--- title: "How Wall Street Is Putting Stocks and Bonds on the Blockchain" description: "Big financial firms — from BlackRock to Franklin Templeton — are turning stocks, bonds and money-market funds into blockchain 'tokens' that can trade around the clock and settle in seconds. The technology is real and growing fast. The fight now is over whether the market stays open or a few platforms become the new gatekeepers." category: "Crypto" category_url: https://boursel.com/category/crypto author: "Daniel Okonkwo" published: 2026-06-30T13:43:40.000Z updated: 2026-06-30T13:43:40.000Z canonical: https://boursel.com/article/how-wall-street-is-putting-stocks-and-bonds-on-the-blockchain tags: ["tokenization", "blockchain", "securities", "rwa", "crypto"] --- # How Wall Street Is Putting Stocks and Bonds on the Blockchain Big financial firms — from BlackRock to Franklin Templeton — are turning stocks, bonds and money-market funds into blockchain 'tokens' that can trade around the clock and settle in seconds. The technology is real and growing fast. The fight now is over whether the market stays open or a few platforms become the new gatekeepers. One of the most consequential crypto trends has nothing to do with meme coins. It's **tokenization** — putting traditional assets like stocks, bonds and funds onto a **blockchain** as digital tokens — and Wall Street's biggest names are now building it for real. ## What "tokenized securities" means A **tokenized security** is a digital token, recorded on a blockchain, that represents ownership of a real financial asset — a share, a bond, a slice of a money-market fund. The token *is* the record of ownership: it can be held, transferred and traded on-chain. It isn't a new asset so much as a **new wrapper** for an old one. The umbrella term is **"real-world asset (RWA) tokenization"** — unlike a free-floating cryptocurrency, an RWA token is meant to be backed by, and a legal claim on, something that exists off-chain. ## Who's building it This has moved from theory to product, led by **traditional finance**: - **BlackRock's** tokenized money-market fund (**BUIDL**), holding Treasury bills and cash, has grown into the **billions** and runs across several blockchains, [CoinDesk reported](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/05/09/blackrock-deepens-tokenization-push-with-new-onchain-fund-offerings). - **Franklin Templeton** runs its own tokenized fund and has partnered with crypto firms to bring tokenized funds and stocks on-chain. - Big banks and the major **exchanges** are building blockchain "rails" aimed at **24/7 trading and near-instant settlement.** By industry estimates, the total value of tokenized real-world assets has grown into the **tens of billions of dollars** and is rising fast (precise tallies vary by source). ## The promise Backers point to genuine plumbing upgrades: trading **around the clock** rather than only in market hours; **near-instant settlement** instead of the usual day-plus wait; **fractional ownership** (buying a sliver of a pricey asset); and **programmability** — tokens that can automate payments or enforce rules. In principle, that widens access and cuts cost and delay out of the system. ## The fight: open market or new gatekeepers? Here's the live debate. A [CoinDesk opinion piece](https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2026/06/29/tokenized-securities-need-competition-not-gatekeepers) argued that tokenized-securities markets should be built on **competition and open standards**, not locked inside a few **proprietary platforms** — warning that a handful of dominant venues or custodians could recreate exactly the **centralized chokepoints** crypto was meant to avoid. It's a real tension, but not one-sided: **regulated intermediaries and custodians** also exist for a reason — custody, insurance, dispute resolution and investor protection don't vanish just because an asset is "on-chain." How open the system ends up being is still being decided. ## The catch: it's still securities A crucial point for investors: tokenization **doesn't escape the rulebook.** US regulators have made clear that a tokenized security is **still a security**, subject to the same laws — the [SEC has stated](https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/corp-fin-statement-tokenized-securities-012826-statement-tokenized-securities) that tokenization is a **recordkeeping method, not a legal loophole.** Real risks remain: you typically hold a **claim** to the asset via an intermediary rather than the asset itself (counterparty and custody risk); on-chain **liquidity** may be thinner than it looks; blockchains don't always talk to each other; and a lot of the sector is still **pilot-stage**. ## Why it matters Tokenization is one of the clearest places where **crypto and traditional finance are merging.** If it scales — from today's tens of billions toward the trillions its backers imagine — it could reshape how stocks and bonds are issued, traded and settled, squeezing time and cost out of market plumbing. The open question is **who controls the pipes**: an open, competitive network, or a few powerful platforms. Boursel offers no view on any token or platform; the takeaway is that the **infrastructure of markets** is quietly being rebuilt — and the rules and winners are still up for grabs. ## Sources - [BlackRock deepens tokenization push with new on-chain fund offerings](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/05/09/blackrock-deepens-tokenization-push-with-new-onchain-fund-offerings) - [SEC statement on tokenized securities](https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/corp-fin-statement-tokenized-securities-012826-statement-tokenized-securities)