FINRA on May 4 approved Securitize Markets to custody tokenized securities, underwrite on-chain IPOs, and settle trades atomically against stablecoins — all within a single regulated broker-dealer framework. The approval, granted through FINRA's Continuing Membership Application process, makes Se...
"Bringing custody of tokenized securities into the broker-dealer is a foundational unlock. It allows us to facilitate atomic settlement transactions between securities and cash equivalents within our broker-dealer ATS, eliminating the need for fragmented processes." — Carlos Domingo, Co-Founder and CEO, Securitize
FINRA on May 4 approved Securitize Markets to custody tokenized securities, underwrite on-chain IPOs, and settle trades atomically against stablecoins — all within a single regulated broker-dealer framework. The approval, granted through FINRA's Continuing Membership Application process, makes Securitize the first broker-dealer cleared to hold digital securities in custody and execute simultaneous delivery-versus-payment on-chain.
The milestone lands as the tokenized real-world asset market approaches $30 billion in on-chain AUM, tokenized equities have grown roughly 2,800% year-over-year to $963 million, and Securitize itself reports $4 billion-plus in assets under management with 841% revenue growth in the first nine months of 2025. The firm is simultaneously pursuing a public listing via a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners II at a $1.25 billion pre-money valuation.
Taken together, these developments mark the convergence of regulated custody, atomic settlement, and underwriting capabilities into a single entity — infrastructure that did not exist twelve months ago and that compresses what traditionally requires a custodian, a clearinghouse, a transfer agent, and a broker-dealer into one on-chain stack.
Securitize Markets, LLC, a FINRA-registered broker-dealer, received expanded permissions through three distinct approval categories:
Custody of tokenized securities. Securitize Markets is now the first broker-dealer authorized to hold tokenized securities directly. Previously, custody of digital securities required separate qualified custodian arrangements outside the broker-dealer entity, adding counterparty risk and operational friction.
Atomic settlement. The firm can now facilitate atomic swaps — simultaneous exchange of tokenized securities and stablecoins — within its alternative trading system (ATS). This collapses the traditional settlement cycle, which even at T+1 requires separate clearing, reconciliation, and custody handoffs across multiple intermediaries.
Underwriting and distribution. Securitize Markets is approved to act as underwriter and selling group participant for both initial and secondary tokenized securities offerings. This is the underwriting license required to run a tokenized IPO on-chain.
Brett Redfearn, Securitize's president and former director of the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets, stated: "The underwriting and selling group approvals greatly enhance our capabilities to assist tokenizing securities during the IPO process. The case for new and existing publicly traded companies to tokenize stock continues to get more compelling."
The combined effect is a vertically integrated on-chain securities stack: issuance, underwriting, custody, trading, and settlement, all within one regulated entity.
Traditional equity settlement, even after the U.S. moved to T+1 in May 2024, involves a chain of intermediaries: executing broker, clearinghouse (typically NSCC/DTCC), custodian bank, and transfer agent. Each maintains separate ledgers. Reconciliation happens end-of-day. Failed trades, though rare, introduce counterparty risk and lock collateral.
Atomic settlement eliminates this chain. Both legs of a trade — asset delivery and cash payment — execute as a single indivisible on-chain transaction. If either leg fails, neither settles. There is no settlement window, no reconciliation, and no counterparty exposure between execution and settlement.
According to Accenture estimates, distributed ledger technology could reduce post-trade clearing and settlement costs by up to 50%. For context, the DTCC processes over $2.5 quadrillion in securities transactions annually. Even marginal efficiency gains at that scale represent billions in reduced operational costs.
The practical implication for Securitize: a company conducting a tokenized IPO can now have its shares issued, custodied, distributed, and settled — all on-chain, all within one broker-dealer, and all against stablecoin settlement rather than requiring traditional banking rails.
