In the end, Binance decided to enter the US stock market

Author: Zhou, ChainCatcher

On June 1, Binance officially announced the launch of U.S. stock trading services.

A few days earlier, Binance's official account released a teaser image of a "haystack," announcing the launch of a new product on June 1. This image quickly sparked a lot of speculation in the community, with many linking "haystack" phonetically to "Hey Stock," directing attention towards U.S. stocks.

Subsequently, GitHub user YukiCoco conducted a decompilation analysis of Binance Android version 3.15.7, uncovering a wealth of stock-related functional paths and copy from the code level, which helped shape the market's judgment on the product direction.

After the news spread, the price of BNB reacted quickly, briefly breaking through $700.

Now that the announcement has been made, Binance officially declares its entry with the phrase "For real."

TradFi U.S. Stock Business Layout

According to the official announcement, users can directly buy and sell U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs on Binance's spot trading tab, with over 7,000 underlying assets, covering blue-chip stocks, ETFs, and small-cap stocks. Fractional share purchases are supported, starting at a minimum of $5, with zero commission, and dividends automatically credited to accounts.

The settlement currency is primarily USDC, with USDT and BNB also supported. Brokerage trading support is provided by Nest Trading, while Alpaca is responsible for custody, dividend distribution, and corporate action processing.

In addition, the Full Payment Securities Lending (FPSL) service will officially open on June 4, allowing users to lend qualified securities they fully own to short sellers, arbitrageurs, or market-making institutions to earn additional income, a common value-added service in traditional financial markets.

Trading sessions are divided into three segments: regular trading hours follow U.S. stock market opening, extended trading hours cover pre-market and after-hours, and some underlying assets support 24-hour trading including overnight sessions, overall spanning five days a week, rather than the expected 7*24.

In terms of tokenization, bStocks will be launched in the coming weeks, allowing users to convert real stock holdings 1:1 into on-chain tokens, circulating on the BNB Chain.

The official statement clearly points out that bStocks holders do not directly hold the related stocks or ETF equity. Previously, Binance had launched on-chain tokenized assets tracking U.S. stocks and ETFs like Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia through a partnership with Ondo Finance.

Moreover, according to the decompilation report, Binance has also laid out two tracks for tokenized securities and contract account stock derivatives in the Alpha zone, umbrella-branded as TradFi, targeting different jurisdictions and user needs. However, the above content has not yet been officially confirmed.

In fact, as early as 2021, Binance briefly launched stock tokens for Tesla and Apple, which were delisted three months later under regulatory pressure in multiple countries.

The biggest difference between these two attempts lies in the underlying structure. The 2021 version lacked any compliant custody support, while this time, it is reported that Alpaca Securities, as a licensed broker, genuinely holds the stocks, with the issuing entity regulated by FINRA and SIPC.

It is reported that Alpaca has been laying out in this track for a long time, and by December 2025, it is expected to hold about 94% market share in the tokenized U.S. stock market, with custody assets of approximately $480 million. Mainstream projects like Ondo, xStocks, and Kraken are following the same custody path.

Changes in the regulatory environment are also an important background. The SEC has clearly stated this year its support for the issuance of tokenized stocks, and Nasdaq's pilot proposal for tokenized securities has passed SEC approval. The parent company of the NYSE, ICE, has also announced the construction of a tokenized trading platform, with traditional financial systems actively moving towards on-chain.

Will U.S. Stock Business Drain Liquidity from Altcoins?

Last weekend, discussions around the impact of U.S. stock trading on altcoins became a focal point in the market.

One viewpoint suggests that users on the same platform can directly buy and sell Nvidia and Apple with stablecoins, which, compared to high-risk altcoins, offers better certainty in returns for quality U.S. stock targets. The entry of leading exchanges into the tokenized U.S. stock track may lead to a further decline in the value and liquidity of non-leading assets in the crypto space.

Chen JianJason also pointed out that this poses a clear negative for many altcoin projects, but it could also be the last performance opportunity for some projects.

There are also views that suggest Binance's move is less about proactive expansion and more about retaining existing liquidity on the platform to prevent funds from flowing to other channels. Under this logic, the current market's expectation of this as a huge benefit and the subsequent frenzy to buy BNB is something to be cautious about.

If a large amount of crypto funds ultimately flows into U.S. stocks, the liquidity of crypto assets on the platform will continue to shrink, and the valuation logic of BNB may need to be questioned.

Phyrex offers another perspective. He believes that users who play with altcoins are pursuing asymmetric returns of 10x or 100x, which U.S. stock spot trading cannot provide. The key is not that U.S. stocks completely replace altcoins, but that the overall liquidity in the crypto space is currently at a low level. Once overall liquidity returns, altcoins will naturally regain attention.

Regulation and Taxation: The Cost of Compliance

According to the decompilation report, Binance has dispersed the regulatory registration locations of different businesses across multiple jurisdictions such as Abu Dhabi and South Africa, reflecting a strategy to mitigate legal risks.

Analysis indicates that while Alpaca provides genuine custody, the legal attributes of on-chain bStocks tokens are closer to debt or derivatives. The product includes features like free minting, perpetual contracts, and DeFi collateral, which may be viewed by regulators as unregistered securities, and related risks need to be continuously monitored.

At the same time, compliance not only promotes product implementation but also opens the door for tax authorities to intervene.

The U.S. IRS has required crypto brokers to mandatorily report customer transaction data starting in 2026, with crypto gains taxed at capital gains rates. The EU DAC8 directive requires crypto platforms to report user information to tax authorities starting this year, with some member countries having tax rates as high as 52%. Japan classifies crypto gains as miscellaneous income, with a maximum tax rate of 55%.

In contrast, Singapore and Hong Kong currently do not tax individual crypto capital gains, remaining Asia's low-tax compliance hubs.

However, the regulatory trend is clear. Statistics show that about 60% of major tax authorities worldwide have established or are in the process of establishing formal reporting frameworks for crypto transactions. Starting January 2026, 48 countries will begin collecting transaction data according to the OECD's Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) in preparation for cross-border tax information sharing.

This means that the tax compliance obligations for individual cross-border crypto transactions will significantly increase in the future, and the previously relied-upon anonymity for tax evasion is gradually narrowing.

Overall, Binance's entry into the U.S. stock business represents a compliance layout through collaboration with licensed institutions. For investors, this provides new asset allocation options, and the combination of quality U.S. stocks with crypto wallets significantly lowers the threshold for cross-border investment.

For exchanges, in the context of the narrative around crypto-native assets gradually fading and liquidity continuing to shrink, leading exchanges need new growth stories to maintain platform valuation and market position. Accessing the massive U.S. stock market is currently the most straightforward and persuasive answer.

However, this step forward will accelerate the dissolution of the boundaries between the crypto industry and traditional finance, bringing with it more regulatory scrutiny, more transparent data, and higher compliance costs.