Could 2% or 3% of global equities moving onchain be enough to turn tokenization from a roughly $30 billion niche into a $5 trillion crypto market?
That’s the wager Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo laid out at ETHConf in New York, according to CoinDesk. His argument is simple and aggressive: tokenized stocks and ETFs, not just tokenized Treasuries or private credit, are the asset class that could push real-world assets into the trillions.
"The entire equities and ETF market worldwide is probably like $150 trillion," Domingo said. "Only if a small percentage of that, like 2% or 3%, moves onchain, it gets you very close to that $5 trillion."
That claim matters because crypto has mostly built markets around crypto-native assets, stablecoins, and a growing but still small set of tokenized real-world assets. If public equities move onchain in a meaningful way, crypto wallets could become access points for the world’s most familiar investment products.
But Domingo’s number is a market-size argument, not a near-term forecast. It depends on public equities, ETFs, stablecoins, wallets, regulated intermediaries, and compliant trading infrastructure all fitting together. That’s a hard build.
The tension is clear. Tokenized equities promise faster settlement, fractional access, 24/7 transferability, and tighter integration with DeFi. They also run straight into securities law, exchange rules, custody obligations, market surveillance, dividend handling, and shareholder rights.
Why would tokenized stocks change the size of the RWA market so dramatically?
Because the current real-world asset tokenization market is still small next to public equities.
CoinDesk described today’s tokenized asset sector as roughly $30 billion. Schwab, citing Token Terminal data in April 2026, put tokenized assets at about $35 billion, including $5 billion in tokenized commodities and nearly $1 billion in tokenized stocks, according to Schwab. Either way, the point is the same: current RWA activity is tiny beside the public stock and ETF market Domingo is targeting.
Tokenized Treasuries have dominated the category because they’re relatively straightforward, yield-bearing, and institutionally useful. But they don’t have the same cultural and portfolio gravity as public equities. Stocks and ETFs sit at the center of household portfolios, institutional allocations, retirement accounts, and passive investing.
That’s why Domingo is focused on equities and ETFs. A small migration from a $150 trillion global equities and ETF market would dwarf today’s tokenized asset base.
| Asset category | Why it has traction | Constraint |
|---|---|---|
| Tokenized Treasuries | Yield, institutional demand, simpler structure | Smaller opportunity than global equities |
| Tokenized private credit | Onchain funding and collateral use cases | Less familiar to retail investors |
| Tokenized stocks and ETFs | Massive market, familiar products, liquid benchmarks | Harder regulatory and market-structure problems |
This is also why the tokenized stocks debate is bigger than crypto trading. If equities become wallet-native, execution quality, spreads, custody, and investor rights will matter as much as token availability. That same lesson shows up in crypto venues already, where cheap headline pricing can hide real costs, as we covered in Crypto Exchange Fees Look Cheap Until Spreads Hit You.
What makes a tokenized stock different from a regular crypto token?
A tokenized stock is a blockchain-based representation tied to shares of a public company or fund. The structure can vary. A regulated intermediary may hold the underlying shares, arrange exposure to them, or issue the token through a legal wrapper.
That makes it very different from a meme coin, governance token, or purely crypto-native asset. A tokenized equity product points back to a security. That brings securities registration, custody, disclosure, investor eligibility, trading, and market conduct rules into the design.
Domingo drew a sharp line between what he views as real tokenized equities and stock-like products that merely mimic exposure.
"A lot of people that today say that they tokenize equities, they're not tokenizing equity," he said.
His critique is aimed at products that rely on derivatives or synthetic structures rather than direct ownership of the underlying shares. In Domingo’s preferred model, blockchain-based securities should eventually offer the same investor rights as traditional shares, including ownership rights, voting rights, and dividends, while adding instant settlement, 24/7 transferability, and DeFi connectivity.
That difference is not cosmetic. It changes the investor’s claim.
Real tokenized equity versus synthetic stock exposure
| Question | Direct tokenized equity model | Synthetic or derivative model |
|---|---|---|
| What does the token represent? | A claim tied to actual shares or a regulated security structure | Economic exposure created through a contract or derivative |
| Could voting rights exist? | Potentially, depending on product design | Often limited or absent |
| Could dividends pass through? | Potentially, depending on structure | Depends on contract terms |
| Main risk for users | Legal structure, custody, transfer restrictions | Counterparty exposure and tracking design |
Tokenized ETFs may be the cleaner early target. ETFs are already diversified, widely understood, and heavily used by retail and institutional investors. A tokenized S&P 500 ETF, for example, would be easier for many investors to understand than a tokenized slice of a private credit pool.
How would a tokenized Apple share or S&P 500 ETF work inside a crypto wallet?
Start with a simple example. A retail investor wants $100 of exposure to Apple or an S&P 500 ETF from a crypto wallet. The investor pays with a stablecoin and receives a token that tracks or represents that stock or fund.
The front-end experience could feel simple. The plumbing behind it would not be.
A compliant platform would likely need to verify the customer, determine eligibility, route or back the exposure through a regulated structure, issue the token, and record the ownership or economic rights onchain. If the product is built around actual securities, it also has to handle custody, settlement, transfer rules, dividends, corporate actions, and possibly voting.
That’s where the user-facing appeal comes from:
- Fractional access: A user could buy dollar amounts rather than whole shares.
- Faster settlement: Domingo pointed to instant settlement as a major advantage.
- 24/7 transferability: Tokens could move outside normal market hours, if product rules allow it.
- Onchain collateral: Approved assets could plug into lending, margin, or other DeFi-style applications.
- Wallet-native ownership records: The blockchain could record transfers and restrictions directly.
The catch is that the token’s rights depend on its structure. Does the holder get dividends? Can the holder vote? Is redemption available? Who holds the underlying shares? What happens if the issuer fails? Are transfers allowed globally or only among approved investors?
