Digital asset company Securitize on Thursday launched blockchain-based trading in tokenized shares of a dozen of America's biggest companies — including Apple, Nvidia, Tesla and Microsoft — marking the most high-profile entry yet in the race to bring traditional stocks onto crypto rails.
The new product, called Securitize Stocks, covers 12 companies: Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Netflix, Circle, Strategy and Palantir.
Each token is backed one-for-one by the underlying shares, and Securitize says the products preserve the investor rights and economic benefits associated with owning a company's shares.
That is a notable break from many overseas tokenized-stock offerings that Reuters notes rarely carry the same rights, disclosures and protections as traditional equities.
How it works
Trading starts on Securitize's own Solana-based platform, with Jump Trading providing liquidity and RQD supporting clearing, custody and settlement. Transactions settle in the USDC stablecoin.
The products will initially be available to eligible investors in the US, the European Union and other permitted jurisdictions, trading during extended hours with full 24/7 availability planned down the line.
Regulators are finally moving
The bigger prize is mainstream legitimacy. Securitize expects its tokenized stocks to eventually trade on the New York Stock Exchange's forthcoming round-the-clock trading platform, as well as the planned OKXICE Tokenized Securities Venue — a joint venture between NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange and crypto exchange OKX.
Both expansions remain subject to the venues launching and meeting regulatory requirements.
The launch lands just as Washington starts clearing a path. The SEC is exploring an innovation exemption for tokenized securities, and in mid-September it issued two five-year exemptive orders creating a pathway for tokenized securities venues and liquidity providers to operate within a defined framework.
The industry's pitch is that tokenization could let shares trade around the clock and settle instantly, boosting liquidity and cutting transaction costs.
The race is heating up
Securitize — which trades on the NYSE itself under the ticker SECZ — is far from alone. Tokenized equity trading has swelled to around $3.2 billion, up roughly 11 percent in the last month alone, with rivals like Ondo and xStocks competing for the same institutional wave.
Earlier this week, Securitize also signed a partnership with LG CNS to bring tokenized assets to South Korean banks, and Binance added Securitize-linked tokens as margin collateral. With Wall Street's biggest exchange now planning its own 24/7 digital venue, the line between a stock and a token is getting thinner by the week.
By Hamza Faisal
