Spot trading volume for tokenised stocks has surpassed $1 billion, with the vast majority of activity concentrated in December, Bitget reports. The surge highlights a sharp acceleration in demand for on-chain access to traditional equities outside standard market hours.
The recent data confirms a broader shift in how global investors interact with traditional assets. Rather than waiting for U.S. market sessions to open, traders choose to react to macroeconomic and geopolitical developments in real time via tokenised instruments that trade continuously.
The Real Arbitrage Is Geographic, Not Temporal
After-hours trading often dominates the narrative; however, the global access appears to be a more durable and important driver. Tokenised stocks are increasingly used by investors outside the United States as an alternative way to gain exposure to U.S. equities without opening local brokerage accounts or bearing foreign exchange costs.
Issuers such as Backed Finance have seen the market capitalisation of their tokenised equity products rise sharply, reflecting demand specifically from regions where direct U.S. market access is operationally complex or restricted.
As one market participant described it, this is less about technology arbitrage and more about geography: a parallel access layer for U.S. equities serving the billions of investors who sit outside the domestic brokerage ecosystem.
Regulators Draw Clear Boundaries Around Tokenised Securities
Despite the rapid growth in activity, regulators have been explicit that tokenisation does not change the legal nature of securities. In the EU, ESMA has stressed technological neutrality. Tokenised shares remain transferable securities under MiFID II, not MiCA, which applies to non-security crypto-assets.
U.S. regulators have taken a similar stance. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) treats tokenised equities as securities that must be registered or issued under exemptions, with platforms operating as broker-dealers or alternative trading systems.
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In 2025, the SEC granted Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation a three-year no-action window to pilot on-chain tokenisation of stocks, bonds and Treasuries, effectively integrating the technology into existing clearing and settlement infrastructure rather than allowing it to develop outside it.
Across jurisdictions, regulators have emphasised that tokenisation should deliver genuine efficiency gains, and not serve as a vehicle for regulatory arbitrage.
What This Means for Traditional Brokers
This on-chain activity is no longer a niche experiment. Major financial institutions are now forecasting a multi-trillion dollar future for the sector. A recent report from Deutsche Bank Research projects the market for tokenized real-world assets could reach $1.5 to $2 trillion by 2030, and as much as $4 trillion by 2035.
For traditional brokers, the message is clear: their core business models, operations, and roles may change. While regulatory oversight remains anchored in existing frameworks, trading behaviour and liquidity formation are shifting from time-bound TradFi infrastructure to always-on gateways to traditional assets.
The convergence is now less about whether tokenised stocks will be regulated, and more about whether global access to equities will remain restricted by legacy brokerage hours and geographic constraints—even as markets increasingly operate around the clock.
