Tokenized stocks are blockchain tokens that represent ownership of public equity shares held 1:1 by a regulated custodian. Issuers like Backed Finance, Dinari, Kraken xStocks, and Ondo mint these tokens onchain so investors can trade, transfer, and use them in DeFi 24/7. As of Q1 2026, tokenized equities account for roughly $300M in onchain AUM per rwa.xyz, with most issuance live on Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Base, and Plume. Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia wrappers (such as bX-AAPL or dSAAPL) are now tradable alongside traditional crypto assets.
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A tokenized stock is a blockchain-issued token that represents legal or economic ownership of one share of a publicly listed equity. The issuer holds the underlying share with a regulated custodian and mints a matching token onchain. Each token tracks the share price, pays dividends through, and is redeemable for cash or the underlying.
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The structure separates two functions that the traditional brokerage stack bundles together: custody (who holds the legal share) and distribution (how investors buy, sell, and transfer the position). With tokenization, custody stays in the regulated perimeter — Apex Clearing, Bridge, Coinbase Custody, InCore Bank, and similar regulated entities — while distribution moves onchain to wallets, DEXs, and lending protocols. The token is a bearer-style claim that settles in seconds on a public blockchain rather than T+1 through the DTCC.
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Naming conventions vary by issuer. Backed Finance uses a bX- prefix (bX-AAPL, bX-TSLA, bX-COIN). Dinari uses dShares with a dS prefix (dSAAPL, dSTSLA). Kraken xStocks uses xStocks wrappers (AAPLx, TSLAx) deployed on Solana. The token symbol is cosmetic; the contract address and the issuer's transparency report are what matter.
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Tokenization works through a four-step issuance loop: an eligible investor wires fiat to the issuer, the issuer buys the underlying share through a brokerage and parks it with a regulated custodian, the issuer mints a matching ERC-20 (or SPL) token onchain, and the token is delivered to the investor's wallet. Redemption reverses the process — burn the token, sell the underlying, wire fiat out.
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The custodian relationship is the load-bearing piece. Backed Finance uses InCore Bank in Switzerland and is registered under Liechtenstein's TVTG framework, with monthly attestations published on its transparency page. Dinari uses U.S. broker-dealer custody and operates under SEC Reg A+ for some products, with each dShare backed 1:1 and attestations filed with its transfer agent. Kraken's xStocks program, launched in 2026, uses Backed as the issuance partner and settles wrappers on Solana for retail outside the United States.
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Two design splits matter for buyers:

Dividends pass through to token holders. Backed credits dividends as additional tokens or USDC airdrops; Dinari distributes via USDC to the holder of record at the ex-dividend block. Corporate actions (splits, special dividends, mergers) are handled by the issuer adjusting balances or burning and re-minting.
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Tokenized equities are live on Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Base, and Plume as of Q1 2026, with each chain selected for a specific distribution lane. Ethereum is the canonical home for institutional issuance and DeFi composability. Solana hosts Kraken xStocks for retail outside the U.S. Arbitrum and Base extend EVM access at lower gas costs. Plume is the RWA-specific L2 that hosts dShares and similar products.
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Coverage by issuer is uneven. Backed's bX tokens deploy primarily on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Gnosis, and Base. Dinari's dShares are issued on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Base, with Plume added in 2026 for its RWA-native stack. Kraken xStocks settle on Solana, where Solana's $5.5B TVL (DeFiLlama, May 2026) provides DEX liquidity through Jupiter and Raydium. Ondo's tokenized public-equity work is built on its Ondo Chain roadmap alongside USDY ($2.1B supply per DeFiLlama).
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Cross-chain transfers between deployments are not always native. Some issuers re-mint on the destination chain by burning on the source; others rely on LayerZero or Wormhole adapters. Verify the bridging path before assuming an arbitrary chain pair is supported.
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Eligibility varies sharply by product and jurisdiction. Most tokenized stock issuers gate at the mint level: U.S. retail is excluded from non-registered offerings (Reg S), while qualified or accredited investors can access Reg D pathways. Dinari is the notable exception with Reg A+ access for U.S. retail on a subset of names. EU retail accesses Backed products under MiCA and Liechtenstein TVTG.
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The regulatory matrix as it stands in 2026:

