On June 10, 2026, Binance launched a product called bStocks. For $5, users can buy "on-chain stocks" of Tesla, Nvidia, and SpaceX—trading 7×24 hours, settling in seconds, and transferring to their own crypto wallet.
Sounds like stock trading, but it isn’t called a stock—it’s called "tokenized securities".
Behind it is a rapidly booming sector: tokenized stocks. According to CoinGecko’s 2026 RWA report, the market cap of tokenized stocks surged from $2.09 million in mid-2025 to $487 million in Q1 2026, with quarterly spot trading volume reaching $15.1 billion. The entire RWA (tokenization of real-world assets) market size has grown to $19.3 billion.
This is not a game for Binance alone. Kraken, Bybit, Robinhood, Gemini, and Ondo Finance have all entered the field. An experiment to rewrite stock market rules with blockchain is accelerating.
What is bStocks?
Essentially: not stock, but a "certificate"
bStocks is issued by BTech Holdings Limited, an affiliated company under Binance. The company is registered in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) as a special purpose vehicle (SPV).
Put simply, bStocks has a very delicate legal position—it is classified as a "certificate representing a specific financial instrument" (FSMR Schedule 1, paragraph 92), rather than the stock itself. Holders do not directly own equity in the underlying company, have no voting rights, no inspection rights, and are not considered shareholders.
But it does give you economic exposure: each bStock is fully backed 1:1 by real U.S. stocks held by a regulated custodian, and you can verify the underlying assets at any time on Binance’s Proof of Collateral page.
To use an analogy: what you buy is not the house, but a certificate linked to the house price. When the house price rises, your certificate rises too, but the property deed does not have your name on it.
How to get bStocks
There are three ways:
Method 1: Buy directly on Binance spot. Just like buying Bitcoin, place an order with USDT, with pairs such as NVDAB/USDT and TSLAB/USDT, starting from as little as $5.
Method 2: Convert after buying real stock. If you buy eligible U.S. stocks on Binance’s stock trading platform, you can convert them 1:1 into the corresponding bStock with zero fees. The reverse is also possible—you can redeem bStock back into real stock at any time.
Method 3: Deposit from an external wallet. bStocks are standard BEP-20 tokens on BNB Chain and can be transferred from any compatible on-chain wallet into Binance.
Key technical mechanism: Multiplier
This is the most elegant part of the bStocks design—dividends and stock splits don’t require your attention; a chain variable called "Multiplier" handles everything automatically.
How dividends are distributed: when the underlying company pays a dividend, the net dividend (after the 30% U.S. withholding tax) is automatically reinvested into the underlying stock of the same series. Your original on-chain token count stays the same, but the Multiplier value increases, and your displayed effective balance rises. For example, if you hold 10 TSLAB and Tesla pays $2 per share in dividends, your balance may become 10.08.
How stock splits are handled: If Nvidia does a 10:1 stock split, your Multiplier is multiplied by 10, the displayed balance goes from 1 to 10, and each token’s price becomes one-tenth of the original. The total value stays the same.
This mechanism makes bStocks like an automatically compounding container—over time, 1 token can give you exposure to slightly more than 1 share because dividends are continuously reinvested.
Listed assets
As of July 2, 2026, 15 bStocks have been listed:
Why Binance is doing bStocks
First attempt: the painful lesson of 2021
This is not Binance’s first attempt at tokenized stocks. In April 2021, Binance already launched tokenized stock trading, with Tesla as the first underlying asset. Its partners were Germany’s CM-Equity AG and Switzerland’s Digital Assets AG.
But the regulatory response was swift and fierce. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) intervened first, and Germany’s BaFin announced that it had reasonable grounds to suspect Binance violated securities law. The core logic is straightforward: if an asset has stock-like economic rights and dividend rights, then no matter whether you call it a "token" or a "coin," it is essentially a security and must be governed by the strictest securities laws.
