Original | Odaily (@OdailyChina）
Author | Golem (@web3_golem）
Recently, the keywords "crypto" and "US stocks" have been frequently linked together. On one hand, US-listed companies have been rushing to buy crypto assets, with companies like SharpLink and GameStop seeing their stock prices significantly boosted in the short term through this strategy; on the other hand, crypto companies are embarking on the path of US stock IPOs. Circle, the issuer of USDC stablecoin, closed at $107.7 on its first week of listing on June 6, a 247.4% increase from its IPO price of $31. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes also posted that Circle's listing would be the beginning of a crypto IPO frenzy.
Such a heated scene has made crypto enthusiasts itch with envy, but if this is truly a new liquidity feast, how could they be willing to miss out? Therefore, under this trend, on-chain stock trading has become a hot topic.
Securities tokenization (STO) actually existed before the birth of RWA (Real World Assets). During 2020-2021, platforms like FTX and Binance launched stock tokenization trading services. However, the crypto regulatory environment at that time was not friendly, and the securities tokenization trading business could not continue. But with the improvement of the US crypto regulatory environment and the increasing integration of crypto and traditional finance, companies like Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and Robinhood have also begun to explore stock tokenization business.
Under these favorable conditions, on-chain securities trading platforms may become the next trend. Odaily will list the platforms in the market that allow purchasing US stocks with crypto assets for readers' reference.
Bybit
Centralized exchange Bybit launched USDT-based stock CFD (Contract for Difference) trading on its TradFi platform on May 19. Bybit TradFi is a multi-asset trading platform that allows traders to enter global financial markets with a single account. Users only need to create an MT5 account to directly trade US stocks using USDT as collateral. The stocks currently include 78 stocks, including Apple (AAPL), Tesla (TSLA), Nvidia (NVDA), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), and Alphabet (GOOG), with the complete stock list available in the official announcement.
Unlike stock spot trading, stock CFD trading does not actually purchase stocks, but trades directly based on price movements. When users open a CFD position on the Bybit TradFi platform, they essentially sign a contract with the platform to settle the difference between the opening and closing stock prices, with users able to use up to 5x leverage.
Bybit charges 0.04 USDT per share, with a minimum trading size of 5 USDT.
MyStonks
MyStonks is a decentralized crypto asset trading platform created on the basis of the Meme coin Stonks community CTO, where users can also purchase US stocks in the Stonks 100 section, including 95 US stocks such as AAPL, AMZN, DIS, GOOGL, META, MSFT, NFLX, NVDA, and 5 crypto and stock ETFs listed in the US.
When users purchase US stocks on the MyStonks platform, MyStonks will mint corresponding stock tokens at a 1:1 ratio on the Base chain and send them to the user's on-chain wallet address. When users sell stock tokens, MyStonks will perform the reverse operation, converting stock tokens to stablecoins and transferring them to the user's account, while simultaneously burning the corresponding stock tokens at a 1:1 ratio. The trading process uses Chainlink oracle as the quote provider. The platform charges a 0.3% fee for stock token trading.
MyStonks is not just a simple on-chain data platform. When users buy and sell stock tokens, MyStonks also buys and sells the corresponding stocks off-chain at a 1:1 ratio, with assets managed by global asset management giant Fidelity. The first batch of assets under MyStonks' custody reached $50 million.
Ondo Finance
Ondo Finance is a decentralized institutional-level financial protocol that has partnered with the Trump family project WLFI and is a popular target for the "American coin" concept. As early as February 5, Ondo Finance announced the upcoming launch of its RWA tokenization trading platform Ondo Global Markets (Ondo GM), which will allow users to buy and sell stock, bond, and ETF tokens backed 1:1 by real-world assets. However, this service is not available to US users.
All RWA tokens on Ondo Global Markets will be natively issued on the Ondo Chain, and users can interact with other chains through the built-in cross-chain function of Ondo Chain. Ondo Global Markets plans to launch later this year, with the specific time yet to be announced by the official team.
Backed
Backed is a Swiss asset tokenization issuer primarily focused on tokenizing stocks and ETFs. Backed has launched 10 US stock tokens on multiple chains, including bCOIN, bCSPX, bTSLA, bNVDA, bMSTR, etc. However, Backed itself has not launched a US stock token trading platform. Users can directly trade its issued stock tokens on on-chain DEXs like CoW swap and 1inch.
Backed complies with the Swiss DLT law regulatory framework and is one of the few compliant US stock tokenization platforms. Backed also uses a 1:1 collateralization method, purchasing the corresponding stocks in the secondary market for each stock token minted on-chain. The stock assets are managed by a Swiss custody bank and regularly publish proof of reserves.
Backed completed a $9.5 million funding round on April 30, 2024, led by Gnosis VC, with participation from cyber Fund, Blockchain Founders Fund, and Stake Capital. Recently, Backed has partnered with centralized exchange Kraken to plan a new stock tokenization trading platform called xStocks, with the specific launch time yet to be determined.
Dinari
Dinari is a compliant infrastructure platform focused on tokenizing traditional securities assets (such as stocks, bonds, ETFs). Users can trade nearly a hundred US stocks on its US stock token trading platform dShare, including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Coinbase. However, users need to complete KYC to trade, and the platform currently only supports KYC for the US and Canada regions, requiring users to provide government-issued identity documents (driver's license, passport, etc.) and proof of residence (current utility bill, bank statement showing address, etc.).
