Author | Cubone Wu Blockchain
This article was organized with the help of GPT, solely for information sharing, and does not constitute any investment advice. Readers are advised to strictly comply with local laws and regulations and not participate in illegal financial activities.
After Trump took office, US crypto regulation was comprehensively relaxed, and US stock tokenization became a super hot topic, with almost all major exchanges participating. "Using US Treasury-backed dollar stablecoins to trade US stocks, making America great again - Trump would love this idea!"
On June 30, 2025, Bybit and Kraken respectively launched xStocks products provided by the Swiss compliant asset tokenization platform Backed Finance. The related tokens are backed 1:1 by real stocks, held by regulated custody institutions, and deployed on the Solana chain, enabling 7x24 hour uninterrupted trading and on-chain settlement. Due to compliance restrictions, this service is currently only open to non-US users.
On the same day, Robinhood announced the launch of stock token trading services based on the Arbitrum network in Europe, planning to gradually expand to 7x24 hour trading and tokenize shares of some unlisted companies, including OpenAI and SpaceX. The service is currently not available to US users.
Classification and Comparison of Mainstream Crypto Exchange US Stock Trading Solutions
1. Third-party Issuance + Multi-exchange Access Model (Representative Platforms: Bybit, Kraken, Gemini)
Tokens anchored 1:1 with real stocks are issued by regulated issuers (such as Backed Finance) and deployed on public chains (such as Solana). Crypto exchanges serve as access platforms providing matching services, supporting on-chain transfers and DeFi applications, allowing users to trade 24/7 and enjoy corresponding economic rights (such as dividends). In this model, compliance responsibilities are primarily borne by the issuer, with exchanges mostly not holding securities licenses and typically excluding US users from their services.
2. Licensed Broker Self-built Chain + Self-issued Model (Representative Platform: Robinhood)
Licensed brokers directly issue stock tokens and custody underlying assets, achieving full on-chain integration of issuance, clearing, and settlement. Robinhood currently provides this service based on Arbitrum and plans to launch its own Layer 2 blockchain, Robinhood Chain, supporting user self-custody and 7x24 hour trading. Token holders can obtain economic rights of actual stocks (such as dividends). This model has high compliance and is suitable for strictly regulated markets, but has high technical and compliance barriers, with limited implementation platforms.
3. Contract for Difference (CFD) Model (Representative Platform: Bybit)
Providing US stock price contracts through systems like MT5, allowing users to use USDT margin for long and short leveraged operations without holding actual stocks. This model is convenient for short-term speculation but does not provide shareholders' rights or dividends. CFDs are financial derivatives strictly regulated in European and American markets, with most platforms only open to specific offshore market users without licenses.
Additionally, Coinbase is seeking SEC approval to launch a compliant stock tokenization trading service. The plan aims to issue digital tokens representing stock ownership through blockchain, supporting on-chain settlement and matching. Coinbase has submitted a pilot application to the SEC, and if it receives a No-Action Letter or exemption, it will become one of the first compliant platforms to launch US stock tokenization services in the United States.
Review of Previous Cycle's Stock Tokenization Experiments: FTX, Binance, and Decentralized Protocol Attempts and Failures
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Synthetix (On-chain Synthetic Assets): Synthetix is a veteran decentralized derivatives protocol on Ethereum that launched synthetic US stock assets (Synth) in 2020, such as sTSLA (Tesla synthetic asset) and sAAPL. Its model involves minting synthetic tokens anchored to stock prices by over-collateralizing crypto assets, allowing investors to gain price exposure without holding actual stocks. This synthetic asset model eliminates custodial entities and geographical restrictions, with trading entirely conducted on decentralized exchanges, theoretically enabling permissionless global trading. However, the actual effect was not ideal: taking sTSLA as an example, it had only 798 total on-chain transactions (including minting and redemption) since launch, with consistently low trading volume. Due to insufficient user demand, most market makers were unwilling to bear the short risks and funding costs required for synthetic asset minting, leading to gradually depleting liquidity. Additionally, regulatory concerns (these synthetic stocks circumvent securities regulation) led Synthetix to gradually delist US stock Synths after 2021, shifting towards forex and other derivative fields, marking the failure of the synthetic US stock pathway. This experience demonstrates that a purely decentralized stock token model without real asset backing is unsustainable, struggling to find a viable business model and product-market fit (PMF).
Future Trend Discussion: Can It Be Compliant?
[The rest of the translation follows the same professional and accurate approach, maintaining the original meaning while translating into clear English.]In summary, the new wave of tokenized securities is backed by a more friendly policy environment and more mature technical solutions, providing a more solid foundation compared to the previous cycle. If regulatory openness and industry self-discipline move forward together - with both the relaxed policies and legal protections promoted by the Trump administration and the industry's high regard for compliance and risk control - tokenized US stock products may gradually develop sustainably, becoming an organic bridge connecting traditional financial markets and the Web3 world. Of course, this process will be gradual: only when the market truly finds user demand pain points and provides unique value (such as achieving global market 7×24 linkage, new liquidity mining opportunities, etc.), can tokenized securities shed the "conceptual gimmick" label and usher in large-scale compliant implementation and widespread application.
