Base’s 24/7 stock market offers three-digit APRs for liquidity providers
Tokenized US equities on Coinbase's layer 2 are generating triple-digit yields for DeFi liquidity providers through Aerodrome emissions, with over $103 million in early trading volume.
Liquidity providers on Aerodrome, the dominant decentralized exchange on Base, are pulling in three-digit APRs on USDC-paired tokenized stock pools, confirmed by Base lead Jesse Pollak on September 22.
From Wall Street hours to DeFi yields
The tokenized stocks, designated with a “c” suffix (NVDAc for Nvidia, AAPLc for Apple, along with Meta), are represented as B20 tokens. Each token is backed 1:1 by actual shares held in regulated custody, which is the crucial detail that separates this from the many “synthetic stock” experiments that have come and gone in crypto.
Non-US users can now trade these equities at any hour, on any day, with full DeFi composability baked in. That means the tokens aren’t just sitting in a wallet waiting to be sold. They can be lent, borrowed against, used as collateral, and plugged into automated strategies.
When the tokenized stock pools first went live on Aerodrome in late August, emissions APRs ranged from roughly 29.6% to 49.5% for pairs like NVDA/USDC and AAPL/USDC. The NVDA/USDC pair alone recorded over $11.2 million in 24-hour transaction volume. Across four liquidity pools, Aerodrome processed approximately $103 million in trading volume shortly after the rollout. As volume climbed, AERO token emissions combined with trading fees pushed yields well past the triple-digit mark.
How the yield machine works
The three-digit APRs are driven primarily by AERO emissions, which are the native token incentives that Aerodrome distributes to liquidity providers in targeted pools.
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Supporting infrastructure has also materialized quickly. Revert.finance offers features like staking, auto-compounding, and collateralized borrowing against tokenized positions.
The concentrated liquidity model on Aerodrome means providers can set tight price ranges around current stock prices, capturing more fees per dollar deployed.
The bigger picture for tokenized equities
Previous attempts at bringing stocks on-chain, from Mirror Protocol on Terra to various synthetic asset platforms, either collapsed with their underlying chains or ran into regulatory brick walls. The B20 token model sidesteps the synthetic approach entirely by tethering each token to a real, custodied share.
The restriction to non-US users is a regulatory concession, but it opens a massive addressable market. Global investors who previously needed brokerage accounts with US-facing institutions can now access Nvidia and Apple exposure through a crypto wallet, with settlement that takes seconds instead of two business days.
The $103 million in early trading volume suggests genuine demand rather than just yield farmers chasing emissions. When people are actively trading the underlying pairs at meaningful scale, the fee revenue supplements token emissions and creates a more sustainable yield foundation.