Less than three months ago, real-world asset platform Backed unveiled a line of tokenized equities that allows investors to buy tokens that track the price of popular stocks like Tesla, Apple, and Nvidia.
Total trading volume for the tokenized shares, called xStocks, recently surpassed $2 billion, according to an xStocks' Dune dashboard.
The vast majority of trading has occurred on centralized exchanges (CEXs) with a trading volume of $1.94 billion as of Wednesday, according to the dashboard. Trading on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) registered at $103.8 million.
The top CEXs for xStocks trading are Kraken, Bybit, and Gate.
While the numbers are potentially encouraging for believers in tokenized equities, the total number of unique holders of xStocks tokens remains relatively low at roughly 25,500, according to the dashboard. The aggregate of assets under management for xStocks is $43.6 million.
The total onchain transaction volume has eclipsed $400 million, with a tokenized version of Tesla stock ranking as the most popular xStock, with over 11,000 holders. An S&P 500 token grabs second place with nearly 10,000 holders. Tokens tracking Apple, Nvidia, and Circle also count as popular among existing holders.
Advocates for tokenized equities
Both leaders in crypto and traditional finance see tremendous opportunity in the tokenized equity market, which could not only make it easier for international investors to invest in U.S.-listed stocks but also stands to unlock 24/7 trading. Coinbase and Kraken are among the centralized exchanges that have shown interest in launching tokenized equities.
In January, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said he'd like to see the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission move to "rapidly approve the tokenization of bonds and stocks."'
Robinhood, which has been pushing further and further into digital assets, said it would offer EU users the chance to invest in more than 200 tokenized versions of U.S. stocks.
Backed, which launched xStocks in May, recently announced alongside Kraken, the two firms were expanding xStocks' support from Solana to BNB Chain, enabling users to trade tokenized U.S. equities as BEP-20 tokens.
"The response to xStocks has made one thing increasingly clear — the future of capital markets will be chain-neutral, composable, and multichain by design," Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said at the time.
