Can tokenized stocks on Wall Street continue the epic legend of stablecoins?

In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company invented stocks; over 400 years later, tokenization has brought about Stock 2.0.

On June 30, the well-known American online brokerage Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) announced the launch of Robinhood Stock Tokens, allowing EU customers to trade US stocks and ETFs on the blockchain. On the same day, the tokenized stock product xStocks launched by Swiss financial instrument issuer Backed went live on the crypto trading platforms Kraken and Bybit.

According to PANews, eight crypto institutions have announced their entry into the tokenized stock market, utilizing different technological routes (Arbitrum, Solana, Base, Ondo Chain) and custody solutions (self-custody, xStocks, BitGo, etc.) to meet global investors' diverse needs for flexible trading, on-chain transfer, and compliance assurance, becoming an important landing scenario for RWA (Real World Assets).

How big will the market cake of tokenized stocks be? Will it become the next prominent track for RWA (Real World Assets) after stablecoins?

Robinhood: Broker and Trading Platform, Plans to Launch Its Own L2

As an online brokerage, Robinhood launched BTC and ETH trading on its platform as early as 2018. Since then, Robinhood has temporarily suspended crypto trading multiple times due to significant price volatility and other issues, and has faced scrutiny and fines from the SEC, but has never stopped exploring its crypto business, including:

• Acquiring the crypto aggregation trading platform Cove Markets in 2021;

• Launching the Web3 wallet Robinhood Wallet in 2022, currently supporting Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base networks;

• Acquiring Canadian crypto operator WonderFi (which has two regulated trading platforms, Bitbuy and Coinsquare) in May 2025;

• Obtaining a brokerage license from the Bank of Lithuania in May 2025, allowing it to provide stock trading and other investment services across the EU, enabling compliance with the EU crypto market regulatory framework MiCA;

• Acquiring the established exchange Bitstamp in June 2024 (which has over 50 licenses in Europe and globally), after which Robinhood will be able to offer crypto derivatives business using Bitstamp's MiFID multilateral trading facility license;

• Announcing the acquisition of the AI investment advisory platform Pluto on July 1, 2025.

According to data released by Robinhood, as of November 2024, the value of crypto assets under its custody was $38 billion, with a nominal trading volume of $119 billion in cryptocurrencies over the past year, achieving coverage across all 50 states and regions in the US, and launching ETH and SOL staking services for US customers.

On June 30, 2025, Robinhood announced the launch of stock tokens for the EU market, allowing customers to trade stock tokens representing over 200 companies, available for trading 24 hours a day, five days a week. These tokens are backed 1:1 by real stocks held by Robinhood and can be freely transferred on-chain, with holders entitled to dividends.

These stock tokens were initially issued on the Arbitrum chain and will later migrate to Robinhood's own Layer 2 blockchain (tentatively named Robinhood Chain).

Additionally, Robinhood allows European customers to trade crypto perpetual futures. Thus, Robinhood has achieved comprehensive coverage of spot, contracts, staking, wallets, RWA, and AI strategy analysis, and will launch its own L2 application chain.

Starlabs Consulting noted that Robinhood has also been advocating for tokenization legislation in the US, having submitted a proposal to the SEC for establishing a national framework for tokenized RWA, and plans to launch a platform called Real World Asset Exchange for off-chain trading and on-chain settlement.

Coinbase: Broker License Obtained, Tokenized Stock Application Pending Approval

On June 17, Reuters reported that the US crypto exchange Coinbase is seeking SEC approval to launch a blockchain-based tokenized stock service. Once approved, Coinbase will directly compete with retail brokerage firms Robinhood and Charles Schwab.

According to Starlabs Consulting, Coinbase obtained a broker-dealer license as early as 2018 but has not yet engaged in actual business.

xStocks: Tokenized Stocks Live on Kraken, Bybit, and Jupiter

xStocks is a tokenized financial product launched by Swiss financial instrument issuer Backed. These products tokenize publicly traded securities (such as stocks), allowing investors to access traditional financial market assets via blockchain, and are regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).

xStocks are issued on the Solana chain and integrated into Solana's DeFi protocols, allowing users to trade not only through decentralized trading platform Jupiter but also through centralized exchanges (such as Kraken and Bybit).

On June 30, Kraken announced that xStocks has gone live on its platform, offering the first batch of 60 tokenized US stock products for non-US customers, available for trading 24 hours a day, five days a week. According to previous reports by The Wall Street Journal, Kraken's tokenized stocks will first launch in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

On the same day, Bybit also announced a strategic partnership with Backed to gradually launch xStocks tokenized US stock and ETF products on its spot platform, supporting 24/7 trading, which better aligns with Web3 users' trading habits. The initial launch includes 10 of the most popular US stocks.

