Coinbase has rolled out support for ACATS, the industry-standard system used to transfer stock portfolios between brokerage accounts. U.S. users can now bring their stocks and other securities into the exchange, a move that directly challenges traditional brokerages like Robinhood.
How ACATS works
ACATS stands for Automated Customer Account Transfer Service. It's a centralized system that handles the movement of assets from one brokerage to another without requiring customers to sell their holdings and rebuy. The process typically takes three to six business days. Users initiate the transfer from the receiving brokerage — in this case, Coinbase — by providing details about their existing account. The sending brokerage then verifies and moves the assets over.
Expanding beyond crypto
Coinbase built its name on cryptocurrency trading, but the company has been steadily adding traditional financial services. The ACATS integration means customers can now manage crypto and stocks in one place. That's a model Robinhood popularized, but Coinbase is coming at it from the opposite direction — starting with crypto and adding stocks, rather than the other way around. For users, the benefit is convenience: no more separate logins and accounts for different asset classes.
Competing with Robinhood and others
Robinhood has long offered both stock and crypto trading, and it recently expanded its crypto offerings. With ACATS support, Coinbase can now offer a similar one-stop experience. The feature could help Coinbase attract users who hold stocks elsewhere but want to try crypto, or retain existing crypto users who also trade stocks. The company hasn't said whether it charges a fee for incoming transfers, but ACATS transfers are generally free at most brokerages. ACATS is used by virtually all major U.S. brokerages, including Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and E*Trade. By adopting the system, Coinbase is signaling that it wants to be taken seriously as a full-service financial platform.
The feature is live for U.S. users now. Coinbase hasn't announced plans to expand ACATS to other countries or to add other asset types like options or bonds. For now, the focus is on making it easier for American customers to consolidate their investments on a single platform — a step that puts it in more direct competition with the brokerages it once set out to disrupt.
