Wall Street is moving onto blockchain, potentially giving global, non-U.S. based cryptocurrency investors something they haven’t traditionally found in their home digital asset market: exposure to (mostly) U.S. publicly traded companies, including some of the world’s biggest technology firms.

"Tokenization is expanding what can exist and move onchain," said Wish Wu, CEO of the Pharos Network based in Hong Kong. "I don’t expect tokenized securities to replace crypto investing. The more likely outcome is that both become part of a broader, more connected onchain financial system. Tokenization becomes more than a new way to hold a stock. It becomes part of a new financial system," he said.

The London Stock Exchange is working with Kraken parent Payward on tokenized equities. On September 10, 2026, Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) announced a $100 million strategic investment agreement with Payward, alongside expanded collaboration on tokenized equities and around-the-clock market infrastructure.

New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) is developing blockchain-based securities infrastructure, and the SEC has opened a regulatory pathway for certain tokenized shares to trade onchain.

Michael Steuer, president and chief technology officer at Casper Association in Zug, Switzerland, thinks tokenized equities can plausibly raise the pressure on speculative cryptocurrencies, but is unlikely to replace Bitcoin or other major blockchain coins like Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH).

The shift raises a question for market participants that allow for trading tokenized stocks, and for cryptocurrency investors more broadly. If blockchain technology can support trading in conventional stocks, what happens to cryptocurrencies whose primary attraction is speculative price appreciation? Wish Wu doesn’t think it changes the crypto currency investing landscape. Speculators will still be buying meme coins and the alt-blockchains in hopes a $1 turns into $2 instead of $0.10, which has been the trend for crypto investors since Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) fell from its $100,000 moon landing.

“Once investors can hold productive assets onchain, a token whose only proposition is that someone else will buy it for more faces stronger competition,” Steuer said.

What’s So Great About Tokenization?

The benefits of tokenization are not equally compelling for everyone. American investors already have access to inexpensive trades on trading platforms. They already have access to fractional-share ownership or access to sophisticated brokerage platforms.  Simply putting a stock on a blockchain doesn’t necessarily make it a better, or safer, investment, but it does make it more accessible for global investors, including, in the future, retail investors.

The change to tokenized stocks could also challenge how investors access stocks. Tokenized securities promise faster settlement, around-the-clock trading and the potential to use holdings as collateral across compatible financial platforms. It also threatens to throw valuations out of whack as investors from around the world who never had access to a U.S. stock, can conceivably buy them from their homes in Jakarta and Shanghai.

The bigger question is whether blockchain technology changes what investors can do with their securities, and whether the traditional financial institutions embracing the technology will ultimately capture more of its economic value than the cryptocurrencies that popularized it.

"Eligible investors in poorly served markets could gain new channels," said Steuer. "But those benefits will depend on the legal structure, participating institutions and available liquidity in those tokenized securities. None of that stuff is automatic," he said, adding that around-the-clock trading is useful, but a market being open does not guarantee a fair price.  The industry has to demonstrate better outcomes, not just a tokenized stock purchase at 3 in the morning.

"The investor’s first question should be: what exactly do I own?" said Steuer about tokenized securities. "What happens to voting rights, dividend payments, redemptions and my money if a tokenized provider fails? A product that adds another counterparty while weakening protections is not progress simply because it is onchain."

The World Federation of Exchanges warned in May 2026 that certain third-party stock tokens could imitate securities without providing equivalent ownership rights or investor protections.

In 2025, Citadel Securities wrote to the SEC and gave their take on tokenization. It wasn’t favorable. 

Like stablecoins, tokenized securities – essentially morphing traditional stocks and bonds into a crypto product – is what is driving the excitement in the cryptocurrency markets today. Bitcoin and Ethereum have never returned to their highs and are nowhere near it. Meanwhile, the market expansion is all tokenization and stablecoins.

In May, Ondo Finance (CRYPTO: ONDO) reported $1 billion in tokenized-stock total value locked in under eight months, with $18 billion in cumulative trading volume. That’s compelling early adoption evidence for this segment of the market.

*The writer invests in Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.