Collateralized tokens now account for 86.5% of the tokenized stock market, according to recent research. These wrapper tokens are backed by actual shares held by a custodian, with the token existing on a blockchain while the underlying stock sits in a traditional brokerage account.
Issuer-sponsored tokens, where companies directly put their equity on-chain, represent just 6.5% of the market. Synthetic tokens, which track a stock's price rather than represent direct ownership, and other token types make up the remaining 7%.
Market growth and adoption
The tokenized stock market was valued at approximately $3.5 billion to $3.8 billion as of late October 2026. More significantly, between 3.77 million and 5.3 million people now hold tokenized stocks, representing about 82% of all on-chain real-world asset holders.
Major platforms driving this growth include Ondo, Binance bStocks, xStocks, and Robinhood. These platforms target non-US users by offering fractional ownership and 24/7 trading, features traditional exchanges do not provide.
Custody concentration
Custody of the underlying shares is unusually concentrated, with Alpaca custodying shares for approximately 83.5% of the market. This concentration means operational resilience at a single firm carries significant weight for millions of token holders.
Limited DeFi utilization
Utilization of tokenized stocks in lending and decentralized finance sits at an estimated 2% to 7% of total supply. Most tokenized stocks are being bought and held rather than borrowed against or deployed in on-chain strategies. Limited liquidity and volatility are cited as barriers to broader DeFi adoption, as lenders tend to be cautious about collateral that trades thinly or swings sharply.
Regulatory and structural considerations
The dominance of collateralized tokens reflects regulatory advantages in distributing these products globally. Offshore issuance allows platforms to reach large pools of demand without requiring every company to approve tokenization of its shares. However, wrapper token holders may not have the same protections as direct share owners, such as those that come with traditional stock ownership.
