Tokenized Stocks: Custody Risks and New Market Estimates

| cryptobriefing.com
Tokenized stocks reached an estimated $3.5 billion to $3.8 billion in late October 2026, with about 3.77 million to 5.3 million holders. A later estimate classifies 86.5% of the market as collateralized tokens, 6.5% as issuer-sponsored shares and the remainder as synthetic products. This differs from an earlier October estimate, which put issuer-sponsored products at 10.7% and synthetic tokens at 89.3%, underscoring how figures can vary by date and classification. Most tokenized stocks are backed by shares held by custodians rather than registered directly to token holders, so ownership, voting and dividend rights can differ. Custody is highly concentrated: Alpaca reportedly holds the underlying shares for about 83.5% of the market. Ondo, Binance bStocks, xStocks and Robinhood offer products, often targeting non-US users with fractional access and 24/7 trading. Securitize added more than $250 million to tokenized stock market value in the 30 days leading to late September and launched 1:1-backed Convertible Entitlement Tokens on Solana on October 8. Superstate is also developing direct-issuance programs. However, only an estimated 2% to 7% of tokenized stock supply is used in lending or DeFi, with limited liquidity and volatility restricting broader adoption. For traders, tokenized stocks offer new routes to equity exposure, but custody concentration, legal rights and liquidity remain important risks; clearer regulation and deeper markets could support future DeFi use.
Neutral
The developments concern tokenized equity products, not a direct change in demand, supply or fundamentals for a specific cryptocurrency. Solana is mentioned as the network for Securitize’s token launch, but the summaries provide no evidence that the launch materially changes SOL’s near-term price outlook. In the short term, the market data may prompt discussion of tokenization and related infrastructure, while custody concentration and uncertain investor rights could temper enthusiasm. Over the longer term, clearer regulation, greater liquidity and expanded DeFi use could support activity across tokenization platforms, but these are conditional trends and do not establish a direct price catalyst for SOL or another crypto asset. A neutral classification is therefore most appropriate.