Web3 Lawyer Analysis: What is the Future of Tokenization in the US Stock Market?

At the end of February 2026, informed media reported that SpaceX might be preparing to submit an IPO application to the U.S. SEC as early as March 2026. According to media predictions, the fundraising amount for this stock could reach $30 billion, with an overall valuation of about $175 billion, directly surpassing Tesla and Meta, and entering the ranks of the "Seven Sisters" of U.S. stocks. In this chaotic era, where capital market anomalies frequently arise, SpaceX is expected to become the largest IPO in history, with a terrifying scale.

The powerful narrative ability of SpaceX is something that readers who pay a little attention to Musk's Starlink and Mars colonization stories can surely feel. Many friends who previously had no interest in the U.S. stock market have privately messaged Crypto Salad, wanting to know how to enter the U.S. stock market. For us Chinese residents, entering directly is a matter with barriers. Therefore, many people have rekindled their enthusiasm for "tokenization of U.S. stocks." Crypto Salad does not provide any investment advice or recommendations here, but, as always, will break down the underlying logic of U.S. stock tokenization, leaving the rest for everyone to judge.

In the previous article (“Global Listing, 24-Hour Stock Trading? Analyzing the NYSE's On-Chain 'Conspiracy'”), we detailed what kind of U.S. stock tokenization platform the NYSE wants to achieve and analyzed its underlying logic. If we say that in the past year, U.S. stock tokenization was still limited to explorations and attempts in Web3, then the formal launch of tokenized stock attempts by Nasdaq and the NYSE in 2026 has completely ended this "self-indulgence" within the circle. The Berlin Wall between U.S. stocks and crypto assets has actually collapsed. Previously, we had already broken down the technical elements of the NYSE platform, including 24/7 trading, fractional share mechanisms, instant settlement based on stablecoins, and the issuance of native digital securities. This article will not repeat those details but will attempt to answer two deeper questions: Why did the NYSE choose to launch at this time? What is the future of U.S. stock tokenization?

1. "Why now?"

To understand "why now," one must first understand where the true constraints of the securities market lie. The reason traditional markets have long maintained fixed trading hours is not that matching systems cannot operate continuously, but because clearing, settlement, and margin management heavily rely on bank operating hours. Once the banking system closes, the flow of funds and risk control will experience a break, and trading hours will naturally be limited. The NYSE's proposal to cover the funding gap during non-business hours through on-chain settlement and tokenized financial instruments is essentially reshaping the time structure of the market.

The NYSE is backed by its parent company ICE, which is collaborating with Bank of New York Mellon and Citibank to promote tokenized deposit arrangements, allowing clearing members to allocate funds and fulfill margin obligations during non-business hours. This is a crucial step; the systemic risk of 24/7 trading does not lie in matching but in whether margin and liquidity can operate continuously. When "money" itself is tokenized, 24/7 trading becomes realistically feasible.

So, why make a fuss about time? In the traditional financial context, weekends, holidays, and late nights are liquidity gaps. Even with dark pools supporting, due to time constraints and dispersed participants, true price discovery cannot be achieved. Various U.S. stock tokenization platforms also cannot truly achieve 24/7 trading.

However, in 2026, this "financial vacuum" is being violently filled by the tokenized contract market. In today's capital market, risk appetite is revealed in real-time "by the minute." For example, recently, the global largest decentralized prediction market, Polymarket, saw a cumulative trading volume of over $529 million on contracts regarding "U.S. military strikes on Iran." While ordinary investors are still repeatedly confirming "Iran," "casualties," and news releases in the search box, real money has already completed risk pricing through the odds in the prediction market. Meanwhile, BTC, as a 24/7 liquid risk asset, is also synchronously reflecting the breath of geopolitical events, changing almost every second.

This might be one of the reasons why the NYSE must "flip the table." If U.S. stocks continue to maintain that 9-to-5 clearing system, they will completely lose the "first pricing power" of global core assets.

