Tokenized Stocks Face New Challenges as Wall Street Accelerates

At a gathering in Geneva, BeInCrypto led a conversation about the infrastructure required to move capital markets onto blockchains. Panelists from Zama, G-20 Group, Blobb.io, and Rex Change said tokenization now confronts a more demanding test: creating onchain markets that are liquid, private, compliant, and genuinely valuable for institutional users.

Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange Group are pushing equities onto blockchain rails. A recent public dispute over AMC tokens highlights why the underlying infrastructure now matters more than the tokens themselves.

Wall Street’s Tokenization Race Accelerated This Week.

Nasdaq agreed to invest $100 million in Payward, the parent company of Kraken, to build infrastructure for tokenized stocks. A few days earlier, London Stock Exchange Group partnered with Payward on tokenized UK shares and a planned venue for round-the-clock trading.

Yet a more difficult question is already surfacing: What actually happens when stocks are moved onchain?

This topic took center stage in “The New Financial Stack,” a panel discussion moderated by BeInCrypto at the Onchain Leaders Gathering on September 8 in Geneva.

Florent Gabriel from Blobb.io, Jonathan Mathai from G-20 Group, Antoine Hello from Zama, and François Meurier from Rex Change examined the obstacles institutions still face in infrastructure, liquidity, confidentiality, and market access.

“True enterprise adoption happens when we move beyond isolated proofs-of-concept,” said Antoine Hello, Director of Financial Institutions at Zama, a firm that builds confidential blockchain infrastructure for financial institutions.

Before the event, Hello argued that institutions require public blockchain systems that can handle real transaction volumes while keeping sensitive financial data secure.

François Meurier presented the challenge more bluntly.

“Not in theory but how it works in practice. We do this every day,” said Meurier, Founder and Managing Director of Rex Change, a regulated crypto exchange and OTC service based in Geneva.

A Parallel Stock Market Is Already Forming

The market has grown large enough to demand attention. As of September 10, RWA.xyz recorded $2.91 billion in distributed tokenized stocks and $13.31 billion in monthly transfer volume. Over 3.17 million addresses held these assets.

Growth, however, is not consistent. The number of holders rose 174% over 30 days, while monthly transfer volume declined by almost 53%. That discrepancy matters if institutions expect deep, reliable markets rather than just a larger number of tokens.

Tokenizing a Stock Does Not Solve the Stock Market

The AMC case has already revealed another issue: ownership.

CEO Adam Aron criticized Robinhood after it began offering tokenized exposure to AMC without the company’s approval. The products track the stock price, but holders do not actually own AMC shares or enjoy standard shareholder rights. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has defended the setup, arguing that companies cannot control every third-party financial product linked to their shares.

The World Federation of Exchanges has taken a more critical stance, labeling some third-party tokenized equities as “mimics” and warning that they could undermine investor protections and market integrity.

That tension also emerged elsewhere in Geneva.

“We’re very much in production now,” said Diana-Cezara Toader, Head of Digital Assets at UBS Asset Management, during a different panel on moving tokenization from pilot projects into live markets. She identified liquidity, shared infrastructure, and regulation as the remaining hurdles to broader adoption.

Francesco Ranieri Fabracci distilled the issue down to a single statement.

“To tokenize something, you need to make the token useful,” said Fabracci, Head of Tokenization Expansion at Tether, where he works on Hadron, the company’s platform for putting real-world assets onchain.

Nasdaq and LSEG indicate Wall Street is prepared to test that idea on a large scale.

The infrastructure now must show that an onchain stock can offer the liquidity, privacy, and investor protections that made the original stock useful in the first place.