In the past, buying US stocks had a really high threshold:
For NVDA, one lot is 100 shares, requiring a starting investment of $14,000.
Hong Kong stock IPOs are T+2, with funds frozen for a week.
The various platform fees are a mess; although Robinhood, Snowball, and Futu are cheap, there are many restrictions.
Now Binance Wallet has launched the "On-chain Stocks" section:
USDT can be bought and settled instantly, with 0 fees.
Supports fractional share trading, allowing entry for just $1.
Currently, Binance Wallet's token stocks support two protocols: Ondo's oracle pricing model and Xstock's liquidity pool model.
Although what you buy is a token certificate and not the actual stock, for many who just want to participate at a low threshold, this experience is already quite sufficient.