Traditional finance is undergoing a transformation as corporations increasingly embrace tokenization, shifting stocks onto the blockchain and altering market dynamics. In March, major stock exchanges NYSE and Nasdaq supported this trend.
Sebastian Pedro Bea, CTO of crypto company ReserveOne, believes that the new market is being shaped by two groups of platforms. American platforms like Securitize, Superstate, and Figure are building infrastructure to issue securities for Fortune 500 companies directly on a distributed ledger. This will automate and simplify dividend payments, shareholder voting, and settlements.
Offshore players like Kraken and Ondo take a different approach. They acquire shares of Apple or Tesla through special purpose vehicles and sell tokens backed by these shares. Formally, these are derivatives, but this structure already allows for instant transaction settlements.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev described the tokenization of securities as an "unstoppable train." The speed of widespread adoption of this technology now hinges solely on the timeline for regulatory framework development.
SEC's Readiness for Experimentation and Dialogue
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce stated in an interview with CNBC that the agency is open to collaborating with asset managers implementing blockchain assets in traditional markets and exploring tokenized financial instruments. She emphasized that as the industry evolves, the regulator insists on direct dialogue with issuers.
"Just come and tell us what you are trying to do. We want to work with you to allow experimentation and determine if such products are needed in the market," Peirce stressed.
Addressing the recent increase in the agency's oversight of leveraged ETFs, the commissioner noted that the regulator's role is not to categorize products as good or bad. The primary goal is to ensure that issuers adhere to established limits, clarify fund structures under securities law, and transparently disclose all risks to investors.
Interest in blockchain is rising, and companies are increasingly approaching the SEC with tokenization initiatives. In response, agency staff have begun developing a specific "narrow" exemption for innovations. This initiative will allow targeted experiments in trading certain tokenized securities under existing rules without creating broad relaxations and while maintaining investor protection mechanisms.
The SEC acknowledges the industry's arguments that tokenization will expedite settlements and reduce intermediaries, but insists on upholding oversight standards. According to Peirce, the commission understands that testing these models will inevitably raise new legal, operational, and technical questions, but the regulator is ready to "walk alongside" market participants in seeking necessary solutions.
Tokenization in Practice
The backdrop for dialogue with regulators is the rapid growth of the RWA sector. Due to the bear market in the crypto space, which has persisted since fall 2025, and the sharp rise in commodity prices, exchanges and wallets are increasingly launching trading of digitized gold and silver. These tools help platforms maintain liquidity within their ecosystems.
Source: RWA.xyz.In a comment to ForkLog, TECHNOBIT CEO Alexander Peresichan described precious metals as the most straightforward asset class for digitization:
"The demand for tokenized metals is a result of crypto investors seeking safe-haven assets but not wanting to leave the ecosystem. Instead of selling digital coins and buying physical gold or ETFs through a broker, they can easily switch to a token linked to the metal's price."
This trend has quickly spread to major platforms. By the end of 2025, Tether Gold (XAUT) tokens were added by OKX, Bybit, KuCoin, MEXC, and Bitget. Pax Gold (PAXG) is traded on Binance and Kraken. The wallet integrated into Telegram has incorporated digital gold, silver, copper, platinum, and palladium.
Traditional financial institutions are also getting involved. Major Russian banks are increasingly offering digital financial assets linked to gold with fixed returns.
BitOK founder and CEO Dmitry Machikhin sees irony in the current situation:
"Bitcoin has been promoted for a decade and a half as 'digital gold.' And now, during the crypto winter, investors are turning back to real gold, but in token form. Ideology has given way to common sense. However, there is something more important than speculation: crypto exchanges, perhaps unknowingly, are becoming universal platforms for RWA. Precious metals are just the first step. The bear market will accelerate this transformation, and the industry is unlikely to revert to its previous model."
Recall that in March, the RWA platform International Digital Exchange announced the launch of the LITRO coin, backed by physical oil.