The ceiling of compliance for US stock trading in the cryptocurrency field of Coinbase I have actually thought about this title for a long time, changed it several times, and even spent less time writing the full text than changing the title. In the end, what I want to convey is why it is said that US stock trading on Coinbase is the ceiling of the cryptocurrency field. From a practical perspective, Coinbase's US stock structure is not complicated. The securities service provider is Coinbase Capital Markets Corp, which is Coinbase's own company and has obtained a broker dealer license in the United States. It is also a member of FINRA and SIPC. The subsequent backend clearing and custody will be provided by another compliant Apex Clearing Corporation, which can be understood as a compliant securities infrastructure company responsible for stock order execution, transaction confirmation, clearing, settlement, and custody. In terms of business essence, Alpaca, which is shared by exchanges such as Binance, is the same. So the overall structure of Coinbase is Coinbase front-end+Coinbase Capital Markets Corp's securities services+Apex Clearing Corporation's custody and clearing. From this perspective, have many friends discovered a commonality? Yes, in the field of cryptocurrency, @ binancezh and @ BIToffician_CN both use this structure. Binance is also the Alpaca that their securities service provider in Dubai connects to, while BIT is the two compliant clearing firms that Bhutan's securities service provider connects to. So since Coinbase, Binance, and BIT all use the same method, why do I say that Coinbase is the ceiling of compliance? Firstly, Coinbase is a publicly traded company in the United States that regularly submits annual and quarterly reports, as well as disclosures of significant events, to the US securities regulatory authorities. Its business structure, risk factors, financial data, and regulatory risks are all publicly documented, and its information transparency is much higher than that of most exchanges. Secondly, Coinbase has been operating in the United States for many years and holds multi state fund transfer licenses. New York State also approved Coinbase's virtual currency license and fund transfer license as early as 2017. This regulatory framework in New York is already relatively strict in the cryptocurrency industry. Thirdly, Coinbase's securities business entity, Coinbase Capital Markets Corp, is a US securities broker and a member of the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Securities execution, clearing, and custody are provided by Apex, which makes the stocks sold by Coinbase accessible to US investors. That is to say, the perfect integration of the US stock market and American investors is something that other exchanges cannot provide. Fourthly, Coinbase has also obtained an EU cryptocurrency market license, which allows it to provide services under the unified regulatory framework of the 27 EU countries. Although there are still European securities firms connecting now, this is not the most difficult, which means that as long as Coinbase is willing, its stock business can also directly serve European investors. This way, both of the world's largest stock investment groups can trade stocks on Coinbase in compliance. Fifthly, and in my personal opinion, the most important thing is that USDC and USD in Coinbase are interchangeable and do not require any conversion. This means that in terms of presentation, Coinbase does not use stablecoins to purchase stocks (the same goes for cryptocurrencies), so there is no need for other ways to act as intermediaries between stocks and stablecoins. Instead, it provides direct trading between stocks and USD. So from the above five points, it can be seen that both Coinbase Binance and BIT can be structured as "platform+brokerage+clearing custody". However, Coinbase's compliance is not only based on its connection with US securities firms, but also on its mechanism and compliance, which is more in line with the needs of US and American users. The final conclusion is that Coinbase is more like opening a US securities account on an exchange, while for other exchanges, it depends on whether it is Fully Closed, Omnibus, or OmniSub to determine which model to follow. This is the reason why Coinbase's stock trading is currently facing a compliance ceiling. But this ceiling is not reflected in the actual trading level of users. For users, as long as they are on a compliant exchange, the stocks they buy are the same, with equity and transferable stocks, and the liquidity is also the same. The purchase price will not have any difference. (Of course, the handling fees will definitely be different)