Those questions matter more than the token ticker.
Domingo said Securitize uses smart contracts to restrict ownership to approved investors while allowing assets to move on permissionless networks. That design tries to square two goals that often pull against each other: public blockchain infrastructure and regulated securities compliance.
There’s a useful parallel in consumer finance. Investors often choose tools based on interface simplicity, then later discover the real decision lives in fees, asset allocation, taxes, and constraints. We made a similar point in Pick Wrong, Pay: Robo-Advisors vs Target-Date Funds. Tokenized equities will face the same problem. The app may look clean. The legal and economic rights underneath decide whether the product is serious.
Why are Securitize and other tokenization firms looking beyond Treasuries?
Treasury products proved that institutions will put real assets on public blockchains when the use case is clear. They offer yield, recognizable collateral, and operational benefits. But if the ambition is a trillion-dollar market, equities and ETFs are the larger prize.
Schwab noted that major financial institutions and market exchanges are already moving toward tokenization. It cited steps involving the parent companies of the NYSE and Nasdaq, as well as the firm that processes most U.S. securities transactions. Schwab also noted that BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and Franklin Templeton have tokenized billions of dollars in financial assets, mostly short-term U.S. Treasuries.
For Securitize, the business logic is direct. Regulated issuance, transfer-agent functions, compliant custody, investor verification, and blockchain settlement become more valuable if tokenization shifts from niche private assets to mainstream securities.
CoinDesk reported that Securitize has announced partnerships with the New York Stock Exchange and transfer agent Computershare aimed at enabling on-chain trading and settlement of equities. The company is also preparing to go public and seeks to expand its role as a tokenization provider for institutions, including BlackRock.
That institutional angle matters. Tokenized stocks won’t scale because a crypto exchange lists stock-like tokens offshore. They scale if major issuers, transfer agents, exchanges, custodians, brokerages, and regulators agree on structures that investors can trust.
Domingo’s public-chain preference is also important. He argued that public blockchains, particularly Ethereum, are best positioned to power institutional tokenization despite concerns around transparency and compliance. That’s a direct bet against closed systems becoming the default rails for tokenized securities.
What could slow tokenized stocks before they reach mainstream investors?
The main obstacle is not the token. It’s everything wrapped around it.
Stocks and ETFs are securities. Tokenized versions must deal with registration, broker-dealer rules, exchange rules, transfer restrictions, custody requirements, disclosures, and investor protections. A token can move instantly on a blockchain, but that doesn’t mean securities law lets it move freely to anyone, anywhere, at any time.
Market plumbing is just as hard. Tokenized equities need answers for:
- Settlement: How does onchain settlement connect to existing clearing and settlement systems?
- Dividends: Who receives distributions, and how are they passed through?
- Corporate actions: How do splits, mergers, tender offers, and voting events work?
- Surveillance: Who monitors manipulation across traditional venues and tokenized markets?
- Liquidity: Does trading fragment between exchange-listed shares and tokenized versions?
- Hours: What happens when token trading continues while the underlying market is closed?
Jurisdiction adds another layer. A tokenized stock available in one country may be blocked in another. Crypto users are global by default. Securities regimes are not.
That mismatch can create awkward products. A platform might offer tokenized U.S. equities outside the U.S. but restrict U.S. users. Another might support only approved investors. A third might offer synthetic exposure that looks convenient but lacks the rights Domingo says real tokenized equities should carry.
The trust question is even more basic. Investors need to know who holds the underlying shares, how redemptions work, whether the token tracks the asset accurately, and what legal claim they have if the issuer or intermediary fails.
Without clear answers, tokenized equities risk becoming a branding exercise. With clear answers, they could become a new distribution layer for regulated securities.
How realistic is Domingo’s $5 trillion number?
The $5 trillion target is ambitious, but it isn’t random. Domingo’s math comes from a simple base-rate argument: if the global equities and ETF market is around $150 trillion, then a small onchain share gets very large very fast.
That does not mean the market is close to getting there.
A credible path would need visible milestones:
- Major ETF issuers launching compliant tokenized products with clear rights.
- Large brokerages supporting wallet-based securities access.
- Regulators clarifying how tokenized stocks can trade, settle, and transfer.
- Stablecoin liquidity deep enough to support securities trading at scale.
- Secondary markets with real depth, not just thin pilot listings.
- Institutional safeguards around custody, surveillance, disclosures, and redemptions.
The hype version says tokenized stocks unlock trillions because putting assets onchain makes them better. The stricter version says tokenized stocks only work if they preserve the legal protections and market functions investors already rely on, then add faster settlement and programmable access on top.
Domingo’s claim is less about Securitize alone than about whether crypto rails can carry regulated mainstream finance without giving up the traits that made blockchains interesting in the first place: open infrastructure, programmable assets, and fast movement of value.
The next signal to watch is not another conference quote. It’s whether real tokenized equity products give investors direct, enforceable rights that match the underlying shares, and whether the market around those tokens has enough liquidity and compliance to matter. If that happens, the $5 trillion thesis moves from pitch deck math to a market structure fight.
Disclaimer: This XOOMAR analysis is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not financial, investment, legal, tax, or professional advice. It does not provide buy, sell, hold, price-target, portfolio, or personalized recommendations. Verify information independently and consult qualified professionals before making decisions.
The Bottom Line
- Tokenized stocks could expand crypto beyond native assets and stablecoins into mainstream public markets.
- Even 2% to 3% of global equities and ETFs moving onchain could create a multitrillion-dollar market.
- The opportunity depends on solving major regulatory, custody, trading, and shareholder-rights challenges.
Originally published on XOOMAR. For more news and analysis, visit XOOMAR.
