Digital Stock Tokens: A New Trend in Financial Markets

In the investment market of 2025, some trading methods once thought to be "impossible" are becoming a reality. Investors can trade stocks anytime and anywhere, use stocks as collateral to borrow stablecoins, and even purchase shares in private companies. All of this is thanks to the rise of digital stock Tokens, which blur the lines between cryptocurrency and traditional investments.

Introduction to Digital Stock Tokens

Digital stock tokens are a digital representation of real company stocks on the blockchain. Each token typically represents one share or a fraction of a share, fully backed by held physical stocks. When investors purchase digital stock tokens, a licensed custodian holds the corresponding physical stocks as reserves, while investors receive a blockchain token that is priced in sync with the stock.

These tokens can be traded on cryptocurrency exchanges, integrated with decentralized finance ( DeFi ) protocols, and transferred freely between wallets, all of which are functionalities that traditional brokerage accounts cannot achieve.

Market Participants

In 2025, the digital stock token market experienced explosive growth, with multiple trading platforms competing to launch related services:

• A certain crypto trading platform launched "xStocks" in June, offering over 60 types of US stock tokens.
• Another well-known trading platform has launched over 200 tokenized stocks for European customers, including shares of some private companies.
• A social investment platform announced plans to launch ERC-20 based tokenized stocks on Ethereum.
• Multiple trading platforms have entered this field through cooperation or independent development.

Cause of Outbreak

The maturity of infrastructure is a key factor. High-performance blockchain networks such as Solana and Ethereum Layer-2 solutions provide a fast and low-cost trading environment. At the same time, compliance agencies in regions like Switzerland and the EU inject professionalism and credibility into the market.

Investor demand for round-the-clock trading has also driven market growth. It was reported that a certain digital stock token platform achieved a trading volume of 300 million USD in just one month.

Data shows that the total market value of tokenized stocks reached $370 million in July, with a month-on-month increase of 220%. The number of blockchain addresses holding tokenized stocks also surged from 1,600 in June to over 90,000 in July.

Advantages and New Investment Methods

Digital stock tokens have the following advantages over traditional stock trading:

1. Longer trading hours covering major global time zones.
2. Instant settlement, no need to wait for T+2
3. Support partial ownership
4. Lower transaction fees

In addition, digital stock tokens also bring new investment opportunities:

• Integrated with DeFi protocols, can be used as collateral
• 24/7 trading for instant position management
• Hold cryptocurrencies and stocks on the same platform to achieve portfolio diversification.

Potential Risks

Despite the optimistic outlook, digital stock tokens still face some controversies and risks:

1. Questioning the "non-real stocks": Some believe that these tokens are essentially similar to contracts for difference ( CFD ).
2. Liquidity risk: There may be issues with insufficient liquidity during non-trading hours.

Regulatory Environment

Due to a more inclusive regulatory framework, Europe is leading in this field. Most platforms restrict their services to non-U.S. users. The U.S. market remains cautious about retail tokenized stock trading, and the SEC may view these tokens as securities that need to be registered or are subject to restrictions.

Market Forecast

Despite being in the early stages, the adoption of digital stock tokens has shown optimistic signs. Research predicts that if only 1% of the global stock market is tokenized, its market value could exceed $1.3 trillion. Other data shows that the tokenization of physical assets (RWA) market will grow from $600 billion in 2025 to $18.9 trillion by 2033.

Leading Blockchain

Solana has become the preferred blockchain for multiple platforms due to its high performance and low cost. Ethereum also maintains an important position through Layer-2 solutions and its vast ecosystem. Multiple platforms choose to issue tokens on different blockchains to meet the needs of different user groups.

Digital stock tokens are blurring the lines between traditional finance and the crypto world, ushering in a new era of investment. In the future, we will see how this innovation reshapes the landscape of global financial markets.