The on-chain RWA market has reached approximately $26.4 billion in 2026, up roughly 300% year-over-year, according to industry trackers. The composition breaks down as follows:
| Category | AUM (Approx.) | Share | |---|---|---| | Tokenized U.S. Treasuries | $12.88B | ~49% | | On-chain Private Credit | $3.2B | ~12% | | Tokenized Equities | $963M | ~4% | | Commodities (Gold, etc.) | ~$5.3B | ~20% | | Other (Real Estate, Bonds, Alt Funds) | ~$4.1B | ~15% |
Tokenized equities, while the smallest major category, are the fastest-growing segment. The market has surged from approximately $32 million to $963 million in twelve months — a roughly 2,878% increase, according to CoinDesk data from January 2026. Market leaders by tokenized market cap include TSLAX ($70.9 million), GOOGLX ($36 million), and NVDAX.
BlackRock's BUIDL fund, tokenized by Securitize, remains the largest single tokenized product at approximately $2.4 billion in net assets. BUIDL now operates across nine blockchain networks: Arbitrum, Aptos, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon, Solana, and an additional chain.
On-chain private credit outstanding reached $3.2 billion by March 2026, up 180% from $1.14 billion at the start of 2025.
BCG and Ripple project the total tokenized asset market to reach $18.9 trillion by 2033, representing a 53% compound annual growth rate from approximately $0.6 trillion today.
Securitize's S-4 filing, submitted ahead of its SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners II (Nasdaq: CEPT), disclosed the following financials:
The firm's institutional client roster includes BlackRock, Apollo, Hamilton Lane, KKR, and VanEck. Securitize appointed Brett Redfearn — former SEC Division of Trading and Markets director (2017-2020) and former JPMorgan executive — as president and board member in April 2026.
If the SPAC merger closes as planned, Securitize would become one of the first pure-play tokenization platforms to trade on a major U.S. exchange. The company has stated it intends to issue both traditional and tokenized versions of its own equity.
The race to build regulated tokenized securities infrastructure has intensified. Three categories of competitors are emerging:
Full-stack tokenization platforms (direct competitors):
Crypto-native exchange platforms:
Traditional finance incumbents:
Securitize's FINRA approval differentiates it by combining custody, settlement, and underwriting in a single entity — a vertical integration that no competitor has yet replicated within one broker-dealer.
The FINRA approval arrives amid broader U.S. regulatory movement on digital assets:
GENIUS Act stablecoin framework. When stablecoin applications open in July 2026 under the GENIUS Act, firms like Securitize that already hold broker-dealer licenses and digital custody infrastructure will be positioned to integrate stablecoin settlement. Securitize's atomic settlement capability is designed to settle trades against stablecoins, making it operationally ready for this framework.
CLARITY Act market structure. The Senate Banking Committee's CLARITY Act compromise addresses how crypto firms can offer yield-like products while maintaining separation from bank deposits. The legislation's progress signals regulatory willingness to create formal market structure for digital securities.
Global regulatory alignment. Seven major economies — the U.S., EU, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE, and Japan — now mandate full reserve backing, licensed issuers, and guaranteed redemption rights for stablecoins, according to BVNK's 2026 regulatory analysis. Circle received MiCA-compliant approval in France in May 2026 for custody and transfer services across the European Economic Area.
The IMF published a fintech note in 2026 (NOTE/2026/001) by Tobias Adrian examining tokenized finance, signaling that international regulatory bodies are formalizing their analytical frameworks around tokenized securities.
The FINRA approval does not, by itself, guarantee adoption. Tokenized equities remain a sub-$1 billion market against $95 trillion-plus in global equity market capitalization. Liquidity on tokenized venues is thin. Institutional adoption depends on interoperability with existing market infrastructure, and DTCC's entry could either accelerate or compete with independent platforms.
What the approval does establish is a regulatory precedent: a single broker-dealer can now legally issue, underwrite, custody, trade, and settle securities entirely on-chain, with stablecoin-denominated payment rails replacing traditional banking settlement. That infrastructure stack — whether operated by Securitize, Ondo, or an incumbent like DTCC — is the plumbing required for tokenized securities to move from pilot projects to functioning markets.
The question is no longer whether regulated entities will operate on-chain securities infrastructure. It is how quickly volume migrates from the traditional stack to the tokenized one — and which firms capture the settlement economics when it does.