[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee (이윤서)] Binance has started offering trading services for about 7,000 types of U.S.-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) outside the United States.

On June 2, CoinPost, a blockchain media outlet, reported that users can manage cryptocurrencies and stocks together with a single existing Binance account. Users can buy fractional shares from as little as $5.

The service is offered to regions and countries outside the United States. Trading is available 24 hours a day, five days a week. Users can pay with supported stablecoins such as USDC and USDT, and with Binance Coin (BNB). Binance said it was designed with both crypto-focused users starting stock trading and stock investors seeking a more integrated global investment environment in mind.

Binance also disclosed the same day that it will launch a tokenised stock product called bStocks within weeks. The product is structured to convert equity stakes in stocks held on Binance into on-chain assets. Details will be announced at launch.

However, bStocks does not provide the same rights as ordinary shares. Binance specified that bStocks is not the stock itself and does not grant holders the right to directly own the underlying shares. Its legal nature is also classified as a security. The product is expected to operate within a framework supervised by Abu Dhabi financial regulators.

Binance also cited decentralised finance (DeFi) as a use case for bStocks. The company is also considering ways to use the product for lending or liquidity provision. It is an attempt to convert equity stakes into on-chain assets and then connect them to crypto services.

The move also sits on an extension of Binance's existing product expansion. Binance has provided exposure to gold, petrochemical products and unlisted stocks through crypto derivatives. This time, it has expanded the scope to include spot stock trading, broadening the composition of investment assets within accounts.

On the regulatory front, it also has the character of a re-entry. Binance introduced stock token products in 2021 but later halted the service after being flagged by regulators. This time, it is structured to offer related products again under the Abu Dhabi Global Market regulatory framework.

Market attention is expected to split in two. One is how much Binance will expand its overseas user base by bundling U.S. stock trading into crypto trading accounts. The other is whether bStocks can link DeFi use even within the securities regulatory framework. Binance is expanding the intersection of the two markets, after highlighting an environment to manage stocks and cryptocurrencies together and planning to unveil tokenised securities within weeks.