What Are Tokenized Stocks
In one sentence: a tokenized stock is an on-chain claim that carries the economic value of one share. The issuer buys and custodies real shares through traditional brokers, then mints tokens 1:1 on-chain — buy 1 TSLAx and roughly one Tesla share sits locked in a custody account behind it.
What problem does it solve
- 24/7 trading: the US market is open 6.5 hours a day; tokens trade around the clock (mind the closed-hours risk below).
- Borderless access: a wallet and some stablecoins are all you need — no US brokerage account (restricted regions excluded).
- Composability: tokens can enter DeFi — collateral, liquidity pools (at your own risk).
Five key differences from real stocks
- You hold an issuer's claim, not a name on the shareholder register. The economics track the stock, but your legal counterparty is the issuer.
- Usually no voting rights.
- Dividend handling varies by issuer: some increase your token balance (the xStocks mechanism), others reinvest dividends into token value (Ondo GM). This directly affects "how many shares one token equals" — and is why our premium math applies an r̂ correction.
- Liquidity lives on-chain: depth is far below Nasdaq; large orders move the price significantly.
- Prices can drift from the real stock price: that drift is the premium/discount — and the reason this site exists: so you never overpay.
How on-chain prices form
Tokens trade in DEX liquidity pools where supply and demand set the price. Arbitrageurs pull deviations back toward the real stock price — but arbitrage has costs and time windows (no hedging while the market is closed), so gaps persist, especially during closed hours and market stress.
Want to see how much each tokenized stock is over- or under-priced right now? Check the premium and net-edge columns on the markets page.
FAQ
- Are tokenized stocks real stocks?
- No. They are on-chain claims issued against 1:1 custodied real shares. You track the economics but are not on the shareholder register, usually have no voting rights, and your legal counterparty is the issuer.
- Does 1 token equal 1 share?
- At issuance, roughly yes. But dividend mechanics make some issuers' tokens (total-return type) accrue more share-equivalents over time. This site corrects for that automatically with the accrual ratio r̂.
- Why do on-chain prices differ from the stock market?
- On-chain prices come from DEX pools. Arbitrage costs and market hours limit convergence, so premiums and discounts appear. We compute the deviation in real time and net out trading costs.
- Can I trade while the US market is closed?
- Yes — on-chain trading never stops. But closed-hours price gaps are not realizable arbitrage; gap risk applies at the next open. We label such prices as reference premiums.