Three months later, in July 2021, Binance announced it would stop stock token services and fully wind them down in October. FTX also ran a similar business; trading volume reached $94 million in October 2021, but after FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, everything went to zero.
Second attempt: a different playbook
There are several key differences between bStocks in 2026 and the 2021 version:
The legal structure is more complex. bStocks no longer claims to be "stock tokens"; instead, it is clearly defined as a "certificate representing a specific financial instrument." The issuer, BTech Holdings, is an ADGM-registered SPV and holds a prospectus approved by the FSRA (Abu Dhabi Financial Services Regulatory Authority). It is the first tokenized security to be included in the FSRA’s official list. This legal wrapper makes it compliant under the ADGM framework.
The technical architecture goes deeper. bStocks are BEP-20 tokens on BNB Chain, integrated with the BEP-677 (Scaled UI Amount) standard—an asset token standard designed specifically for real-world assets, with native support for the Multiplier mechanism. It is natively integrated into the BNB Chain block explorer, creating a seamless user experience.
DeFi composability. This is the biggest difference from 2021. bStocks is not just a trading instrument; it can be deployed into DeFi protocols—used as collateral on Venus and Lista DAO, and to provide liquidity on PancakeSwap and Aster. Your Tesla token can also earn interest, which traditional brokers cannot do.
A bigger strategy: the financial super app
bStocks is not an isolated product. Binance is building a "financial super app"—one account to manage crypto, U.S. stocks/ETFs, and tokenized securities. On June 1, 2026, Binance announced trading services for more than 7,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs for non-U.S. users, starting from $5, with zero commission and 24/5 trading. bStocks goes a step further, supporting 24/7 trading.
According to Sohu, Binance has established three "Nest" entities in Abu Dhabi to build a complete offshore securities trading infrastructure. ADGM’s relatively permissive regulatory environment provides compliance cover.
It’s not just Binance: the full picture of tokenized stocks
bStocks is only one player in the tokenized stock race. This sector exploded in the second half of 2025, and the main players include:
xStocks (Backed Finance)
xStocks is currently one of the largest tokenized stock issuance platforms, issued by Switzerland’s Backed Finance. The underlying assets are held by regulated third-party custodians such as Switzerland’s InCore Bank and Maerki Baumann Bank.
Technical: issued as SPL standard tokens on the Solana blockchain, and also deployed on Ethereum and BNB Chain
Coverage: 60+ U.S. stocks and ETFs, including AAPLx, TSLAx, NVDAx, SPYx, and more
Distribution: via exchanges such as Kraken, Bybit, and Crypto.com
Scale: As of May 2026, the on-chain market cap was about $403 million, accounting for 26.4% of the tokenized stock market
According to WuShuo Blockchain, Backed Finance’s three co-founders all previously worked at the now-defunct DAOstack project (whose GEN token price fell close to zero after 2021, and the project closed at the end of 2022). In 2021 they founded Backed Finance, and in April 2024 completed a $9.5 million Series A round led by Gnosis.
DigiFT analyst Ryan pointed out that xStocks tokens are essentially debt structures (company liabilities tracking the underlying assets), not equity tokens. The issuer is an SPV, distributed through PDSL, a Bermuda DA-licensed entity (a Kraken subsidiary). Because transferring debt ownership does not require registration, there is no stamp duty, and on-chain arbitrary transfer is possible.
Ondo Global Markets
Ondo Finance is a later entrant in tokenized stocks, but its growth has been the fastest. After launching in September 2025, it became the world’s largest tokenized stock platform within 48 hours.
Coverage: 260+ tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, including AI, energy, biotech, defense, Bitcoin ETFs, and more
Multi-chain: deployed on Solana, Ethereum, and BNB Chain
Scale: As of May 2026, TVL in the tokenized stock sector surpassed $1 billion, accounting for 63.1% of the tokenized stock market
Institutional partnerships: completed the first tokenized U.S. Treasury cross-border redemption with J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, and Ripple; Franklin Templeton tokenized five ETFs via Ondo; partnered with Broadridge to bring proxy voting on-chain
Ondo CEO Ian De Bode predicts that by the end of 2026, the tokenized stock market could reach $2.5 billion to $3 billion.
