Tokenized stocks surge to $1.2B market cap echoing early stablecoin growth

Tokenized stocks have grown to a combined market capitalization of $1.2 billion — a rise that is quickly drawing comparisons with the early days of stablecoins.

The rapid rate of growth indicates that onchain equities are more than just experimental, with investors and institutions taking them as a serious offshoot of mainstream financial markets.

The rally has been sudden since tokenized equities became mainstream this year. September and December were the largest months for market value growth, both times signaling increased demand as a new class of products was released and liquidity across key blockchains improved, according to Token Terminal data.

The current stage is quite similar to that of stablecoins in 2020, according to market observers. Back then, stablecoins were still considered niche tools useful to crypto traders. Five years on, they provide the infrastructure for global crypto markets, which now account for a sector valued at approximately $300 billion, bolstering the assertion that tokenized stocks are in their infancy.

That’s not the only reason for talk of a new crypto boom, however, and industry insiders are comparing today’s market to the DeFi boom in its early days as well.

Institutions accelerate tokenized stock adoption

All of this has been driven, for the most part, by the institutions that power the game. Backed Finance itself launched its group of xStocks in September on Ethereum, which includes approximately 60 tokenized stocks. The distribution was coordinated with major cryptocurrency exchange operators, such as Kraken and Bybit, providing a user base for the products from day one.

The introduction marked a departure from many similar pilots, favoring approaches that can be scaled more broadly. Volume increased as investors who were already familiar with the public companies being tokenized were able to trade them easily; likewise, the overall market capitalization also rose.

The energy continued into December with the announcement that Securitize would enable compliant onchain trading of public equities. Its model will focus on direct shareholding, which has been a concern for the sector for some time, as the link between synthetic exposure and regulation remains uncertain.

Ondo Finance is also emerging as a major player. The company appears to be the most probable contender for Solana to choose, as it aims to launch tokenized US stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Solana in early 2026. The move is another sign of growing confidence in high-performance blockchains as potential venues for regulated financial products.

Nasdaq and market infrastructure firms increase commitment

The clearest sign that long-term commitment was faltering might have been the Nasdaq. The exchange has confirmed that it has submitted documents to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch tokenized stocks on its platform. It will bring blockchain-based shares to one of the world’s largest market infrastructures.

Tokenization is one of the company’s most important strategic projects, Matt Savarese, Nasdaq’s Head of Digital Assets Strategy, said in a statement. It is not trying to make the markets “bear new witness” but rather to remake them in a way that appeals to regulators and issuers as well as investors, he added.

That being said, Savarese is optimistic that tokenization will become an organic part of the financial system in the future. “We’re not looking at upending the system; we want everyone to come along for that ride and bring tokenization more into the mainstream,” Matt Savarese, Nasdaq’s head of digital assets strategy, said in an interview.

As tokenized equities become increasingly accepted by more institutions, exchanges, and regulators, the sector is gaining more reputation. Although still small in comparison to established equity markets, with emergent institutional support and rapid growth, the future for tokenized stocks could resemble that of stablecoins’ rapid rise from a niche product to a core financial infrastructure.

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