• IMF study found tokenized stocks run about 1.5 times the realized volatility of traditional shares
• More than half of tokenized equity trading occurred outside regular U.S. market hours
• About 80% of tokenized equity trades involved quantities smaller than one conventional share
IMF Puts Tokenized Equities at $2.3 Billion
Roughly $2.3 billion of U.S. equities now trade in tokenized form, part of a tokenized real-world asset market the International Monetary Fund sizes at about $65 billion as of July 31, excluding stablecoins and repurchase agreements. The figures come from Chapter 3 of the IMF’s October Global Financial Stability Report, released October 8 under the title Scaling Tokenization: New Efficiencies, New Vulnerabilities. Researchers sampled the five most actively traded tokenized equity products, covering Tesla (TSLA), Nvidia (NVDA) and Alphabet (GOOG) alongside Nasdaq 100-linked exposure, issued by Ondo Finance and xStocks across 11 trading venues. The sample tracked about $345 million, some 15% of the measured market, over 365 trading days through more than 2 million five-minute observations of price and volume. Demand is the clear part of the record: more than half of tokenized trading happened outside regular U.S. market hours, and about 80% of trades involved quantities smaller than one conventional share, evidence the IMF reads as appetite for continuous access and fractional entry points. Information also travels. Between 87% and 99% of overnight tokenized price movement appeared in the underlying shares within five minutes of the regular session opening. Market quality is the weak side. Tokenized stock ran about 1.5 times the realized volatility of its traditional counterpart, with decentralized venues the most volatile and least liquid, centralized crypto exchanges in between and conventional exchanges strongest. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen framed the open question this week: “Moving assets onchain is only the first step. The bigger question is how efficiently that capital can work once it is there.”
Ondo and Backed Issue 70% of Tokenized Stocks
Supply is concentrating quickly. Ondo Finance and Backed Finance together account for more than 70% of the estimated value of tokenized equities, with many of their products aimed at investors living outside the United States. Distribution around them is widening. Bullish began trading tokenized versions of its own listed shares on August 12, an issuer-sponsored structure with ownership recorded through the share registry, settlement against a U.S. dollar stablecoin and Wintermute acting as market maker, alongside institutional participants including Qube Research & Technologies, Annamite Capital, Fasanara Digital and Star Beta Technologies. Earlier this month, OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, filed plans for a venue offering round-the-clock trading in tokenized U.S. shares, while Coinbase Global (COIN), Kraken, Binance and Robinhood Markets (HOOD) already offer tokenized stock trading. Securitize expanded access through Solana in October with products linked to 12 listed companies, including Apple, Nvidia and Tesla, structured as securities entitlements backed by underlying shares held through a regulated intermediary; holders receive the applicable economic benefits but do not automatically appear as registered shareholders. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a tokenized securities pilot for Nasdaq covering Russell 1000 constituents and certain index-linked ETFs, and Nasdaq agreed to invest $100 million in Kraken parent Payward, with Nasdaq Equity Tokens expected in the second quarter of 2027. Against a 2025 global equity market cap of just under $160 trillion, by SIFMA’s count, the report also identifies the efficiency case: programmable transfer could automate dividend payments, collateral moves and settlement, trimming reconciliation work that occupies separate institutions today. Its prescriptions read as preconditions for scale: legal certainty on what a token conveys, interoperable networks, suitable settlement assets, liquidity safeguards and evaluated circuit breakers, since automated margin calls and fast-moving collateral between platforms could accelerate selling pressure in a shock.
The $160 Trillion Gap
Our reading: the demand evidence is solid and the volatility premium is a liquidity artifact, not a design failure. Decentralized venues, where thin liquidity pools absorb few large orders, produced the widest price gaps from the underlying shares, while higher-volume platforms tracked conventional markets closely. The binding constraints are legal and operational: ownership rights differ depending on whether a token grants direct title, an intermediary entitlement or price-tracking exposure, and issuance is concentrated in two firms, a single point of policy exposure. With stablecoins excluded from the IMF’s $65 billion measure, liquidity that rotates among Bitcoin (BTC), stablecoins and tokenized shares will decide how deep 24/7 equity markets become. The next dated milestone is Q2 2027, when Nasdaq Equity Tokens are due and the Russell 1000 pilot defines which underlying shares reach token form first.