Other players
Why tokenized stocks suddenly became hot
A shift in the regulatory winds
When Binance and FTX launched tokenized stocks in 2021, the regulatory environment was one of total crackdown. But after Trump was elected in late 2024, deregulation-oriented financial policy brought a shift. After SEC Chair Paul Atkins took office, he actively pushed the "Innovation Exemption," allowing companies to test new digital asset business models without fully complying with all SEC rules.
In June 2026, Reuters reported that the SEC was about to allow stock token trading. Crypto companies like Coinbase were preparing to launch tokenized stocks in the U.S. But this process ran into a setback at the end of May 2026—under opposition from Nasdaq, NYSE, and Cboe, the SEC’s innovation exemption plan was shelved.
In its February 2026 draft, the SEC Investor Advisory Committee explicitly recommended that there should be no "one-size-fits-all" innovation exemption; any SEC rule reform should be limited to reforms strictly necessary to promote tokenization and must not undermine investor protection.
Traditional financial institutions entering the market
This is no longer crypto’s self-entertainment:
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced it is developing a tokenized securities trading platform that supports 24/7 trading, instant settlement, and stablecoin funding
Nasdaq and Kraken’s parent company have teamed up to launch a special equity token design, expected to go live in early 2027
DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) received a no-action letter from the SEC in December 2025 and will begin offering DTC-custodied tokenized RWA in the second half of 2026
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink urges the SEC to accelerate the tokenization of stocks and bonds
Franklin Templeton launched the first tokenized money market fund as early as April 2021 and currently manages nearly $1.5 billion in assets
Mature stablecoin ecosystem
The explosion of tokenized assets is inseparable from the maturation of stablecoin infrastructure. According to Fidelity, stablecoins proved strong product-market fit in 2025, and in 2026 the industry began putting these on-chain dollars to work—turning stocks, money market funds, and gold into tradable on-chain building blocks.
Hashdex CIO Samir Kerbage predicts the tokenized asset market could reach $400 billion by the end of 2026. Centrifuge COO Jürgen Blumberg predicts that TVL for RWA tokens will exceed $100 billion by the end of 2026.
Risks and controversies
1. The legal ambiguity of "not-stock, yet stock"
This is the biggest point of controversy. bStocks explicitly states: holders do not directly own equity in the underlying company, have no voting rights, and are not considered shareholders.
According to NetEase, this "not-stock, yet stock" positioning is a carefully designed regulatory arbitrage—once holders do not enjoy the legal rights of shareholders, bStocks is no longer fully governed by securities regulations and only needs to be treated as a "certificate" or "token." The KYC, AML, disclosure, investor protection, and other obligations required of traditional brokers are gradually eliminated in this framework.
In a joint statement in January 2026, the SEC reiterated that tokenization does not change the applicability of federal securities laws. Tokenized securities remain "equity securities," regardless of whether ownership records are maintained on-chain or off-chain. In reality, however, most tokenized stock issuance occurs under offshore regulatory frameworks such as ADGM, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, targeting non-U.S. users and operating in a gray area under U.S. regulation.
2. Risk of market fragmentation
Citadel Securities warned in a letter to the SEC: if a third party can tokenize Apple or Amazon stock without issuer participation, a company could in theory be tokenized into countless different versions. This would create a new kind of market fragmentation, making it hard for investors to determine the value of the assets they hold at any given moment.
Securitize president and former SEC Division of Trading and Markets director Brett Redfearn pointed out the same issue. SIFMA (Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association) warned that the tokenized market may lack market connectivity and price transparency, risking becoming "fragmented and disorderly."
