Recently, US stocks have reached new highs, and another new term has become popular: 'US stock tokenization'. Many friends have asked me if there are ways to buy US stocks in the crypto space. Last year, I actually mentioned a project called Backed Finance (RWA Special (II) - Analysis of National Debt Tokenization Matrixdock & US Stock Tokenization Backed Dual Projects) which is dedicated to US stock tokenization.
Backed Finance is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, complying with Swiss and European MiFID II financial regulations. The asset issuer is a compliant financial intermediary registered in Switzerland (Backed Assets GmbH), and the product is currently not available to the US. Each token is backed by a 1:1 physical asset (such as Apple stocks); it is held by a regulated third-party financial institution and regularly audited. Tokens cannot be overissued; overissuance is illegal.
On June 30, the crypto exchanges Bybit and Kraken launched its xStocks product, which is a tokenization product for US stocks. This series of products is deployed on the SOL chain, supporting 24/7 trading and enjoying corresponding economic rights (such as dividends).
Currently, xStocks has launched trading for over 60 US stocks.
At the same time, Robinhood has launched over 200 US stock and ETF tokens for users in the EU/EEA (about 30 countries), including Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, etc. Initially issued on Arbitrum, subsequently transferred to Robinhood's self-built Layer-2 chain (based on the Arbitrum tech stack). Robinhood supports 5*24-hour trading, directly receiving real stock dividends in the app, and supports up to 3x leverage. After the announcement, Robinhood's stock price jumped approximately 10–13%, setting a new historical high.
Currently, Xstocks supports: Kraken, Bybit, Ray, Solflare, Jupiter, Kamino.
If you want to buy US stock tokens as simply as trading spot → use Bybit;
If you want to freely combine, stake, lend, and access DeFi with tokens → use Kraken.
On Ray, you can directly exchange US stock products using SOL or USDC without KYC and other operations, making it more convenient.
Currently, the stock tokens are as follows; if you directly enter the name on RAY, you can see the related tokens. The specific token naming still needs to be confirmed on the official website, and the contract addresses are all available. When trading on DEX, be sure to verify the contract addresses.
So here everyone will definitely have a question: 24/7 trading, but US stocks do not trade on weekends, so how is the price stabilized?
Projects like Backed Finance have implemented some mechanism designs to alleviate this 'weekend decoupling' issue.
1. Dynamic price anchoring strategy
- During normal hours (trading days): on-chain token prices are based on real-time US stock prices + on-chain supply and demand for trading;
- Non-trading hours (e.g., weekends): token prices based on:
- Last closing price of US stocks;
- External market sentiment (such as BTC, ETH, S&P futures trends);
- On-chain supply and demand (buy/sell depth);
- Some DEXs use AMM (automated market maker) algorithms or TWAP pricing mechanisms.
This means that the on-chain price is not strongly anchored but rather 'weakly anchored' based on supply and demand and reference prices.
2. Arbitrage mechanism alleviates deviation
- Once the market reopens (for example, on Monday), arbitrageurs can:
- Buy cheaper on-chain tokens and exchange for equivalent stocks.
- Or sell on-chain premium assets to recover fiat or USDC;
- This mechanism will drive prices back to the anchor.
Similar to how the premium of USDT across different exchanges is quickly arbitraged away.
3. Using price feeds and limit mechanisms
- Centralized exchanges like Kraken and Bybit may set for xStocks on weekends:
- Volatility limits (e.g., +/-10%)
- Automatic suspension mechanism (if on-chain prices deviate too much)
- Using Chainlink / Pyth and other oracle systems to provide 'anchoring price bands'
For example:
Assuming Friday's closing: NVDA $120, on-chain token bNVDAX price is $120
By Sunday, Bitcoin surged, US stock futures indicated a rising trend, and on-chain traders rushed to purchase tokens.
→ bNVDAX price rises to $126 (premium)
→ On Monday, if NVDA indeed rises to $125-$126, then the on-chain price completes 'expected alignment'
→ If NVDA actually rises to $122, the premium will be quickly arbitraged back by traders.
This is also why token prices are more volatile on weekends but quickly 'approach intrinsic value' on weekdays.
Future trends
1. Rise of compliant tokenization platforms
More projects are attempting to obtain regulatory approval (such as MiCA, SEC, or BaFin) to legally issue tokenized stocks; projects like Swarm, Backed, etc., have already achieved compliance in Europe.
2. Integration with DeFi
Tokenized stocks can be used for on-chain lending, staking, ETF combinations, synthetic assets, and other applications;
Enhancing the linkage between real assets and DeFi.
3. Asset fragmentation and global investment
Fractional share investing and cross-border seamless investing are becoming mainstream trends;
Particularly beneficial for users in developing countries or young retail investors.
4. On-chain exchanges (DEX) may include RWA trading pairs
If Uniswap supports the RWA module in the future, it may provide tokenized stock/cryptocurrency trading pairs;
Bringing more on-chain asset combination gameplay.
5. Traditional brokers participating in tokenization
Traditional financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Citigroup, and JPMorgan are actively investing in the direction of Tokenization;
In the future, there may be 'hybrid exchanges' (supporting both traditional stock and token trading).
Summary
US stock tokenization is an important part of bringing traditional assets into the blockchain world. It not only expands investment channels but also promotes the large-scale on-chain of RWA (real-world assets).
Currently, compliance, liquidity, and user education are the main barriers to its rapid adoption. However, as technology matures and regulatory policies become clearer, we may see a globally accessible, 24/7 uninterrupted, low-threshold 'on-chain US stock trading market' gradually taking shape.
