Recently, the tokenized U.S. stock sector has been gaining significant traction. The entry of FinTech and crypto giants like Robinhood and Kraken signals a market transition from a technology-driven "issuance" phase to a market-driven "distribution" phase. User acquisition and liquidity aggregation will be the critical factors determining future success.

Our core thesis is that in this massive, multi-trillion-dollar market of stock tokenization, value will ultimately converge at two main levels: first, the dominant L1/L2 networks that serve as the default settlement layers for these assets, and second, the large-scale exchanges (both centralized and decentralized) that can command user traffic.

1. The Trillion-Dollar Opportunity: Why U.S. Stock Tokenization is an Inevitable Direction

1.1 More Than Just Digital Receipts: Redefining Stocks

Stock tokenization, one of the most imaginative branches of the Real-World Asset (RWA) field, involves representing the ownership or related economic rights of a publicly traded company's equity (i.e., stock) in the form of a digital token on a blockchain. Through blockchain technology, this process transforms a financial asset—traditionally limited by jurisdiction, trading hours, and physical settlement—into a globally accessible, 24/7 tradable, and digitally settled instrument.

1.2 From 24/7 Trading to Programmable Finance

The appeal of stock tokenization extends far beyond simply extending traditional trading hours. Its core value lies in leveraging the advantages of blockchain technology to bring revolutionary changes to the traditional equity market:

• Global Accessibility and Market Expansion: It breaks down national borders, allowing anyone from anywhere in the world to easily invest in U.S. stocks.

• Enhanced Liquidity and Fractionalization: Tokenization easily enables fractional ownership of assets, allowing investors to purchase a portion of a stock with any small amount of capital. This lowers the investment barrier and brings greater liquidity to assets that were previously illiquid due to their high unit value.

• DeFi Composability: This is where the most profound value of tokenization lies. Once a stock becomes a native on-chain asset, it can be seamlessly integrated with existing DeFi protocols. Tokenized stocks can be used as collateral to borrow stablecoins in lending protocols like Aave, paired with stablecoins to provide liquidity and earn trading fees in automated market makers (AMMs) like Uniswap or Jupiter, and used as building blocks for creating index funds, structured products, and derivatives.

• Efficiency and Transparency: Trade settlement is reduced from days (T+2) to seconds, and all records are public and transparent, lowering risks and costs.

2. Player Analysis: Who Will Dominate This Trillion-Dollar Game?

2.1 Issuers

2.1.1 Backed Finance (xStocks)

Backed Finance's xStocks product represents a B2B2C model with crypto exchanges as the core distribution channel. Its strategic focus is to leverage the vast user bases of its partners to achieve rapid market penetration and liquidity accumulation.

• Company Status and Market Performance: Backed offers over 60 tokenized stocks through its xStocks product, including SPY (S&P 500 ETF), TSLA (Tesla), CRCL (Circle), MSTR (MicroStrategy), and NVDA (Nvidia). Within just a few days of launch, it generated over $1 million in trading volume. Blue-chip stocks like AAPL (Apple), GOOGL (Google), QQQ (Nasdaq 100 ETF), META (Meta), and AMZN (Amazon) also saw significant user trading activity.

• Market Entry Strategy: The Catalyst Effect of Kraken and Bybit: After announcing support from top-tier exchanges Bybit and Kraken, xStocks' trading volume exploded. Data shows a sharp increase in xStocks trading volume for two consecutive days, with the transaction value reaching $6.6 million on July 1st alone, involving over 6,500 users and more than 17,800 transactions. Kraken has begun offering xStocks services to eligible clients in over 185 countries (excluding the U.S.), further expanding its global reach.

• Issuance and Custody Architecture:

• Liquidity Strategy:

• DeFi Ecosystem Strategy:

2.1.2 Dinari

Unlike Backed Finance's exchange-led model, Dinari has chosen a more difficult but potentially more valuable long-term path: seeking compliance in the U.S. and focusing on an API-first B2B model, aiming to become the compliant infrastructure layer connecting traditional finance with the on-chain world.

• Company Profile and Regulatory Moat: Dinari's core strategic differentiator is its successful registration as a U.S. broker-dealer, making it the first platform specializing in tokenized stocks to obtain this license. Additionally, Dinari is a transfer agent registered with the U.S. SEC. This positions Dinari as the preferred partner for any FinTech company, neobank, or exchange wishing to offer tokenized stock services compliantly within the United States. This regulatory status compels exchanges like Kraken and Gemini to partner with Dinari or a similarly licensed entity if they wish to offer such services to U.S. customers in the future.

• Market Entry Strategy: B2B API-First: Dinari did not build a direct-to-consumer trading platform. Instead, it chose an "API-first" B2B path. The core of its business model is to provide its compliant tokenization infrastructure via API to other businesses, such as FinTech apps, neobanks, and crypto exchanges, enabling these partners to offer tokenized stock trading to their end-users on their own platforms. For example, Dinari partnered with the crypto exchange Gemini to offer dShares trading to European customers. Meanwhile, its collaboration with institutional-grade digital asset custodian BitGo provides a unified, regulated custody and settlement solution, significantly reducing integration complexity and risk for institutional clients.