3. Insufficient liquidity
The on-chain data from xStocks’ launch day makes the point clearly: on June 30, 2025, on-chain trading volume was $1.338 million, with 1,225 unique trading users. It rose to $6.64 million on July 1, but trading was mainly concentrated in a few tokens such as TSLAx ($1.71 million), SPYx ($1.53 million), and CRCLx ($940,000). Most other assets saw extremely limited on-chain trading, some pools had zero liquidity, trade counts were below 20, and slippage was widespread.
In an analysis in August 2025, Sygnum noted that trading volume in tokenized stocks had begun to decline, and current products mainly target retail and crypto investors; institutional capital flows that could catalyze the next stage of growth are still missing.
4. Insider trading and market manipulation
According to Tencent News, the crypto industry describes stock token trading as "permissionless," meaning they can be traded and held in anonymous accounts. Ondo CEO Nathan Allman said: "This is what we want to lean toward—global permissionless distribution of these assets."
But anonymous accounts make the market vulnerable to insider trading and manipulation. Because trading volume in stock tokens is so small, manipulation is relatively easy. Ondo and xStocks say they verify the identity of traders who buy and sell tokens directly with them, but after that, the tokens can be traded anonymously.
5. Price divergence
The price of bStocks may differ from the price of the underlying securities. Differences may arise from supply and demand, liquidity, market-making activity, trading outside normal market hours, spreads, fees, taxes, withholding taxes, corporate action handling, and other factors. The trading price of bStocks may be above (premium) or below (discount) the underlying securities.
6. A capital flight channel
According to NetEase, Binance’s launch of U.S. stock trading services hides a concern beneath its technical veneer—using digital currency as a medium to open a channel that bypasses foreign exchange controls. For countries with foreign exchange controls, including China, products like bStocks mean users can use stablecoins such as USDT to gain exposure to U.S. stocks, bypassing traditional foreign exchange approval and brokerage account-opening procedures.
7. Counterparty risk in the SPV structure
Tokenized stock issuers typically hold the underlying shares through an SPV or use financial derivatives. Both structures carry the risk that issuer distress could harm investors. If BTech Holdings or Backed Finance runs into trouble, how are holders protected? This is not hypothetical—when FTX went bankrupt in 2022, its tokenized stock business went to zero as well.
Comparison of the three tokenization paths
Franklin Templeton divides tokenization into three paths, and understanding these helps clarify where bStocks fits:
Path 1: Digitally Native Tokenization
The token directly provides exposure to the underlying asset, and holders enjoy full ownership rights and protections. Ownership is recorded on a single on-chain ledger, with no off-chain record. Settlement occurs atomically, with payment and assets exchanged immediately after trade validation. Franklin Templeton’s tokenized money market fund is a typical example.
This is the most ideal state, but also the slowest—it requires issuer cooperation.
Path 2: Synthetic Exposure Tokens
The token behaves more like a swap, providing price exposure to the underlying asset without directly holding the underlying asset. Robinhood’s tokenized stocks belong to this category—the tokens are locked within Robinhood’s platform and cannot be transferred to external wallets, while the underlying stocks are managed by Robinhood’s affiliated SPV, with all trading activity conducted within a closed system.
Path 3: Wrapped Tokenization
The underlying equity is custodied, and a token is issued representing rights to that custodial position. bStocks and xStocks both fall into this category. Tokens can be transferred to self-custody wallets and used in DeFi, but holders are not registered shareholders and have no voting rights.
What makes bStocks unique is that it supports both wrapped tokenization and conversion to native stocks—you can convert real stock 1:1 into bStock, and you can convert it back at any time. This is uncommon on other platforms.
