Tokenization of Stocks: A New Wave in Financial Markets

In the current era of the intersection of cryptocurrency and AI, financial tokenization is becoming an intriguing new trend. Many well-known companies are actively laying out their plans in the tokenized stock market, vying for dominance in this emerging field. This innovative model not only has the potential to enhance global capital liquidity and trading efficiency but may also have a profound impact on market volatility.

Main Participants and Their Strategies

A certain internet brokerage plans to support the tokenization of over 1000 types of U.S. stocks by the end of the year. This service is currently limited to the EU market, but the company has announced the launch of a Layer 2 blockchain based on Arbitrum. This initiative not only expands the Ethereum ecosystem but also marks a further alignment of traditional financial companies with blockchain technology.

Another well-known cryptocurrency exchange has adopted a different strategy. It has partnered with Backed to launch xStocks on Solana, offering over 60 tokenized American stocks and ETFs, and has opened it up to non-US users. These tokens can be withdrawn to self-custody wallets and are compatible with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.

Other participants include a certain cryptocurrency exchange that has reached a strategic partnership with Backed to successively launch xStocks tokenization of US stocks and ETF products on its spot platform. Another well-known cryptocurrency exchange has launched its first tokenized stock—MicroStrategy—and partnered with Dinari to open it up to EU users.

Market Prospects and Potential Impact

Industry experts estimate that by the end of 2025, the market value of tokenized stocks on-chain could exceed $20 billion and even reach $50 billion. If certain large platforms fully launch their Layer 2 chains and put all stock assets on-chain, the funds managed by their users alone could exceed $100 billion.

The financial infrastructure of this "super tokenized stock" will open a new stage of deep integration between traditional finance and blockchain. The future financial system will feature both high efficiency and transparency, as well as global accessibility. The U.S. market is at the forefront of this trend, and tokenized stocks will become an important component of the global capital markets.

Compared to traditional methods, on-chain stocks offer 24/7 trading capabilities, lower transaction costs, and no longer rely on intermediary channels. Especially in overseas markets, obtaining US stocks used to require high premiums, whereas on-chain assets can provide exposure to US stocks with almost "zero barriers," creating a broad and inclusive capital channel.

Future Outlook

In the short term, on-chain stocks are still difficult to completely replace traditional stock markets and exist more as a complementary mechanism. In terms of market volatility, the on-chain market may be more stable due to deeper liquidity, but it may also experience severe fluctuations during sudden events due to the lack of traditional circuit breaker mechanisms.

As major platforms deepen their布局, the proportion of tokenized stocks in the entire financial market may significantly increase in the next two to three years. It is even possible that traditional securities exchanges will build their own on-chain platforms to provide product forms that better meet regulatory requirements.

The mechanism of "on-chain price discovery first" may become an important way for the future synergy between traditional and on-chain markets. With the continuous growth of tokenized stocks, the transformation of on-chain capital markets has just begun.