Aave on Base lets eligible non-US investors borrow USDC against seven tokenized US stocks

“Borrow against your tokenized stocks”

Base used its official account on 23 October to put stock-backed loans in front of its followers: with Aave, eligible investors can use tokenized stocks as collateral and borrow USDC. A second post in the thread drew the comparison with traditional finance, where loans against shares are arranged by brokers and private banks, and said Aave borrowers deposit tokenized stocks and borrow USDC on Base.

The market behind the posts is Aave’s Equities Hub, which opened on Aave V4 on Base in September. Base’s own case study describes it as a way for eligible investors outside the US to raise USDC against Coinbase tokenized stocks without selling the shares.

Seven stocks, one USDC pool

Aave’s launch announcement lists seven accepted tokens: AAPLc, AMZNc, GOOGLc, METAc, MSFTc, NVDAc and TSLAc. The hub has a single USDC reserve and one lending market that pools the collateral, so a borrower can combine any of the seven in one position. Each token carries its own collateral factor, which caps how much USDC it can support.

The shares are collateral only. Borrowing the stock tokens, or opening equity-against-equity positions, is not enabled at launch. Chainlink supplies the price data as Coinbase’s official oracle solution.

What sits behind each token

Aave describes each token as a certificate issued by Coinbase Onchain SPV Ltd. The underlying shares are held by Alpaca Securities, an SEC-registered broker-dealer, in segregated custody accounts, with the issuer holding them in trust for token holders. Dividends are reinvested rather than paid out, so a token tracks total return and can drift above the plain share price over time.

Weekends and stock splits

The Aave market itself never closes: supplying, borrowing, repaying and withdrawing work at any hour. The exception is a corporate action such as a stock split, when the affected reserve pauses until the token is updated. Chainlink’s equity prices run from Sunday 20:00 to Friday 20:00 US Eastern time. Over weekends and US market holidays the last price is held, so collateral values stay flat and a loan’s health factor can only slip through accrued interest.

Who can use it, and what comes next

Coinbase tokenized stocks are offered only to eligible non-US persons in permitted jurisdictions, and not in the United States. Neither Aave nor Base lists the qualifying countries on these pages, so eligibility is worth checking before relying on the market.

Liquidity matters for a lender: if a loan becomes undercollateralised, liquidators must be able to sell the pledged tokens. Base notes the tokens already trade on onchain exchanges such as Aerodrome, and Aave says limits will be revisited as supply and trading depth grow. More tokenized stocks, plus GHO as a borrowable asset, are expected over time, each subject to governance and risk review.