• Issuance and Custody Architecture:

• Liquidity Strategy:

• DeFi Ecosystem Participation:

2.1.3 Swarm Markets (s-Tokens)

Swarm Markets represents a third major model in the tokenized stock market. It has built a self-sufficient, compliant ecosystem focused on the European market. Its core feature is the issuance of tokenized securities based on a prospectus and with an ISIN code, designed to seamlessly bridge traditional and decentralized finance.

• Company Status and Features: Swarm's tokenized stocks (s-Tokens) are issued by SwarmX GmbH, an SPV incorporated in Germany under Swarm Capital GmbH. Its entire operational framework is regulated by the Liechtenstein Blockchain Act and supervised by the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority (FMA). This framework allows Swarm to apply for and obtain an International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) for its tokenized securities. The ISIN is the global standard used in traditional finance to identify specific securities. By assigning ISINs to s-Tokens, Swarm has created a digital asset that can be recognized, understood, and processed by the back-office systems of traditional financial institutions.

• Product Overview: Swarm offers a range of tokenized assets, such as MicroStrategy (sMSTR), Coinbase (sCOIN), and Tesla (sTSLA), as well as fixed-income products like U.S. Treasury ETFs. Unlike models that rely on external exchanges, Swarm has built its own trading platform. The platform is a compliant decentralized exchange (DEX) based on an automated market maker (AMM) model. To ensure compliance, all users wishing to trade on the Swarm platform must complete a KYC process and obtain a "passport" linked to their self-custodied wallet.

• Issuance and Custody Architecture:

• Liquidity and DeFi Integration:

2.1.4 Securitize

Securitize is a full-stack, regulated infrastructure provider whose core business is to empower other companies to conduct compliant primary securities offerings.

• Company Profile: Full-Stack Infrastructure Provider: Securitize provides end-to-end solutions for companies wishing to tokenize their own equity, fund shares, or other private securities. Securitize's platform integrates both technological and compliance capabilities. It not only offers a tokenization technology platform, but its subsidiaries also hold several key U.S. regulatory licenses, including an SEC-registered transfer agent, an SEC and FINRA-registered broker-dealer, and an Alternative Trading System (ATS). This "one-stop-shop" capability has enabled it to partner with top financial institutions like BlackRock, KKR, and Apollo to issue and manage their tokenized funds.

• Core Technology: Digital Securities (DS) Protocol:

• Regulatory Leadership and Vision:

2.2 Distribution-Led Giants

2.2.1 Robinhood

• Model: A giant in the Web2 FinTech space, bringing its tens of millions of users into the tokenization field, initially launching services for the European market.

• Technology: Initially chose to issue tokens on Arbitrum, but its long-term strategy is to build its own L2 network based on the Arbitrum tech stack, specifically for optimizing the trading and management of RWAs. Robinhood has already announced it will build its own Layer-2 blockchain, the "Robinhood Chain," on Arbitrum technology. The ultimate goal is to enable 24/7 trading when the Robinhood Chain goes live, directly challenging the deep liquidity and centralized activity that gives a competitive edge to major traditional financial exchanges like the NYSE.

• Product: Robinhood offers European users over 200 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, with plans to expand to 2,000 by the end of the year. The most critical strategic shift is Robinhood's announcement of a new system where users can trade stocks through the Robinhood app as usual, while a new "token engine" running on the blockchain provides tokenized derivatives of their assets. Users can transfer these tokens to anyone with an on-chain wallet (at least whitelisted ones), interact with other on-chain applications, and self-custody these tokens in their own wallets. This means users can eventually move assets to external wallets, opening the door for DeFi integration. Furthermore, its plans to offer tokenization of private company stocks like OpenAI and SpaceX signal a new market direction.

2.2.2 Kraken (via xStocks)

• Model: A top-tier centralized exchange (CEX) that chose to partner with ecosystem players to jointly launch a tokenized stock brand called xStocks.

• Partners: The success of xStocks lies in its creation of a powerful ecosystem alliance. This alliance includes: an issuer (Backed Finance), exchanges (Kraken, Bybit), a base layer public chain (Solana), decentralized exchanges (Raydium, Jupiter), a lending protocol (Kamino), an oracle (Chainlink), and a brokerage (Alpaca).

• Product: xStocks officially launched on the Solana chain as SPL tokens on June 30, offering tokenized versions of about 60 U.S. stocks and ETFs with 24/5 trading. These tokens can be withdrawn to self-custody wallets and used as collateral in DeFi protocols like Kamino, achieving true on-chain utility.

2.3 Emerging RWA & DeFi Challengers

2.3.1 Ondo Finance

• Model: As a leader in the tokenized U.S. Treasury space (with its widely recognized OUSG and USDY products), Ondo plans to enter the stock tokenization arena through its "Ondo Global Markets" platform.

• Strategy: Ondo plans to offer 24/7 stock trading for non-U.S. users and allow its tokenized stocks to be used as collateral in DeFi protocols. Ondo has also spearheaded the formation of the "Global Markets Alliance," with members including the Solana Foundation, BitGo, Jupiter, and other key ecosystem players, aiming to jointly establish industry standards for RWAs.

