Tokenized Stock Transactions Top $7.5 Billion as Interest in RWA Infrastructure Rises [Crypto Briefing]

[Financial News] Tokenized stock trading is growing rapidly in the Real-World Assets (RWA) market. Demand is rising for trading U.S. stocks and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) as blockchain-based tokens. However, because linked-security tokenized stocks do not directly guarantee shareholder rights, investor protection remains a key issue.
According to the financial investment industry on the 30th, tokenized stock transaction volume reached more than $7.5 billion based on RWA.xyz, a global RWA data platform. That is more than double the previous month. Transaction volume refers not to actual stock market turnover, but to the dollar value of tokenized stock transfers and exchanges on the blockchain, representing on-chain activity. About 70% of the trades were processed through the Solana blockchain network.
Investment demand is being driven mainly by countries outside the United States. Users of major RWA platforms such as XStocks and Ondo Finance are spread across Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. The ability to gain exposure to U.S. stocks without opening an overseas brokerage account or going through foreign exchange remittance procedures is seen as a factor attracting retail demand in emerging markets.
Lee Jun-ho, a researcher at Hana Securities, said, "The global digital asset market is focusing on infrastructure such as tokenized stocks," and added, "For now, only futures products tied to domestic ETFs or stocks are being handled on overseas exchanges, but tokenized stocks backed 1:1 by shares are expected to be launched in the third or fourth quarter of this year."
Industry attention is especially centered on SK hynix's Nasdaq listing of its American Depositary Receipt (ADR). If SK hynix's ADR begins trading on Nasdaq on the 10th of next month, global RWA platforms such as XStocks may tokenize it, observers say. Lee noted, "The benefits from ADR tokenized trading of SK hynix are unlikely to be passed on to domestic companies in the short term," adding, "This is the time to establish a regulatory framework."
Questions over whether tokenized stocks legally guarantee shareholder rights, as well as uncertainty over rights without issuer approval, are being raised as immediate market challenges. According to the Hanwha Investment & Securities Research Center, the linked-security model, which accounts for more than 90% of the market, is merely a debt security issued by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) backed by the underlying shares, and does not grant investors direct voting rights in the original stock.
Similar disputes over rights structure have also emerged in previous cases of tokenizing unlisted stocks. The same issue surfaced when Robinhood's European entity (EU) distributed tokens linked to OpenAI, with questions raised over whether the issuer had approved them.
As the tokenized stock market expands, custody of collateral, verification of reserve assets, investor eligibility, dividend processing, and issuer consent are expected to become major issues.
An industry official said, "Competition in the tokenized stock market will depend not simply on expanding the number of listed names, but on securing trust in trading infrastructure and rights structures," adding, "Regulatory compliance, custody stability, and the ability to connect with issuers, exchanges, and depositories will likely determine market leadership."
Closing the gap between domestic and overseas regulations is also a key task. Choi Yoon-young, a researcher at Hanwha Investment & Securities, said, "There is currently about a one-year lag between the formation of the global market and the implementation of domestic regulations," and added, "While the global market is accumulating early liquidity and business models, the domestic market is likely to remain at the stage of regulatory settlement and new market entry, which will widen the gap in development stages between the two markets." She added, "In addition to building a domestic token securities market, establishing institutional channels for Korean investors to invest in, custody, and trade global tokenized securities may emerge as a future policy priority."

elikim@fnnews.com Kim Mi-hee Reporter