SEC has approved, and major exchanges are clustering to layout tokenized stocks.

Written by: TanayVed

Translated by: Chopper, Foresight News

Crypto exchanges are stepping out of the positioning of a single crypto asset trading platform, transforming into "universal exchanges," integrating spot, derivatives, tokenized assets, and on-chain infrastructure within the same system. Leading trading platforms are now building a complete technology stack to bridge the native crypto market and traditional financial market.

Kraken and its parent company Payward's transformation is highly representative. Relying on the xStocks product, self-researched Ethereum Layer 2 network Ink, along with the recently announced compliant on-chain derivatives layout, Payward is constructing a complete technology system for tokenized stocks. In September, Nasdaq's venture capital department announced a deepened partnership with Payward to jointly promote the infrastructure for tokenized stocks; meanwhile, Payward plans to launch regulated, licensed on-chain perpetual futures for US users through Hyperliquid's HIP-3.

As these series of actions were introduced, it coincided with the SEC's release of the "Innovation Exemption Rule." This also indicates that exchanges, issuers, and market infrastructure service providers are collectively promoting the tokenized stock track from different directions. This article will review the development scale of tokenized stock trading and RWA perpetual contracts at leading exchanges this year, interpret the impact of the SEC's innovation exemption rules, and discuss the industry's competition progress in building the "universal exchange."

The Battle for Tokenized Stocks

Each exchange's approach to entering the tokenized stock track differs, but the common goal is to integrate tokenized stock spot, derivatives, and blockchain infrastructure to build a broader multi-asset trading system.

• Kraken/Payward: Relying on xStocks to provide spot exposure and plans to launch domestic derivatives in the United States through the Hyperliquid HIP-3 program. xStocks is issued by Backed Finance, giving users economic returns corresponding to the stocks, with dividends distributed through a reinterest method. Kraken's collaboration with Nasdaq will help it develop tokenized products that retain shareholder rights, serving as a parallel product line to xStocks.
• Binance launched bStocks in June, achieving an asset management scale of $500 million within 7 weeks. Similar to xStocks, bStocks is a certificate-type product representing financial returns from the underlying stocks, without voting rights, and redemption can only occur during traditional stock market trading hours.
• Coinbase issues tokenized stocks based on the B20 standard, specifically designed for real-world assets on the Base chain. Coinbase claims that each token corresponds to a direct claim on the underlying stock, with the underlying assets held by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) regulated by Alpaca in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM); only "authorized holders" who complete KYC can redeem assets and exercise voting rights, while all holders can receive dividend rights.
• Hyperliquid positions itself as an infrastructure and liquidity layer for third-party developers to build applications. Since August, the platform has launched parts of the xStocks spot market, allowing developers to deploy perpetual contracts for stocks, indices, and commodities using HIP-3. Kraken plans to launch compliant perpetual contracts for US users through its Bitnomial subsidiary, regulated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), making it a typical case of this model.
• Robinhood launched stock tokens on the Robinhood Chain in July. The product structure is debt securities issued by Jersey SPV; dividends are distributed through an on-chain multiplier mechanism with currently no voting rights or shareholder rights, but Robinhood states that future roadmaps will support physical stock redemptions and voting rights.

Other platforms are also entering this field: OKX launched tokenized stocks on the OKX X Layer public chain; Backpack launched relevant products on the Solana chain, adopting a US brokerage structure, which is closer to traditional shareholder rights compared to most similar products.

Tokenized Stocks and Perpetual Contracts: Current Ground Progress

Although the overall trading volume of cryptocurrency has declined this year, the sizes of tokenized stock spot and RWA perpetual futures at major platforms have shown significant growth.

This year, the trading volume of spot tokenized stocks on platforms such as xStocks, Ondo, and bStocks has surged, particularly driven by Binance's entry. After Binance launched bStocks in June, related trading volume grew from almost zero to over $3.7 billion within a few months. The increase in asset issuance also boosted the activity of decentralized exchanges and Automated Market Makers (AMMs) in the secondary market, particularly the ongoing growth of stock token-related businesses on Uniswap v4 on the Robinhood Chain.

Spot trading volume of tokenized stocks at various exchanges, data source: Talos CM Market Data

The changes in the perpetual futures market are even more pronounced. The proportion of stocks and commodity perpetual contracts in total futures trading volume continues to rise; this year, the trading volume share of this category at Binance and Hyperliquid rose to 20% and over 40%, respectively. Exchanges continue to diversify their revenue sources, reducing reliance on pure cryptocurrency trading, which is expected to weaken business cyclicality; as the market gradually shifts to 24/7 trading, this will form a more robust growth engine.

Proportion of RWA perpetual contract trading volume to total perpetual contract trading volume at various exchanges, data source: Talos CM Market Data

Only Kraken's xStocks has already accumulated a considerable scale on the Ethereum and Solana networks. In September, the number of active addresses participating in xStocks interactions significantly increased, and the asset distribution and usage scenarios continued to expand, covering centralized/on-chain trading platforms, liquidity pools, and lending protocols.

Number of active addresses for xStocks, data source: Talos CM Network Data Pro

SEC Innovation Exemption: Who Will Benefit?

On September 17, 2026, the SEC launched a five-year innovation exemption rule: qualifying tokenized securities trading platforms (TSV) can conduct tokenized stock on-chain trading through licensed Automated Market Makers (AMM) without registering as traditional exchanges. To qualify for the exemption, tokens must possess traditional shareholder rights, including dividends and voting rights, and must be issued by a company or by a non-related third party with no objections from the issuer.

Infrastructure solutions highly compatible with the SEC framework include: Securitize and Superstate's issuer-native + transfer agent model, Dinari's custody architecture, and DTCC's own DTC custody securities tokenization pilot. The whitelist pool model of Uniswap v4 is also expected to benefit. Additionally, Nasdaq's equity token design scheme, as well as Kraken and Coinbase's B20, point to exchanges developing product models that can fully retain shareholder rights.

However, the current dominant trading volumes from xStocks, bStocks, and Robinhood stock tokens, based on existing frameworks, do not fall under the coverage of this exemption rule.

The overall market response is positive, with tokens and equity assets related to tokenized stock infrastructure generally rising, regardless of whether their underlying frameworks meet the requirements of the exemption terms directly.

Conclusion

Crypto trading platforms are transitioning into multi-asset platforms, and traditional assets are beginning to adopt the 24/7, programmable structures pioneered by the crypto industry. The growth of xStocks, bStocks, Coinbase B20, Robinhood stock tokens, and RWA perpetual contracts proves that there is a forming demand for spot and derivatives exposure to stocks.

The tokenization model's coverage is broad, ranging from issuer-native equity and custody receipt certificates to pure derivatives. Various solutions are, to some extent, exchanging ownership for greater accessibility. The industry is still in its early stages, and which model will ultimately prevail remains unknown. For exchanges, this means a more diversified revenue structure; for the entire market, the boundaries between crypto assets and traditional assets are continuously blurring.