Tokenized stock trading on Robinhood Chain has passed $3bln since the chain launched in July, and Coinbase’s tokenized Nvidia, Apple, Meta and Alphabet did $103mln on Base in the first week. The first benefit of tokenized stocks is the obvious one: it trades around the clock. Most of the volume on Robinhood Chain (and for now these are just U.S. stocks) shows up when American markets are closed.
Access is the other claim made for tokenized stocks. When the barrier is legal, such as India asking a foreign buyer for residency status and a tax number, a token does not lift those restrictions. When the barrier is economic, it does. Nothing stops a Dutch investor from buying a Polish mid-cap, but his broker never built the connection because a new market means local custody, local settlement and some way to get local currency into the trade. A tokenized share is accessible globally by default.
Once the share is onchain, other services open up as well. For example, you can borrow against it or lend it out on onchain lending markets. With no minimums, no paperwork and no office hours. In the incumbent system, these possibilities are largely reserved for institutional and wealthy investors, and are tightly restricted even for them.
Onchain stock trading is just getting started, at Robinhood it accounts for barely 2% of total stock trading. But the shift has begun, and we expect adoption to accelerate quickly. Once your friends can trade around the clock and earn attractive yields on their portfolios, you will want the same.
This week’s market
- BGCI Index 2.57%
- Bitcoin 0.02%
- Ethereum 1.07%
- Solana -3.66%
All figures are week-to-date as of today 15:00 CET
Blockchain news
- 21 Financial Institutions Commit to Joint Stablecoin Venture (learn more)
- Kraken parent Payward to tokenize 100 London-listed stocks, with LSE 24 trading planned (learn more)
- SEC Proposes First Transfer Agent Overhaul in 40 Years, Citing Tokenization (learn more)
- SoFi, Payward agree to link banking network with Kraken infrastructure (learn more)
- Coinbase seeks SEC greenlight to list 24/7 equity perpetuals (learn more)
- CFTC Asks Judge to Dismiss CME Lawsuit Over Crypto Perpetual Futures (learn more)
- Bloomberg: Hyperliquid in Advanced Talks With Kraken Parent on US Perpetuals Push (learn more)
- Bitget in talks with Wall Street giants including BlackRock to fuel Asian distribution (learn more)
- Circle strikes Chelsea front-of-shirt sponsorship deal featuring USDC (learn more)
Relevant financial updates
- Polymarket*, a prediction markets platform, has raised $1bln in a round led by 1789 Capital at a $21bln valuation
- Ajaib, an Indonesian online brokerage offering stocks, mutual funds and digital assets, has raised $270mln in a Series C round from SBI Holdings at a $1.35bln valuation
- Félix*, a stablecoin-powered remittance platform for Latin American workers in the US, has raised $200mln in a Series C round at a $1.4bln valuation, combining $87mln in equity led by a16z and a $113mln debt facility from General Catalyst
- USD.ai*, a synthetic dollar protocol designed to finance physical AI infrastructure, has secured a $100mln stablecoin debt facility from Bullish
- Open Reserve*, a stablecoin-based bank, has raised $25mln in a Seed round led by a16z, with investments from Jump Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and others
- Groma*, a real estate tokenization platform, has raised $17.5mln in a round with investments from Coinbase Ventures, F-Prime Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Castle Island Ventures, L1D, and others
- Diameter Pay, a stablecoin payments infrastructure company, has raised $10mln from CMT Digital, Faction, and others
- Firelight*, a cover protocol that backstops decentralized finance vaults, has raised $8mln in a Seed round led by Gumi Cryptos Capital with investments from Maven 11 Capital, Tribe Capital, Metalayer Ventures and Joint Effects
*Underlying TBV portfolio position | Prices as per 04/09
Interesting things to read and listen to
- The Battle for 80 Billion Customers, by Pantera Capital (read here)
- Ethena’s founder on the When Shift Happens podcast (listen here)