Nasdaq has announced plans to introduce a groundbreaking "digital asset securities design" that would grant publicly traded companies on its US exchange greater control over tokenized versions of their shares. This initiative covers critical aspects such as proxy voting, corporate actions, and governance rights. The move signals a significant step toward enabling stock assets to be traded in tokenized form, demonstrating that the Real-World Asset tokenization trend is expanding beyond government bonds, money market funds, and private credit into more complex asset classes like equities—provided it follows regulated, interoperable pathways compatible with existing market structures.

This development follows a tokenization proposal Nasdaq submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in September. In that filing, Nasdaq indicated that the program would allow equity securities to trade on its market and settle in tokenized form through the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. Nasdaq also revealed that Payward, the parent company of global cryptocurrency platform Kraken, will design a crucial gateway and liquidity portal to facilitate the seamless movement of tokenized stocks between regulated and on-chain markets.

Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, stated in a release that the collaboration with Nasdaq will help build the foundational liquidity layer and core infrastructure required for tokenized equities to operate within a global, around-the-clock market framework. Additionally, Nasdaq has entered into a strategic partnership with Seturion, a pan-European tokenized asset settlement platform owned by Stuttgart Stock Exchange Group. Nasdaq’s European listing venues will integrate with Seturion to enable trading of tokenized securities settled through the platform.

Earlier this year, the New York Stock Exchange, one of Nasdaq’s primary competitors, disclosed it is leveraging advanced blockchain technology to develop a trading venue supporting 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds. Owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc, the NYSE intends to combine its existing matching technology with private blockchain networks to facilitate real-time and continuous trading of tokenized securities.

Nasdaq’s latest initiative effectively advances the concept of tokenized stock trading from theory to regulated market infrastructure. Rather than creating an unregulated on-chain alternative, the effort aims to enable equities to trade on Nasdaq in tokenized form and settle via the DTCC using tokenization. Crucially, Nasdaq’s design emphasizes that tokenized shares must carry the same legal rights, CUSIP identifier, order book, and shareholder privileges as traditional shares—avoiding the creation of a parallel "shadow stock market."

This progression underscores that the RWA movement is indeed extending from relatively straightforward income-generating assets like Treasuries and money market funds to more intricate asset classes such as equities. However, tokenizing stocks is considerably more complex than tokenizing government bonds. While Treasury tokenization primarily addresses holding and settlement efficiency, stock tokenization must also resolve challenges related to proxy voting, dividends, stock splits, corporate actions, shareholder registries, and governance rights—all embedded within existing corporate and securities law frameworks.

Nasdaq’s emphasis on placing issuers at the center of the process directly addresses these complexities. A staff statement from the SEC in January further distinguished between issuer-led and third-party-led tokenized securities, indicating that regulators are beginning to formally address these structural questions. From a transactional theory perspective, the true value of stock tokenization lies not merely in converting shares into tokens, but in reimagining trading hours, settlement speed, programmability, and global distribution capabilities of equity markets.

Nasdaq, in partnership with Payward, is designing a gateway to enable fluid movement of tokenized stocks between regulated and on-chain environments. Similarly, the NYSE has announced it is developing a tokenized securities platform supporting 24/7 trading, instant settlement, and stablecoin-based payments. These developments indicate that traditional exchanges no longer view tokenization as a niche experiment by the crypto industry, but rather as the next-generation infrastructure for securities markets—driven by goals such as extended trading hours, reduced settlement friction, fewer intermediaries, and enhanced global liquidity interoperability.

According to projections from Ripple and Boston Consulting Group, the value of tokenized real-world assets could exceed $18 trillion by 2033, with a compound annual growth rate of 53% from 2025 onward. Tokenization, centered around RWA, refers to the process of representing traditional financial or physical assets—such as bonds, loans, fund shares, real estate, receivables, and carbon credits—as programmable, transferable digital tokens on a blockchain. Many studies describe RWA as the representation of ownership of tangible or off-chain assets through blockchain-based tokens issued via smart contracts. The World Economic Forum notes that tokenization offers benefits such as a unified shared ledger, real-time settlement, and programmability, which can significantly reduce delivery risk and improve transaction efficiency.

For major traditional banks, the broader RWA tokenization trend represents an opportunity to expand revenue streams and explore blockchain efficiency gains within a compliant framework. Compared to purely cryptographic assets, RWAs are backed by physical assets or legal claims, making them easier to integrate into existing regulatory structures. Additionally, underlying assets like bonds and loans generate inherent cash flow, providing stable returns that align well with traditional banking models.

RWA is likely to emerge as one of the most important themes in on-chain traditional finance infrastructure in the coming years. However, whether it evolves into a transformative wave comparable to artificial intelligence will depend on regulatory clarity, issuer participation, and interoperability with legacy systems. Current momentum is strong: data from RWA.xyz shows the value of on-chain tokenized real-world assets has reached approximately $26.5 billion, and US banking regulators recently confirmed that banks holding or trading tokenized securities will not face additional capital penalties, emphasizing a technology-neutral stance.

That said, Nasdaq’s rule changes still require regulatory approval, and tokenizing equities involves far greater complexities—such as investor protection, market transparency, best execution, and cross-jurisdictional legal mapping—than tokenizing government bonds.