Market data overview
Overall RWA market
According to CoinGecko’s 2026 RWA report:
Total market cap of tokenized RWA: $19.32 billion (Q1 2026, 256.7% growth over 15 months)
Tokenized Treasuries: $13 billion (67.2%, the largest category)
Tokenized commodities: $5.55 billion (28.7%, mainly gold)
Tokenized stocks: $487 million (starting from $2.09 million in mid-2025)
Tokenized ETFs: about $300 million
The tokenized stock market landscape
According to Token Terminal data for May 2026:
On-chain market cap of tokenized stocks: $1.5 billion
Ondo Finance: $963 million (63.1% share)
xStocks (Backed Finance): $403 million (26.4% share)
Together, the two control 89.5% of the market share
On-chain distribution
Ethereum: 40.3% ($615 million)
Solana: 29.3% ($448 million)
BNB Chain: 28.2% ($430 million)
The three major chains together account for 97.8%
Trading volume
Since June 2025, xStocks’ cumulative trading volume has exceeded $25 billion (including exchanges), of which about $3.6 billion is on-chain
Ondo Global Markets cumulative trading volume exceeds $18 billion
Q1 2026 tokenized stock spot trading volume: $15.1 billion
Q1 2026 RWA perpetual contract trading volume: $524.8 billion (far exceeding the $313 billion for all of 2025)
Future direction
Short term: regulatory game continues
Whether the SEC’s "innovation exemption" can be implemented is the biggest short-term uncertainty. Citadel Securities, SIFMA, NYSE, Nasdaq, and Cboe are all pushing back. If the exemption passes, platforms like Coinbase could launch tokenized stocks in the U.S., and the market may explode. If it is shelved (the current state), tokenized stocks will continue operating under offshore frameworks and serving non-U.S. users.
Mid term: from "wrapped" to "native"
Most mainstream tokenized stocks today are third-party issued "wrapped" tokens—holders do not have shareholder rights. Companies like Superstate and Securitize are trying to obtain company permission to provide tokenized versions with direct share ownership. Securitize CEO Carlos Domingiano believes: "The right way is native tokenization, working with the issuer, so the token is the real stock, with the same rights and value."
But this route is slow. Only a few issuers have expressed agreement so far. Broadridge’s collaboration with Ondo to bring proxy voting on-chain is a step toward native tokenization.
Long term: the convergence of DeFi and TradFi
The ultimate value of tokenized stocks is not "trading stocks with crypto," but making stocks into composable building blocks for DeFi. bStocks can be used as lending collateral, can provide liquidity, and can be used to build structured products—something traditional brokers cannot do.
When stablecoins (on-chain dollars) + tokenized Treasuries (on-chain risk-free yield) + tokenized stocks (on-chain risk assets) form a complete on-chain capital market, DeFi will no longer be just a game for crypto—it will be part of global financial infrastructure.
The entry of DTCC, NYSE, Nasdaq, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and J.P. Morgan shows that this trend is now irreversible.
Conclusion: A bet that is still underway
bStocks and tokenized stocks are essentially answering one question: can a financial instrument that has existed for 400 years run faster, cheaper, and more openly on the blockchain?
The answer seems to be "yes," but at the cost of giving up some of the protections provided by traditional securities law. You get 24/7 trading, second-level settlement, a $5 entry threshold, and DeFi composability, but you lose voting rights, SIPC insurance, direct ownership, and full regulatory protection.
This is a trade that has not yet been settled. Regulators are bargaining, traditional exchanges are applying pressure, crypto platforms are pushing ahead, and investors are caught in the middle. When Binance tried for the first time in 2021, regulators shut the door within three months. This time the door is wider open, but no one knows whether it will close again.
The only certain thing is this: the tokenized stock market has grown from millions of dollars to tens of billions, and it is still accelerating. This is no longer a question of "whether it will happen," but of "what form it will take."
“
Disclaimer: This report is for research reference only and does not constitute any investment advice. bStocks and tokenized stocks involve anonymous affiliated-party issuance, offshore regulatory frameworks, no direct equity ownership, market fragmentation risk, and high-volatility trading mechanisms. Holders do not enjoy shareholder voting rights or SIPC protection. The legal status of tokenized stocks in multiple jurisdictions remains unclear, and prices may diverge from the underlying assets. Please fully understand the risks before participating and assume responsibility at your own discretion (DYOR).