in the world, including Abu Dhabi that are seeing that as an opportunity to leapfrog what we're doing and so I really, really do hope that we have looter on September 15th.
I really do hope we move the clarity bill forward because the rest of the world is not waiting.
Well, John, I appreciate your time this morning.
Congratulations on the announcement.
I appreciate you joining us live here at the New York Stock Exchange today.
Thank you so much.