• Significance: Ondo has proven execution capabilities and a strong brand reputation in the RWA space. Its entry into the stock market, supported by a powerful ecosystem alliance, makes it a formidable competitor that cannot be ignored.

2.3.2 Superstate

• Model: Founded by Robert Leshner, the creator of the DeFi lending protocol Compound, Superstate focuses on building institutional-grade tokenized investment products.

• Strategy: Superstate's approach places greater emphasis on the compliance and professionalization of the underlying infrastructure. It has not only launched a tokenized fund but has also successfully registered as a Transfer Agent, a crucial component for the compliant issuance of securities. Its latest platform, "Opening Bell," aims to support SEC-registered public companies in directly issuing their native stock on-chain (with a preference for Solana).

3. A Data Perspective: Finding Signals in the Data

To objectively assess the current state of the tokenized stock market, an in-depth analysis of on-chain data is essential. This section will use information from data platforms like RWA.xyz to quantitatively deconstruct the market size, asset composition, issuers, and network distribution, revealing the true picture behind the data.

3.1 Overall Market Size and Composition

According to data from RWA.xyz, as of early July 2025, the total market capitalization of tokenized stocks was approximately $392 million. However, this total figure is highly misleading and requires a breakdown to understand its true composition.

Top 10 Assets in the Tokenized Stock Market

The chart above clearly reveals the market's extreme concentration and structural issues:

• Exodus's Overwhelming Dominance: The tokenized value of a single stock, Exodus (EXOD), accounts for nearly 76% of the total market capitalization (approximately $260 million). However, the EXOD token is not tradable or transferable on-chain, making its existence more symbolic.

• The Scale of the Truly Tradable Market: After excluding non-transferable tokens issued by EXOD and Dinari, the market for truly DeFi-composable, freely tradable stock tokens on-chain is only in the tens of millions of dollars. Among these, the bCSPX (tracking the S&P 500 ETF) and bCOIN (Coinbase stock) issued by Backed Finance are the most liquid assets.

3.2 Issuer and Network Dominance

Different issuance strategies and public chain choices have shaped the current market share distribution.

Tokenized Stock Market Issuer Share

• By total value, Securitize is the largest RWA issuer, thanks to its success in the tokenized Treasury space (e.g., as the issuance platform for BlackRock's BUIDL fund). However, in the stock sector, its value comes primarily from the single EXOD token.

• Backed Finance dominates the tradable stock token space, with its asset variety and on-chain activity far surpassing competitors.

• Although Dinari supports the most stock types (over 100), its closed model and lack of composability result in extremely low market caps for individual assets and a very small overall scale.

Tokenized Asset Value (by Blockchain Network, excluding Stablecoins)

• Ethereum remains the absolute center for RWAs, holding the largest asset value.

• Algorand is temporarily leading in tokenized stock value due to the single EXOD project.

• Arbitrum and Base (as Ethereum L2s) are the main venues for DeFi-native stock tokens (from Backed and Dinari).

• Solana's current data does not yet fully reflect the impact of xStocks, but given xStocks' strong partner ecosystem, its share in this sector is expected to grow rapidly.

4. The Endgame: Liquidity is King and Value Capture

4.1 The Path to Liquidity: Distribution is King

Technology and compliance are necessary conditions for launching the stock tokenization market, but they are by no means sufficient. The bottleneck that determines success is liquidity. For an asset class like tokenized stocks, a market without liquidity is useless. Therefore, the future market landscape will most likely be determined by distribution channels. Large CEXs (like Kraken, Bybit, Coinbase) and FinTech brokerages with massive user bases (like Robinhood) are the most powerful contenders to solve the cold-start problem of liquidity. The market may not end up as a fragmented landscape of numerous small issuers but will consolidate around a few large distribution platforms. These platforms will partner with various compliant issuers and become the core hubs connecting assets with users.

4.2 The Future of Trading: From 24/7 Access to Programmable Finance

The evolution of tokenized stocks will occur in two stages:

• Phase One: Popularization. Initial market adoption will be driven by the simplest and most direct value proposition—providing global investors with a 24/7, low-barrier, and highly efficient channel for trading U.S. stocks. This is the core selling point to attract the first wave of users.

• Phase Two: Transformation. The truly disruptive transformation will occur after DeFi protocols begin to integrate tokenized stocks as high-quality collateral on a large scale. Stocks will transform from a static store of value into an efficient, programmable, and productive form of capital. This will completely change how capital markets operate and unleash enormous potential for innovation.

The stock tokenization market is at a historic crossroads. It is rapidly moving from an experimental phase, full of symbolic meaning and conducted by a few pioneers, to a scaling phase dominated by industry giants, with a focus on distribution and utility. Although the path from being a novelty with a market cap of a few hundred million dollars to becoming a multi-trillion-dollar behemoth will inevitably be filled with regulatory negotiations and technological challenges, its fundamental value proposition—creating a more efficient, open, and inclusive global equity market—is undeniable.