Secondary-market access is the looser layer. Once a token is minted to a whitelisted wallet, transfer rules depend on the contract. Permissioned tokens (most institutional products) require the receiving wallet to also be KYC'd. Permissionless wrappers can be held by any wallet, though redemption back to fiat still requires onboarding with the issuer. SEC staff statements in 2024–2025 made clear that tokenization does not change the underlying security's status — a tokenized Apple share is still a security under U.S. law.
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Dividends are paid through to token holders pro-rata at the ex-dividend record block, typically in USDC or as additional tokens of the same series. Redemption lets the holder burn the token in exchange for fiat (or in some cases, delivery of the underlying share to a brokerage account). Both flows depend on the issuer's operational windows and KYC status of the redeeming wallet.
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Backed publishes a monthly attestation showing the custodied share count vs the onchain token supply. Dinari's transfer agent files quarterly with the SEC for Reg A+ products. Redemption windows are typically T+1 to T+3 depending on the issuer and the asset (single-stock vs ETF wrappers). Dividends route through the issuer's smart contract: the contract snapshots holders at the ex-dividend block, then disburses USDC according to the snapshot.
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Edge cases that catch new buyers: tokens held in lending markets (e.g., as collateral) may not receive the dividend if the collateralization wrapper doesn't pass it through. Tokens held by a smart contract that doesn't implement the issuer's hook will have dividends routed to the contract address — recoverable, but adds operational friction. Read the issuer's distribution mechanics before depositing tokenized equities into DeFi.
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The 2026 issuer set is concentrated: Backed Finance, Dinari, Kraken xStocks (Backed-powered), Robinhood, and Ondo Finance handle the majority of onchain equity issuance. Each occupies a different lane — Backed serves EU and non-U.S. retail; Dinari serves U.S. retail under Reg A+; Kraken serves global retail through its exchange; Robinhood serves EU retail through its Lithuanian entity; Ondo focuses on yield-bearing and indexed RWA products.

Robinhood's category-CEX TVL of $14.2B (DeFiLlama, May 2026) makes its onchain product launch one of the largest distribution events for tokenized equities. BlackRock's BUIDL fund ($2.8B per DeFiLlama) is not a tokenized stock — it's a tokenized money-market fund — but it sits in the same RWA infrastructure neighborhood.
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Tokenized stocks differ from a brokerage holding on settlement, custody, transferability, and DeFi composability. A traditional brokerage share settles T+1 through DTCC, is held in street name at the broker, cannot be transferred peer-to-peer, and cannot be used as collateral outside the brokerage. A tokenized share settles in seconds onchain, is held by the issuer's custodian, can transfer to any whitelisted wallet, and can post as collateral in Aave or Morpho where supported.

The trade-off worth flagging: voting rights and shareholder-of-record status. In a traditional brokerage, the broker votes proxies on behalf of beneficial owners. With most tokenized wrappers, the issuer (not the token holder) is the shareholder of record, and voting rights are typically not passed through. For passive long exposure, this is irrelevant. For governance-sensitive holdings, it matters.
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The main risks are issuer credit risk, custody risk, regulatory risk, and smart-contract risk. Token holders are unsecured creditors of the issuer if the issuer fails. Custody risk concentrates in the named custodian (InCore, Apex, Coinbase Custody). Regulatory risk is jurisdiction-specific — a token compliant in Liechtenstein may be unavailable to U.S. persons under SEC rules. Smart-contract risk applies to the token contract and any DeFi protocol holding the token.
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Concrete risks to evaluate before buying:

Tokenized equities also inherit the underlying's market risk — bX-TSLA falls when TSLA falls. The onchain wrapper does not change equity beta.
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Tokenized stocks settle on multiple chains, but the dollars that buy them — USDC, USDT, USDe, PYUSD — live across Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Base, and beyond. Eco Routes moves the stablecoin leg so an investor can fund a Backed bX-AAPL purchase on Arbitrum from a USDC balance on Base, or settle a Dinari dShare redemption back to USDC on Solana, without manually bridging. The tokenized equity itself stays where the issuer mints it; the payment rail is the part that needs to be chain-agnostic.
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For broader context, see the related pillars: tokenized treasuries and real-world assets (RWAs) onchain.
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Sources and methodology. Tokenized-equity AUM pulled from rwa.xyz tokenized stocks dashboard, Q1 2026. Issuer mechanics verified against Backed Finance docs, Dinari docs, and the Kraken xStocks launch announcement. Stablecoin supplies and chain TVLs from DeFiLlama, May 2026. Regulatory framing references SEC, EU MiCA, and Liechtenstein TVTG primary documents. Figures refresh quarterly.
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