Superstate, an SEC-registered transfer agent, enabled direct issuance of SEC-registered shares on Ethereum and Solana, settled primary sales in stablecoins, and recorded ownership on the transfer agent’s ledger, which treats the blockchain as a master file.
The company’s direct issuance program allows issuers to issue tokens representing the same legal capital with voting and dividend rights, paid in stablecoins and delivered to KYC wallets at real-time prices.
This move moves part of the issuance workflow from DTCC-only infrastructure to a public blockchain, while keeping transfer agent controls and securities law obligations intact.
The first live implementation was Galaxy Digital, which tokenized SEC-registered common stock on Solana through Superstate.
According to the Galaxy investor site, 32,374 GLXY shares have been tokenized as of early September 2025, and an on-chain cap table template has been established that syncs with registered transfer agents.
This mechanism is important for governance and corporate activities, as all permitted transfers update the RTA’s beneficial ownership on its books, and dividends and splits can be executed through agent-managed smart contracts.
As summarized by Simpson Thatcher, a May 2025 staff FAQ acknowledges that blockchain will serve as the official master security holder file for registered transfer agents, providing the regulatory basis for these cap table models.
Preparing for distribution for publication
Backpack Exchange announced that through its integration with Superstate, it will list SEC-registered, natively tokenized US stocks and pursue a US broker-dealer and ATS path, starting with access outside the US.
The venue model positions wallets, KYC rails, and whitelisted order flow as a gateway for investors without synthetic wrappers or SPV structures. This distinction is an important clarification heading into 2025, following episodes in which tokenized equity marketing created confusion between on-chain exposure and actual registered equity, as Business Insider reported in the context of synthetic offerings.
The near-term issue is who will control the cap table and order book. If the transfer agent and chain form the golden source of ownership for a KYC-ed wallet, circulation and secondary transactions can be routed through a combination of compliant locations that communicate with that ledger.
Broker-dealers, ATSs, and traditional market centers will be competing with wallet-native venues and whitelisted AMMs connected to transfer agent hooks.
The SEC does not allow AMMs any special channels to trade NMS securities, and AMMs that route orders for NMS securities must comply with existing frameworks such as Reg ATS, fair access, oversight obligations, and short selling rules.
The regulator’s statement emphasized that tokenization is not a shortcut and market integrity rules continue to apply.
Piping around the new rails is starting to be connected
DTCC launched a tokenized collateral platform and briefed the SEC’s Crypto Task Force on tokenization services that can be extended to pledge and corporate activity workflows, according to DTCC public filings and SEC documents.
According to Reuters, Nasdaq has applied to allow trading of tokenized securities on major markets with equal rights, expected by the third quarter of 2026 at the earliest, once the DTC infrastructure is ready.
These efforts represent a hybrid stage where DTC-eligible positions coexist with tokenized cap table entries, and conversion or pledge functionality bridges the two. Issuers seeking broader circulation may rely on this bridge for street name positions while operating a primary issuance window on-chain for the stablecoin.
The publishing workflow changes immediately. Direct superstate issuance allows companies to raise funds directly into their wallets, receive proceeds in stablecoins, and record new ownership on-chain under the supervision of a transfer agent.
Follow-on and at-the-market programs can be executed outside of traditional market hours with T≈0 settlement and programmable constraints such as transfer limits and on-chain certification checks. For small- and mid-cap issuers, compliant venues, KYC pipelines, and custody options could expand addressable demand in time zones outside the US.
For investors, the custody model switches from an omnibus street name at the broker to wallet-native beneficial ownership tied to the transfer agent’s ledger, subject to whitelisting and revocation powers necessary to comply with regulations and sanctions.
Secondary transactions are a constraint
Backpack’s plan points to a centralized access layer to tokenized stocks outside the U.S., but flows within the U.S. are dependent on broker-dealer and ATS permissions that apply to tokens that are actual securities.
Although AMM is technically simple on-chain, the regulatory situation for NMS is unresolved. Three outcomes constitute 2026: whitelisted AMMs being recognized as ATSs, AMMs becoming dominant with limited centralized order books, or a hybrid where AMMs operate for non-NMSs or small issuers and NMSs remain on central limit order books.
The SEC’s stance, including the Secretary’s statement, emphasizes that tokenization must fit within existing regulatory boundaries, rather than creating separate lanes.
The expanded role of RTA is throughline. Using the blockchain as the master securityholder file, transfer agents mediate whitelist control, error correction, revocation, and audit trails for on-chain transfers.
Therefore, agents are placed at the barrier between corporate activities and governance. Wallets and venues with strong KYC and sanctions tools become distribution partners that can feed clean data into your master file.
Stablecoin issuers will benefit from primary settlement volumes, and custodians will adapt to hold tokens either directly or through managed wallet architectures that meet Rule 15c3-3 and similar custody expectations when broker-dealer intermediaries.
The practical question for issuers is how tokenized stocks interact with DTC positions. DTCC’s tokenization program will initially focus on collateral, and its scope will also extend to securities workflows.
Nasdaq’s filing assumes that the DTC infrastructure is ready before token-paid transactions are placed on the same order book.
Until a seamless conversion path is operational, many issuers will likely maintain parallel rails, using DTC for mainstream exchange transactions and on-chain issuance for targeted capital formation, dividend distribution experiments, or controlled secondary transfers between whitelisted wallets.
The timing of the bridge determines how quickly on-chain liquidity reaches parity with street name liquidity.
The metrics to watch are simple
The number of issuers that will register on Superstate’s opening bell stack, the number of outstanding shares that will become token transferable, and the number of on-chain holders that will appear in the master file (which Superstate says it maintains as a registered transfer agent).
How much primary issuance will be settled in stablecoins each month? How much volume are Backpack and other compliant exchanges routing tokenized stocks, especially in markets outside the US? How will DTCC’s tokenized collateral network expand, and whether DTC conversions or corporate action bridges to tokenized stocks will be put to the test?
Each data point explains whether this is primarily a payments upgrade or the start of a new order flow channel.
The 2026 setup will be constrained by public milestones and today’s operational systems. Galaxy tokenization demonstrates that issuers can issue real shares on-chain under the control of a transfer agent. Superstate direct issuance will use the cash leg of the stablecoin to initiate a wallet-native primary.
DTCC and Nasdaq have articulated a timeline that could see the token leg visible within the mainstream market pipeline by late 2026, once the infrastructure can be aligned. SEC staff has already secured space for an on-chain master file, but broader secondary trading permissions are still under review.
This will leave a hybrid market structure with stablecoin payments, whitelisted wallets, and transfer agents fixing the cap table until 2026 as venues compete to control order flow at the top.
| 2026 scenario | Publisher | token-enabled float | Daily on-chain volume | trading structure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| conservative | 5～8 | 0.5-1.5 billion dollars | $2 million to $8 million | CLOB venues dominate, on-chain used for primaries and controlled transfers |
| basic case | 12～20 | $3 billion to $7 billion | $15 million to $40 million | Hybrid, stablecoin-paid primaries are common and an early bridge to DTC |
| bull | 30～50 | 10 billion to 25 billion dollars | $80 million to $200 million | Whitelisted AMMs run as ATS analogs in parallel with exchange order books |
Issuers, transfer agents, venues, and infrastructure providers now have a valid path to move their SEC-registered stocks from the DTCC private rails to the public blockchain.