Binance Expands into Financial Super App, Integrating Stocks, ETFs, and Commodities Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2017, is rapidly evolving into a financial "super app" that unifies trading, payments, savings, and investment tools under one platform. Initially focused on providing traders with deep liquidity, fast execution, and simple onboarding, the company has expanded its offerings to include over 7,000 U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), alongside commodities, pre-IPO perpetuals, and tokenized securities. This shift reflects a broader trend in the financial industry, where users increasingly demand seamless access to diverse assets through a single interface. The integration of traditional financial products with crypto services is central to Binance’s strategy. Users can now buy and sell stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies within the same account, with transactions settled in stablecoins or BNB. This eliminates the need for separate platforms, brokerage accounts, or cross-border banking intermediaries. For example, Binance’s bStocks product mirrors select U.S. shares on a one-to-one basis, allowing users to trade tokenized securities around the clock. These positions can be moved off-platform into personal wallets or integrated into on-chain applications, further blurring the lines between traditional and decentralized finance. Emerging markets are at the forefront of this transformation. In the first week of direct stock trading on Binance, over 80% of trading volume came from users in emerging economies, and nearly 93% of stock-trading users are based in these regions. This trend is driven by structural demand for global exposure, which has long existed in markets like India but was previously constrained by high entry barriers.#commodities #us_stocks #binance #etfs #binance_research
Fully Paid Securities Lending in Crypto: A Bridge Between Traditional Finance and Digital Assets Fully Paid Securities Lending (FPSL), often abbreviated as FPSL, represents a traditional stock-lending mechanism that has recently gained traction within crypto-native investing platforms. Unlike staking cryptocurrencies, lending Ethereum, or contributing stablecoins to decentralized finance (DeFi) pools, FPSL involves lending fully paid securities—such as stocks or exchange-traded funds (ETFs)—that a user already owns through a broker-linked account. This structure is now being integrated into platforms that primarily cater to digital assets, offering users a way to generate yield from their stock holdings within a crypto-style interface. The emergence of FPSL in the crypto space is driven by the evolving user experience on these platforms. Exchanges and apps that initially focused on digital assets are now expanding their offerings to include U.S. stocks, ETFs, stablecoin-funded trading, tokenized securities, and real-world asset products. In this context, FPSL functions as a yield-generating feature tied to stock holdings. Users can purchase eligible securities using supported balances, hold them alongside crypto assets, and opt into lending if the feature is available in their region. However, the income generated through FPSL is not derived from blockchain protocols but rather from market participants who pay to borrow securities for purposes such as short selling, market making, hedging, arbitrage, or settlement needs. FPSL operates under a framework where investors grant brokers or platforms permission to lend out securities they fully own. “Fully paid” means the securities are not financed through margin loans, ensuring the user retains outright ownership.#us_stocks #binance #fully_paid_securities_lending #alpaca_securities #etfs
