Major cryptocurrency platforms are moving towards offering tokens that track U.S. stocks, creating an alternative market outside the purview of U.S. regulatory oversight, according to The Information on Friday.
The report, citing a person familiar with the plan, stated that Binance is exploring a relaunch of stock tokens on its platform after removing them in 2021. OKX is also considering offering tokenized stocks, according to Haider Rafiq, the global managing partner and chief marketing officer at the company.
Many platforms are already offering these products, including Kraken, Bitget, and the decentralized Jupiter platform, which is gaining momentum with its private equity token offerings.
Tokenized stocks represent shares in companies like Apple and Nvidia, allowing investors to trade them on external cryptocurrency platforms even when U.S. markets are closed. These tokens also provide market access for investors who cannot open U.S. brokerage accounts and enable trading anonymously.
While the market is still small compared to traditional stock markets, it is expanding rapidly. The total value of traded tokenized stocks reached $915.0000 million, an increase of 19.0000% from last month, according to the data analysis platform RWA.xyz. In comparison, the market capitalization of the S&P 500 is about $60.0000 trillion.