Securitize Brings the $69 Trillion Stock Market Onchain

Real-world asset tokenization firm Securitize has teamed up with transfer agent Computershare to offer tokenized stocks directly from the issuing company.

Unlike most current tokenized stocks, these are real shares issued by a company rather than a third-party-issued token backed by traditional stocks held in trust.

These third-party tokens lack the full shareholder rights of traditional stocks, including governance voting rights, dividends, and stock splits.

The Securitize issuer-sponsored tokens (IST) will have all the rights of traditional shares and be issued alongside them. They can be held in digital wallets along with cryptocurrency holdings.

The move comes as third-party tokenized stock issuers work to give stockholders access to full rights. Third-party issuer Ondo Finance just announced a workaround to give its tokenized stockholders the ability to vote on governance issues. This requires Ondo to poll token holders and then vote in the way they direct.

“ISTs do not rely on derivative tokens that sit on top of underlying shares, nor do they alter any underlying equity,” said Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize. “Our work with Computershare connects the technology needed to support tokenization of assets to their deep issuer services expertise, providing U.S. issuers with the ability to create direct equity ownership in token form.”

Tokenized stocks make it far easier for people around the world to buy shares in the $69 trillion U.S. stock market. This has been pitched as a way to broaden the investor base, including giving people in less developed nations the ability to easily invest in the American stock market.

ISTs also give issuing companies the ability to maintain control over their shares and over direct interactions with shareholders.

“Our focus has been to empower U.S.-listed companies to issue tokenized equity while retaining control with confidence over their issued capital,” said Ann Bowering, CEO, issuer services, Computershare North America.