Some tokenized stock products, however, provide only economic exposure to an underlying share rather than legal ownership. That can leave investors dependent on intermediaries and create uncertainty over voting, dividends and claims to assets if an issuer or SPV fails.
Tokenization of real-world assets has accelerated as banks, asset managers and crypto firms experiment with putting stocks, bonds, funds and other traditional assets on blockchain rails. Tokenized equities have emerged as a particularly active area, fueled by demand for easier, round-the-clock access to U.S. stocks worldwide.
The global market for tokenized equities has grown to roughly $2 billion, from less than $500 million at the end of the first quarter, though it remains a rounding error compared with the more than $100 trillion traditional equities market.
Fairmint provides onchain infrastructure for issuing, managing and recording securities, acting as an SEC-registered transfer agent with the blockchain serving as the authoritative shareholder record.
Bullish, CoinDesk’s parent company, agreed in May to acquire transfer agent Equiniti for $4.2 billion to add those sorts of capabilities to its digital asset exchange.
Tokenized stocks meet global demand
Demand is real, particularly from investors outside the U.S. seeking exposure to American equities, Delanoue said.
“People underestimated the demand across the world to effectively own a piece of a U.S. company, and even more so the Magnificent Seven stocks that anyone in Asia or Europe would love to have in their portfolio,” he said.