On Dinari, US stocks exist in the form of dShares, which are ERC-20 tokens on Arbitrum One. dShares are only minted when purchasing stocks from securities exchanges, implementing a 1:1 collateralization method. Dinari is a compliant stock transfer agent registered with the US SEC, so the US stock assets behind dShares are managed by Dinari.
Users can trade US stock tokens on-chain using stablecoins like USDT, and token holders can also receive dividend distributions. Dividends are issued by Dinari to users, with US stock token holders receiving dividends in the form of USD+ on Arbitrum One, a stablecoin asset issued by Dinari. Additionally, each transaction on the Ethereum mainnet will incur a fixed fee of $10, while transactions on L2 will have a fixed fee of $0.2 per order.
Dinari explicitly stated that it will not launch a Dinari token. On May 1, 2025, Dinari completed a Series A funding round of $12.7 million, led by Blockchange and Hack VC, with participation from Blizzard Fund, VanEck, F-Prime Capital, Factor Capital, Arete Capital, Sequoia Capital China, and Silvermine Capital.
Helix
Helix is a decentralized crypto exchange built on Injective, primarily used for trading cross-chain spot and perpetual contract markets. It also supports trading some US stocks using USDT, including 13 stocks such as META, TSLA, NVDA, MSTR, and COIN.
US stocks on Helix exist in the form of iAssets, a real-world asset (RWA) derivative that brings traditional markets like stocks, commodities, and forex to Injective in a fully on-chain, composable, and capital-efficient manner. iAssets do not require pre-funding or wrapping of underlying assets; instead, they purely exist as synthetic derivatives without custodied US stock assets.
Therefore, iAssets can be traded exactly like other on-chain perpetual contract tokens, with 7*24 trading availability. Users can use USDT or other stablecoins as margin, with a leverage of 25x for US stocks. Positions are settled in USDT, not physical delivery. The maker and taker fees are 0.005% and 0.05%, respectively.
Currently, Helix has launched a trading points program, but the referral rewards are still in the internal testing phase.
Swarm
Swarm is a compliant DeFi infrastructure for token issuance, liquidity, and trading. Users can trade US stock tokens and gold through its DEX dOTC, including 12 US stock tokens such as AAPL, NVDA, MSFT, COIN, and TSLA. Swarm supports users purchasing US stock tokens using stablecoins like USDC on Ethereum mainnet, Polygon, and Base, with a trading fee set at 0.25%.
US stock tokens on Swarm are issued by SwarmX GmbH, a subsidiary of Swarm. These tokens are 100% backed by physical stocks, with underlying US stock assets held by institutional custodians and verified by token trustees. Reserve asset information is publicly disclosed monthly.
DigiFT
DigiFT is a Singapore-compliant RWA crypto exchange, licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as a Recognized Market Operator (RMO) and Capital Markets Services (CMS) provider. On February 28, 2023, DigiFT completed a Pre-A funding round of $10.5 million, led by Shanda Group, with participation from HashKey Capital, Hash Global, Xin Enterprise, and North Capital.
DigiFT currently offers two products: an iSNR structured note linked to Invesco's US Senior Loan Strategy performance and a UMINT UBS-USD money market investment fund token. KYC-verified users can purchase these products using stablecoins like USDC on the Ethereum mainnet.
Although DigiFT has not yet directly launched tokenized US stock products, focusing mainly on RWA assets like funds and bonds, it may potentially open up the market for securities tokenization in the future.
US Stock Tokenization Needs to Find a New Product-Market Fit to Truly Ignite the Market
US stock tokenization indeed offers multiple advantages, such as breaking geographical and KYC restrictions, supporting 24/7 trading, enabling non-US users to hold US assets at low cost, and avoiding high cross-border transaction fees. However, despite institutional predictions of a trillion-dollar RWA market, according to RWA.xyz data, the entire RWA scale is now only about $23 billion, with tokenized stocks accounting for just $313 million, far from the anticipated scale.
The root cause is that most US stock tokenization trading platforms' compliance models are not yet mature, with issues of "data manipulation" and lack of transparency, and some may lack qualifications entirely. Platforms with comprehensive compliance credentials impose KYC/AML restrictions that are nearly or even more stringent than traditional brokers, providing little practical convenience for crypto users.
Moreover, the US stock market already has a mature, transparent, and compliant secondary market. For users genuinely interested in trading US stocks, the entry barriers are no different from traditional brokers and may even be more complicated in some aspects, failing to provide substantial convenience. More critically, for crypto-native users seeking high-frequency, high-volatility arbitrage, US stock assets' price ranges are too narrow, lacking the excitement of crypto contracts or on-chain meme coins. Memes like James and Liang Xi could only emerge in the crypto market, not the US stock market.
Therefore, simply "moving" US stocks on-chain is insufficient to attract crypto capital. To truly ignite the market, platforms and project teams need to find a new product-market fit.
Nevertheless, the future of US stock tokenization still holds broad imaginative potential. Once the core needs of crypto users are captured and a true product-market fit is found in product design, on-chain US stock trading will no longer be a gimmick but a bridge connecting global capital markets with the Web3 world.
