What are tokenized equities

Equities represent shares of companies and offer different benefits, such as voting power, dividends, and exposure to a company’s performance. These assets are a key component of the traditional financial system and are held by investors around the world. As blockchain technology has grown, a new type of market has started to emerge, and investment in equities can now take a different form thanks to blockchain infrastructure. In this lesson, you will discover how tokenized equities work, and what they change, and do not change, about access to stock markets.

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What are tokenized equities?

Blockchain offers a new way for financial markets to move and follow capital flows. Its infrastructure runs 24/7. It started with crypto-native assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana, and now also carries tokenized financial products. Tokenized equities, or tokenized stocks, are tokens that give onchain exposure to a traditional stock or fund. They are issued by third parties, not by Jupiter, and what a token represents depends on its issuer:

• Some issuers acquire and hold the underlying shares and issue tokens against them. xStocks and Backpack tokens, for example, are backed 1:1 by the underlying shares.
• Others give indirect exposure. Tessera’s pre-IPO tokens, for example, are loan participation rights that carry no ownership, voting or dividend rights.

These tokens let you gain exposure to the performance of traditional stocks directly onchain, using a wallet instead of a traditional brokerage account. Holding one is not the same as owning the share, though. xStocks holders, for example, have no voting rights and no legal claim on the company, and whether a dividend reaches token holders depends on each issuer’s policy.

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Why tokenized equities matter

This new class of assets differs from traditional equities in several ways, and each difference comes with its own limits.

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Global access

• Tokenized equities can be held in self-custody onchain, with a wallet such as the Jupiter Mobile app, whose Markets tab lists tokenized stocks.
• Traditional stocks must be held through brokerage accounts or banks, which often involve geographic restrictions, account creation and regulatory limitations.
• Tokenized equities lower some of these barriers, but not all: issuers restrict eligibility by jurisdiction (xStocks, for example, are not available in all jurisdictions), and some require identity verification, especially to redeem tokens for the underlying value. Check the issuer’s terms and the regulations where you live.

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Peer-to-peer and fractionability

• In traditional markets, stocks are typically bought through intermediaries and held in brokerage accounts. Tokenized equities change this dynamic.
• Because they are tokens, they are divisible: you can buy an amount worth less than one share.
• And because they live on a blockchain, they can be sent peer to peer between wallets, with the network’s transaction fees, which are low on Solana. Check the issuer’s terms for any eligibility rules first.

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Open markets

• Traditional stock markets open for limited hours, five days a week, and close on public holidays.
• Most tokenized stocks trade 24/7 onchain, so you can react to news while the exchange is closed. Some do not: part of Ondo’s tokens trade 24/5 and may have additional trading pauses.
• Outside US market hours, liquidity is usually thinner: spreads widen, quotes can be less favorable, and the token’s price can drift from the share’s last price. Tokenized stocks often trade at a premium to their traditional counterparts.

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Composability

• Traditional equities are typically locked inside brokerage accounts and cannot easily be used for other financial strategies.
• Tokenized equities are onchain, so they can interact with DeFi protocols. Holders can stay exposed to the underlying asset while putting it to work.
• On Jupiter Lend, for example, some xStocks can be supplied as collateral to borrow USDC or JupUSD. Borrowing exposes you to liquidation if the token’s price falls, and any yield on the collateral comes from incentives that can change or end. xStock vaults can also be suspended around market session changes and corporate actions, and you cannot repay or add collateral during a suspension.

Tokenized equities use the transparency, accessibility and composability of public blockchains to address some of the limits of traditional markets. In exchange, they add risks of their own: the issuer, the token’s liquidity, and the gap between the token’s price and the share’s.

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Go deeper

Next lesson: How tokenized stocks like xStocks work, the structures behind onchain exposure to stocks.