Tokenized Stocks Put Wall Street on 24/7 Clock

The evolution of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) has progressed through several distinct phases over the past decade. Early attempts included synthetic models where tokens tracked stock prices via oracles but conferred no ownership rights, exemplified by platforms like Synthetix and Mirror. These were followed by contract-for-difference (CFD) models where brokers issued exposure contracts. However, the current acceleration is occurring in fully-backed tokenized securities that represent direct claims on real shares held with regulated custodians under bankruptcy-remote structures, ensuring asset protection even if the issuer fails.

Recent developments demonstrate the rapid institutional adoption of this fully-backed model. In August 2025, Galaxy Digital became the first U.S.-listed company to tokenize its own common stock using Superstate and Solana. Shortly thereafter, Nasdaq filed a proposal with the SEC to enable trading of tokenized securities on its main market by 2026. Major platforms including Kraken launched ‘xStocks,’ offering tokenized Apple, Tesla, Nvidia, and 50+ other equities backed one-to-one by shares held with Backed Finance. Even Robinhood entered the European market with 200+ tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, though its tokens represent contracts rather than direct shares.

The rapid growth of stablecoins provides a compelling precedent for how quickly traditional assets can migrate on-chain. By exporting the U.S. dollar to blockchains, stablecoins grew into a $160+ billion market and became the reserve currency of crypto, powering remittances, payments, and DeFi lending. The parallels to equities are clear: just as stablecoins extended dollar liquidity worldwide, tokenized equities could extend Wall Street’s global reach, enabling users to hold fractional shares of Apple, Tesla, or Nasdaq index funds—assets priced in dollars but tradable 24/7 outside U.S. trading hours.

The broader RWA market reflects this accelerating trend, with tokenized Treasuries and cash equivalents topping $7.4 billion and overall RWA supply on-chain surpassing $25 billion in 2025. This represents remarkable growth from just $100 million five years earlier, demonstrating the rapid maturation of tokenized traditional assets. However, tokenized stocks currently represent just $420 million of this market—a small fraction indicating the sector remains in its early stages despite the significant institutional momentum.

The fundamental shift occurring in global finance involves the transformation of crypto wallets from simple storage tools into comprehensive financial gateways. For decades, access to U.S. markets required intermediaries like brokers, bank accounts, and jurisdictional approval. Today, the entry point is increasingly a crypto wallet that combines payments, savings, and investments in a single interface. As Jamie Elkaleh, CMO at Bitget, describes it: ‘Within a few years, wallets—not brokers—will be the default portal to U.S. equities for non-U.S. investors.’

This evolution mirrors the leapfrogging phenomenon seen in mobile money’s disruption of traditional banking in Africa and Asia. A worker in Lagos or Manila can now receive stablecoin remittances, pay bills, and allocate leftover funds into tokenized S&P 500 shares—all within the same application. Bitget Wallet’s integration with Ondo Finance exemplifies this trend, enabling users to access 100+ tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs settled entirely on-chain. The user experience represents a significant departure from traditional brokerage interfaces, offering lower barriers to capital market access.

Despite the promising developments, significant challenges remain before tokenized equities achieve mainstream adoption. Liquidity has historically been the breaking point for tokenized assets, with early experiments failing less from lack of interest than from shallow trading depth. New models seek to solve this by linking on-chain tokens directly to traditional market liquidity, though whether this approach can scale effectively remains uncertain.

Regulatory clarity represents an equally critical hurdle. Current access is mostly limited to non-U.S. users and often requires KYC or eligibility checks. Investors must carefully confirm how dividends, stock splits, and voting rights are handled, and which custodian safeguards the underlying shares. Tokenized assets still face structural frictions including custodial centralization, whitelisting requirements, valuation opacity, and limited decentralized trading venues. The speed of adoption will ultimately depend on how quickly regulators clarify eligibility requirements, custodianship standards, and voting rights for tokenized securities.

The transformation underway points toward a faster, borderless financial model where traditional distinctions between asset classes blur within unified digital environments. Stablecoins proved the concept with dollars; tokenized securities are now testing it with stocks. The endgame scenario is straightforward: a paycheck arrives as stablecoins, a portion automatically swaps into a tokenized S&P 500 index, and everything resides in a single wallet—dollars, equities, and crypto coexisting in the same digital environment.

While Wall Street won’t disappear, its traditional operating clock is being reset. The opening bell is gradually giving way to a 24/7 on-chain economy where geographic and temporal barriers no longer dictate market access. As major institutions from Galaxy Digital to Nasdaq embrace tokenization, and platforms like Bitget, Ondo Finance, and Kraken expand their offerings, the infrastructure for wallet-first investing continues to mature. The result is a fundamental reimagining of how global investors interact with U.S. equity markets, with crypto wallets positioned to become the primary gateway for non-U.S. investors seeking exposure to American companies.