But if this matter is only understood as an upgrade of post-trading, it still underestimates its significance. When funds begin to settle on-chain, the ecological position of financial institutions will undergo a redistribution. The traditional path is for banks to deposit funds and earn interest spreads, brokers to earn trading fees, and issuers to tell stories to attract capital. Funds flow sequentially between different institutions, with each link having its own profit logic. When stablecoins become settlement and margin tools, trading, clearing, and fund management can be completed on the same technical layer, the value chain originally dispersed among different institutions may be compressed to fewer nodes. On-chain platforms can not only earn trading fees but may also participate in fund management and liquidity organization. Of course, this does not mean banks will disappear, but it means that funds no longer have to be deposited within the traditional banking system. To put it more intuitively: in the past, you had to first deposit money in a bank, then transfer it to a brokerage account to complete a trade; the future path may become that the wallet is the account, and settlement is completed. The shortening of the funding path itself is a structural shock.

For this reason, the NYSE did not choose to break away from the regulatory system to start anew but deliberately embedded tokenization within the existing market structure. The platform emphasizes non-discriminatory access but is limited to qualified broker-dealers. Tokenization does not change the legal attributes of securities; holders still fully enjoy dividend rights and governance rights. The on-chain form of assets does not change their legal essence. This restraint is precisely the key: the NYSE does not aim to establish a "wild token market," but to incorporate the on-chain form into the most core and stringent securities regulatory logic. Innovations that can truly transcend cycles are never the most radical but are those that can withstand compliance and infrastructure testing.

2. Where is the future of U.S. stock tokenization?

Major Web3 exchanges have an innate sensitivity and rapid response gene. While mainstream media is still trying to analyze where SpaceX has value, platforms like MSX have already opened the Pre-IPO market for SpaceX. Other exchanges are also taking corresponding actions; Robinhood even launched Robinhood Ventures, allowing everyone to participate in investing in private equity funds, focusing on building future technology non-public companies. According to Kraken, the tokenized stock perpetual contracts (xStocks) it launched last year have surprisingly swept $25 billion in trading volume in less than a year.

However, in reality, exchanges may not be the only traffic entry point in the future. As Binance, Bitget, OKX, and various Web3 wallets begin to support the buying and selling of on-chain assets, wallets themselves have become the new generation of traffic entry points. Wallets are no longer just tools for storing coins but are interfaces that aggregate trading, DeFi, staking, and investment. When assets can flow directly on-chain, the traditional path of "depositing into an exchange and then trading" is also being shortened. Who exactly profits from DeFi? It profits from the price differences and market-making gains brought by the efficiency of fund circulation, redistributing traditional intermediary structures. When the NYSE launches the tokenization platform, it is also responding to this reality: if mainstream exchanges do not actively enter the on-chain form, on-chain liquidity will form a self-circulation on other platforms.

A deeper competition is also occurring between stablecoins and sovereign digital currencies. After researching RWA for over a year, we have always believed that the most successful RWA currently is stablecoins, while the explosive growth of RWA is listed company stocks. At some future point, real-world assets (RWA) will become increasingly abundant. The U.S. has clearly stated that stablecoins will not be directly issued by the central bank but will allow market participants to participate; China has explicitly stated that only the state can issue digital RMB. Whether stablecoins can earn interest and whether they possess attributes similar to bank deposits is a competition for monetary ecological positions. When stablecoins become settlement tools, they are not only payment mediums but also closer to "digital fiat currency forms." If the NYSE's platform is based on stablecoins for settlement, it will inevitably participate in this broader institutional competition.

3. Conclusion

If 2025 is the year of application and exploration for U.S. stock tokenization, then 2026 may become the year of institutional bifurcation. As the post-trading system begins to loosen, as funds themselves begin to be tokenized, and as wallets become new traffic entry points, the time structure and funding structure of the securities market are quietly being rewritten. This is not as simple as "stocks on-chain," but rather a hierarchical migration of market infrastructure is occurring. In this process, whoever can master the collaborative logic of trading, clearing, and funding will be closer to the future market form.

Special Statement: This article is an original work by the Crypto Salad team, representing only the personal views of the author and does not constitute legal advice or opinions on specific matters. If you need to reprint the article, please privately message to discuss authorization matters: shajunlvshi.