Ethereum accounts for nearly 54% of global stablecoin value, providing an established settlement network for tokenized equities. Third-party issuers are expanding access to U.S. stocks withou
Ethereum’s tokenized stock market has reached $827 million, rising 170% over the past year as asset-backed equity products gain traction beyond traditional brokerage infrastructure.
The October 31 figures, published by Token Terminal Research in X, show a market increasingly built around a familiar structure: financial intermediaries acquire conventional assets and issue corresponding blockchain tokens.
Ethereum hosts 54% of all stablecoins
86% of tokenized stocks use a similar issuance model: 1:1 backing, no underlying asset issuer involvement needed
With stocks on Ethereum up 170% YoY to $827M, investors should watch if the stablecoin success repeats for another asset class https://t.co/CYh0Zk8oPW
— Token Terminal
(@tokenterminal) October 31, 2026
According to the research, 86% of tokenized stocks use one-to-one backing arrangements that do not require direct involvement from the underlying companies.
The approach resembles the reserve-backed model that helped stablecoins scale. But unlike dollar tokens, tokenized equities must account for dividends, shareholder entitlements and the legal relationship between investors and custodians.
The market is no longer limited to experimental securities issued by blockchain-native companies.
Ondo Finance offers tokenized exposure to major U.S.-listed companies and exchange-traded funds, including Nvidia, Tesla, Amazon and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF.
Its products use recognizable tickers with an added suffix, such as NVDAon, TSLAon and SPYon.
Meanwhile, xStocks, distributed through platforms including Kraken, offers asset-backed representations such as Apple’s AAPLx and Tesla’s TSLAx.
Both models illustrate how third-party issuance can broaden the selection of securities available on blockchain networks without requiring every listed company to develop its own tokenization system.
The commercial distinction lies in the relationship between the token holder and the underlying asset.
Kraken’s official xStocks documentation states that each token is backed by the corresponding equity held in regulated custody. However, holders do not receive conventional shareholder voting rights or cash dividends directly.
Instead, the economic benefit of dividends is reflected through adjustments to token balances.
That arrangement provides market exposure, but it is not identical to owning shares through a conventional brokerage account.
Kraken also restricts xStocks access by jurisdiction. The products are available to eligible non-U.S. clients, while investors in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia are excluded.
For eligible users, trading can occur through Kraken’s interface, with certain tokens also transferable to compatible blockchain wallets.
Ethereum’s stablecoin dominance gives tokenized stock issuers access to an existing ecosystem of wallets, exchanges and dollar-denominated settlement assets.
That matters commercially. Investors holding stablecoins on the network can potentially acquire tokenized equities without first transferring funds into a traditional brokerage system.
For issuers, the infrastructure also provides a distribution channel that would be expensive to replicate independently.
However, the scale difference remains substantial.
Ethereum’s reported tokenized stock value represents approximately 0.52% of the stablecoin value held on the network.
The two markets also serve different purposes. Stablecoins function primarily as payment and settlement instruments, while equities expose holders to changing asset prices and corporate events.
The more useful comparison is therefore not market size alone, but whether tokenized securities can develop recurring trading activity and sustainable issuance economics.
The regulatory treatment of tokenized stocks depends on how the instruments are structured.
In a January 28 statement, SEC divisions distinguished securities tokenized by their issuers from products created by unaffiliated third parties.
The agency emphasized that different structures can provide different rights to holders.
The distinction became more significant in September, when the SEC approved a temporary innovation exemption for certain tokenized stock trading venues.
The exemption allows qualifying permissioned automated market maker systems to facilitate trading in tokenized National Market System stocks, subject to conditions.
Those conditions include preserving rights equivalent to conventional shares and allowing companies to object to certain unaffiliated tokenization arrangements.
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins described the initiative as a step toward facilitating onchain stock trading while regulators consider longer-term rules.
The exemption is not a blanket authorization for every existing tokenized stock product. Its requirements apply to venues operating under that specific framework.
This creates an important difference between platforms providing economic exposure through third-party instruments and venues seeking to trade tokens carrying the full rights of underlying shares.
Token Terminal’s annual growth figure implies that approximately $521 million has been added to Ethereum’s tokenized equity market value over 12 months.
That increase cannot be interpreted entirely as new investor capital.
A portion may reflect appreciation in the underlying securities, while the remainder may come from additional tokens entering circulation.
Determining the contribution of each factor requires product-level issuance and valuation data.
For investors evaluating the sector, three measures offer a clearer picture of adoption: secondary-market turnover, the ability to redeem tokens efficiently and the concentration of outstanding value among individual products.
A market dominated by a small number of highly valued equity tokens could grow rapidly without developing broad trading depth.
Conversely, expanding transaction activity across multiple issuers and venues would provide stronger evidence that tokenized stocks are becoming an established financial product rather than a niche custody arrangement.
Ethereum already has the settlement infrastructure and dollar liquidity to support that expansion. The unresolved commercial question is how much conventional equity trading can migrate onto blockchain networks while preserving the protections investors expect from securities markets.
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