Dinari: First Tokenized Stock Microstrategy Launched on Gemini

On June 27, the crypto exchange Gemini announced a partnership with US tokenized stock provider Dinari to launch a tokenized microstrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) using Dinari's on-demand tokenization model, supporting EU users with plans to expand to US users in the coming months. More tokenized stocks and ETFs will be launched in the future. MSTR is currently launched on the Arbitrum chain and will soon support other networks.

According to Starlabs Consulting, Dinari has raised $22.65 million in funding from VanEck Ventures, Hack VC, F-Prime Capital, Blockchange Ventures, and Balaji Srinivasan. Dinari aims to provide seamless access to over 100 tokenized US stocks and financial assets for global investors through large-scale tokenization of real-world stocks.

Ondo: Launching Tokenized Securities Platform Ondo Global Markets

Focusing on RWA, the decentralized finance protocol Ondo Finance plans to launch Ondo Global Markets, a platform that will tokenize traditional stocks, bonds, and ETFs, allowing global non-US investors to access the US financial market and supporting instant settlement around the clock, seamlessly integrated with DeFi protocols.

Ondo Finance stated that just as stablecoins have expanded access to dollars by addressing pain points such as high costs, limited supply channels, and transfer friction, Ondo Global Markets will apply the same principles to the securities market.

On June 17, Ondo Finance announced the establishment of the Global Markets Alliance, dedicated to improving interoperability, investor protection, and access to tokenized RWA, with members including:

• Solana Foundation

• BitGo (custodian)

• Fireblocks (Web3 security company)

• Jupiter, 1inch (DEX aggregators)

• Trust Wallet, Bitget Wallet, Rainbow Wallet

• Alpaca (brokerage)

Alliance members will each contribute their strengths: wallet providers will integrate Ondo's tokenized asset standards, aggregators are expected to support programmatic access to tokenized assets, with institutional custody and infrastructure provided by BitGo and Fireblocks, and Alpaca responsible for brokerage and regulatory services for tokenized securities.

INX Digital: Launching Tokenized Private Equity

On June 18, the US tokenized asset trading platform INX Digital announced a partnership with Swiss blockchain startup Aktionariat AG to launch the tokenized equity $DAKS on its INX Marketplace, open for trading by global investors.

According to Starlabs Consulting, INX Digital offers regulated security tokens and tokenized RWA trading, holding full compliance licenses and remittance licenses in most US states, as well as broker and alternative trading system licenses granted by the SEC and FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority).

Aktionariat AG focuses on providing innovative tokenization solutions based on blockchain and has facilitated over 50 million Swiss francs in trading volume since its launch in 2021, serving over 30,000 users and helping more than 70 private companies globally achieve equity tokenization, with a total market capitalization of tokenized companies reaching 400 million Swiss francs.

Institutions: Tokenized Stock Market Cap May Exceed $1 Trillion

According to data from RWA.xyz, as of June 30, the total market cap of tokenized real assets reached $24.47 billion, with the market cap of tokenized US Treasury bonds at $7.385 billion, while the market cap of tokenized stocks was only $341 million.

Although the share of tokenized stocks in the overall RWA market is still small, interest is rapidly rising among institutional investors who value the opportunity for faster and lower-cost access to the US stock market.

According to Cointelegraph, Arnab Nask, CEO of Luxembourg fintech company STOKR, which focuses on providing security token offerings (STO) and asset tokenization services, stated in a panel discussion on April 16 this year that while the total potential market size for tokenized stocks is difficult to predict accurately, "it is definitely a market exceeding $1 trillion."

Anna Wroblewska, Chief Business Officer of Dinari, stated that by 2025, the demand for these financial instruments from various institutions such as Web3 wallets, digital banks, and traditional financial service companies has already "exploded," and "we have received a large number of inquiries from potential partners that are broader than we imagined."

"There is huge demand for US public market stocks… even global individual investors want to participate in the US capital markets. Tokenization makes this process fast and low-cost." Wroblewska stated that for similar reasons, the demand for tokenized US Treasury bonds has also been very high.

Starlabs Consulting noted that recently, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices among the three major US stock indices have reached new historical highs, with the Dow Jones only 1.3% away from its historical peak. As of June 30, the total market capitalization of US stocks reached $61.94 trillion, and the US federal debt has also surpassed $36 trillion. In contrast, the total market cap of tokenized stocks is still less than $400 million, and the market cap of tokenized US Treasury bonds is only over $7 billion, indicating significant future market potential.