Coinbase is rolling out decentralized trading functionalities to the vast majority of its users in the United States, expanding the availability of one of its core new product offerings.
On October 8th, the company announced that its decentralized exchange (DEX) is now integrated within the primary Coinbase application for most users nationwide. New York residents are excluded due to existing state regulations.
The newly incorporated interface enables traders to access tokens shortly after their release, providing opportunities to invest in nascent digital assets well before they become available on more traditional centralized exchanges. The feature is powered by Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer-2 solution, with plans to incorporate further chains and broaden its geographic availability in the future.
Currently, users of the application have the ability to trade Base-native assets from various projects, including Virtuals AI Agents, Reserve Protocol DTFs, Soso Value Indices, Auki Labs, and Super Champs. Coinbase has integrated liquidity protocols from 1inch and 0x, facilitating non-custodial token swaps where users retain complete control of their digital wallets.
Funding for trades can originate from existing Coinbase account balances or through USDC. In lieu of direct gas fees, the company imposes a “small, transparent” fee on each trade.
This launch follows a limited trial period in August involving select users, and signals the exchange’s full entry into the on-chain trading space, targeted at its mainstream user base.
CEXs roll out DEXs
The introduction of Coinbase’s DEX coincides with a trend of competitors pursuing similar strategies.
Bybit recently introduced Byreal, a Solana-based platform designed to combine the efficiency of centralized exchanges with the transparency of decentralized finance (DeFi).
BitMart and MEXC have both followed suit, launching their own on-chain trading platforms with the aim of keeping users engaged within their ecosystems as liquidity increasingly disperses across different blockchain networks.
These actions are logical considering recent data, which indicates a growing preference among cryptocurrency traders for DEX platforms.
Research conducted by CoinGecko shows that decentralized exchanges now account for around 28.5% of spot trading activity compared to centralized platforms. During the second quarter of 2025, DEX trading volumes increased by over 25%, while centralized exchange volumes experienced a decline of almost 30%.
This resulted in an increase in the DEX-to-CEX volume ratio to 0.23, a significant jump from 0.13 in the previous quarter.
Youngsun Shin, Head of Product at Flipster, commented on this trend:
“The convergence of CeDeFi will occur much sooner than many expect.”
Within this evolving market, crypto traders are increasingly drawn to platforms that provide transparency and allow for self-custody of assets. By integrating a DEX into their primary application, centralized exchanges are striving to bridge this gap, combining the control associated with DeFi with the reliability and speed that users expect from traditional exchanges.