Tokenized Stocks Show Real Demand But Remain Volatile and Illiquid, IMF Finds

Tokenized stocks may be a small market, but their traders aren’t keeping Wall Street hours.

More than half of tokenized equity trading happens outside regular U.S. market hours, according to the International Monetary Fund’s latest Global Financial Stability Report. About 80% of trades involve less than a full share, a sign of strong demand for fractional ownership among retail investors.

Tokenized stocks are blockchain-based tokens that track the shares of publicly traded companies. The IMF studied the five most liquid tokenized U.S. equities, including tokens tracking Tesla, Nvidia, and the S&P 500, across 11 trading venues over 365 days.

The data suggest onchain prices carry real information. When markets reopened, traditional shares absorbed 87% to 99% of the overnight price moves their tokenized counterparts had made, the IMF found.

The drawbacks are just as clear. Tokenized equities were roughly 1.5 times more volatile than the underlying stocks and far less liquid, particularly on decentralized exchanges, where prices strayed further from traditional markets.

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The market is also tiny and concentrated: it’s worth about $2.3 billion, and Ondo Finance and Backed Finance’s xStocks account for more than 70% of it. Both issue synthetic tokens that offer price exposure without direct share ownership, according to the IMF.

Given the market’s early stage, the IMF said its findings “should be interpreted with caution,” and that systemic risks remain limited for now. It urged regulators to consider circuit breakers for 24/7 trading and to monitor links to traditional markets more closely. Earlier this year, the IMF warned that tokenized finance and stablecoins could amplify financial crises.

The report lands as U.S. heavyweights race into the tokenization space.

The NYSE plans to reach crypto investors through Blockchain.com, and NYSE owner ICE is working with OKX on 24/7 tokenized stock trading under the SEC’s new innovation exemption.

Securitize has also recently brought tokenized stocks—including Nvidia, Apple and Amazon shares—to Solana, with more blockchain networks to come. Cboe has struck an S&P deal for tokenized options, and Coinbase launched tokenized stocks for non-U.S. users on Base in August.