Bullish, Equiniti, Alpaca, Apex Fintech Solutions and Drivewealth formed the Issuer Sponsored Token Coalition on September 24 to bring genuine shareholder rights to tokenized stocks. The group aims to distinguish between tokens that merely track stock prices and those representing actual ownership recorded on a company's official shareholder register.
The distinction carries real consequences for investors. Tokens currently marketed as tokenized equities often do not confer shareholder status, meaning token holders may lack voting rights, dividend eligibility, and participation in corporate actions despite economic exposure to the stock's price movements.
How Issuer-Sponsored Tokenization Works
Traditional tokenized stock models typically involve a broker holding real shares in custody and issuing tokens against them on a 1:1 basis. Token holders gain economic exposure and potentially receive dividends, but they may not appear on the company's official shareholder register, leaving voting rights and corporate actions in legal uncertainty.
Issuer-sponsored tokenization takes a different approach. The public company and its transfer agent directly participate in the process, connecting tokens to the official ownership record. This allows voting rights, dividends, stock splits and other shareholder privileges to travel with the token.
Regulatory Context and Coalition Members
The timing aligns with regulatory developments. On September 17, the SEC opened a five-year Innovation Exemption allowing certain Tokenized Securities Venues to operate permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools for tokenized National Market System stocks. Qualifying tokens must provide the same rights and privileges as traditional shares, excluding tokens that merely track a stock's price.
Equiniti, which Bullish agreed to acquire in May, serves nearly 3,000 issuer clients and more than 20 million shareholders. As a transfer agent maintaining official shareholder books, Equiniti provides critical infrastructure linking issuer records to onchain systems. Alpaca controls approximately 94% of tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, backed by more than $1.5 billion in underlying shares held in custody. Apex provides clearing and broker-dealer infrastructure, while Drivewealth supplies U.S. stock access to investing platforms worldwide.
Next Steps
The coalition plans to address technical standards, settlement, custody and interoperability between traditional market infrastructure and blockchains. Coalition members will meet with public company issuers at the New York Stock Exchange on October 27 to discuss implementation.
