Tokenized Stocks: Hype Train or Here to Stay?

Tokenized stocks exploded onto the scene with a mix of fanfare and controversy this week, as global neobrokers and crypto exchanges, including Robinhood, Kraken, ByBit, and Gemini, rolled out tokenized versions of household names like Nvidia, Apple, and flagship ETFs such as iShares S&P 500 and SPDR S&P 500.

Suddenly, over 100 million crypto users and retail traders worldwide can now gain exposure to assets once confined to traditional brokerages. A new tokenization category was born.

Amid the buzz, ranging from serious questions about the legal status of tokenized equities to Robinhood’s eyebrow-raising OpenAI Token Stocks giveaway, one thing is clear: 100 million users is serious adoption leverage.

All exchanges and issuers of tokenized stocks lined up behind the rallying cry: “democratizing access.” But how much real demand lies beneath marketing?

In this week’s research, we go beyond the headlines and dig into the data to measure real traction across 3 dimensions:

1. Holder Growth

2. Market Size

3. Trading Volume & Liquidity

   
   

Let’s separate the signal from the noise.

Democratizing Access = Holder Growth?

Despite differences in pricing models, legal wrappers, and jurisdictional reach, every tokenized stock issuer rallied behind one bold promise: a better, faster way to give global users access to U.S. equities.

But the key question remains: do users actually want that access?

Here is the answer: in the 7 days since launch, the number of holders of these tokenized stocks have rocketed from 4.4k to more than 45k, a 1,000% increase. See chart below.

It’s hard to argue a 1,000% increase in 7 days is not a clear sign that users want the product. Market demand is unmistakable.

Amidst the early land grab, the biggest blockchain winner so far is Solana - home to xStocks, launched by Backed Finance. And xStock is clearly the dominant early winner so far.

As we noted in our earlier analysis of the tokenized stocks market, Backed was already the biggest and a key player in the space but it lacked a crucial ingredient: distribution.

That problem is now solved.

With partnerships with Kraken, a key player in the global onshore spot crypto trading market, and Bybit, the number 2 or 3 global offshore spot crypto exchange, Backed has secured powerful distribution engines.

Market Size (Expanding)?

The most popular names in the tokenized stock space back in April were Backed S&P ETF, Coinbase, Strategy, Facebook, Nvidia. 3 months later, these names remain unchanged. See the top 10 tokenized stock comparison between now and then.

The total market size of tokenized stocks has shot up to $74M from $19M in the past 3 months. 

On a single name basis, 9 of the top 10 names have grown by more than 100% since April 2025. On an exposure to the underlying basis, 10 out 10 names in today’s top 10 stocks are up 100% in the last 3 months on DEXes. Note: bCSPX and SPYx are both instruments giving exposure to S&P ETFs. 

And the power of distribution is on clear display since most of the top 10 names are of xStocks format, which didn’t exist until 7 days ago. With a 300%+ increase in market size and 1,000% increase in holder number, it is not hard to see the demand growing as access is broadening via new distribution channels.

Trading Volume & Liquidity

Since xStock is the dominant force by a wide margin currently in this nascent market, let’s look at its trading volume and liquidity patterns. See below for its most traded tokenized stock pairs according to Coingecko.

These xStocks did not exist until 7 days ago and most of their trading volume happens on centralized exchange platforms. For example, in the case of Robinhood xStock, 98% of its volume takes place on Gate, where it also enjoys the best liquidity depth +/-2% the mid-price.

By contrast, the trading volume data for strictly onchain executed orders for xStocks in the past 7 days is much smaller.

For example, when comparing the trading volume data on 7th July, 90%+ of the $22M daily volume happened on centralized exchanges. 

Despite its lower absolute trading volume, the number of onchain executed trades on the most popular name, bCPSX, shot up from 10-20 back in March to 100+ a day in the past 7 days according to onchain data.

What does this tell us?

Much of the growth in users and market size so far has been mostly based on the back of only a few liquid tokenized stocks and that onchain distribution channels via decentralized exchanges (DEXes) are yet to effectively kick in.

For instance, a $1000 buy order on Jupiter, the most popular DEX on Solana, for Amazon xStock will incur a slippage of 10% due to limited liquidity. See chart below.

But the onchain distribution is far more accessible given that trading of AMZNx via a DEX interface does not require any KYC. This user acquisition channel is still being blocked largely due to xStock’s limited liquidity onchain.

What’s to Come?

Three tokenized stock issuers with live distribution partnerships are currently competing in the market: Robinhood, Backed Finance, and Dinari. Each taps into different user bases and channels, from centralized exchanges (CEXs) to decentralized ones (DEXs). And while DEX liquidity still trails behind, the early growth metrics are impossible to ignore.

• User adoption is up 1,000%.

• Market size has grown 300%.

• Onchain trading volume in top pairs is up 300%.

The data reveals two clear trends:

1. Distribution drives access

2. Users will engage and trade - even with unresolved legal uncertainties

And this looks like just the beginning.

All three issuers are likely negotiating more distribution deals, widening their reach.

Meanwhile, Ondo Finance, a client of mine, is preparing to enter the arena with Ondo Global Markets. With heavyweight partners like OKX Wallet onboard from day one, I fully expect more growth on the runway as more users gain access and the onchain liquidity limitations get solved via its instant mint/redeem mechanism.

Right now there is $74M worth of tokenized stocks onchain, imperfect as they may be. 

The US public equities market is a $64T market and is far more familiar to people than tokenized MMF, which sits at $7.4B and 3% of the total stablecoin market size. 

So the question is will the demand for AMZN, NVIDA and S&P 500 exposures be more or less than 1% of a fast growing stablecoin market?

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.