Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | DingDang (@XiaMiPP)
On December 17, the RWA platform Securitize announced plans to launch native on-chain stock products in the coming months, targeting the first quarter of 2026. Unlike most "stock tokenization" solutions on the market, Securitize will directly issue real, regulated shares on the blockchain, simultaneously recording them in the issuer's official share register; its tokens represent full shareholder rights, including dividends, proxy voting, and more.
On October 28 this year, Securitize disclosed that it would go public via a SPAC merger, with a post-merger valuation estimated at $1.25 billion and a stock ticker of SECZ. As a key player in the tokenized money market fund space, Securitize has partnered with traditional asset management institutions such as BlackRock, Apollo, KKR, Hamilton Lane, and VanEck, with cumulative tokenized asset scale exceeding $3 billion.
Amid the ongoing heat of the RWA narrative, Securitize, with its frequent moves, has become a market focus. Odaily Planet Daily will analyze it from a business perspective to help readers gain an in-depth understanding of the company's layout and prospects.
Native On-Chain Stocks: Not "Price Mapping," But Legally Recognized Shares
To understand the importance of Securitize's product path, it must first be placed within the overall structure of the current stock tokenization track. Most existing stock tokenization platforms can be broadly divided into two mainstream models.
The first is the synthetic model. Early examples like Mirror Protocol and Synthetix fall into this category, where tokens track stock prices through derivative structures or oracle mechanisms, providing only price exposure without involving any real shares. Such products lack shareholder rights, carry counterparty risk and pricing deviations, and are essentially derivatives rather than equity.
The second is the beneficial interest model. For example, MSX typically involves the platform or a third-party custodian holding the real shares (usually 1:1 backed), issuing tokens that represent beneficial interests or claims to these shares. Holders gain economic exposure (e.g., price movements, possibly dividend pass-through) but are not direct legal owners; the official share register records the custodian, not the token holder.
Different from these two paths, Securitize is attempting a third model—the native on-chain stock model. What Securitize plans to issue will be shares recognized in law as real stock, issued natively directly on the blockchain, and simultaneously recorded in the issuing company's official share register. Token holders possess full shareholder rights, including dividends, proxy voting, etc. More crucially, Securitize itself, as an SEC-registered transfer agent, ensures that token holders are the direct legal owners, not holding indirectly via an intermediary or SPV. In other words, this type of asset is neither a price tracker nor an IOU" from a custodian.
However, it is undeniable that the complexity of the native on-chain stock model is significantly higher than that of synthetic or beneficial interest schemes. It must not only solve the problems of on-chain issuance and instant settlement but also simultaneously comply with a series of traditional financial rules such as securities regulation, corporate law, and transfer agent systems, achieving seamless integration with existing financial infrastructure. In practical terms, this means higher compliance costs, longer advancement cycles, and each step being exposed to regulatory and institutional friction.
In contrast, the advantages of synthetic or beneficial interest schemes are obvious: faster implementation, lighter structure, lower cost, and easier achievement of 24/7 trading and DeFi compatibility. The path chosen by Securitize aims not to "circumvent regulation" but to attempt, within the system, to truly eliminate the long-standing structural gap between the traditional financial system and the on-chain system.
It is under this choice that Securitize's position in the RWA track becomes clearer.
Securitize is Becoming One of the "Standard Answers" for RWA Infrastructure
Securitize was founded in November 2017 by Carlos Domingo and Jamie Finn, headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA. The company focuses on using blockchain technology to transform traditional financial assets (such as stocks, funds, bonds, private equity, etc.) into compliant digital securities.
This positioning directly determines Securitize's partners and business form. Securitize's most well-known case is providing tokenization services for BlackRock's BUIDL money market fund. To date, the fund's size has exceeded $1.7 billion, making it the largest tokenized money fund product in the current RWA market.
In addition, Securitize has partnered with several traditional asset management institutions including Apollo, KKR, Hamilton Lane, and VanEck. Official data shows that its cumulative tokenized asset scale has surpassed $3 billion. If the early stages of RWA were more about "conceptual feasibility," then Securitize's business has begun to enter the verification stage of "institutional feasibility."
This "bridge-type" positioning is also clearly reflected in Securitize's financing and shareholder structure.
Public information shows that Securitize has raised approximately $122 million to $147 million through multiple rounds of private equity financing. Early investors mostly came from the crypto industry itself, including Coinbase, Ripple, etc. As the RWA narrative gradually clarified, its shareholder structure also changed significantly, with traditional financial giants such as Morgan Stanley and BlackRock entering one after another. The number of investors exceeds 50, and it has also received significant holdings from Cathie Wood's ARK Invest.
This process from "crypto circle recognition" to "Wall Street endorsement" is not accidental but a natural result of its business path and institutional choices.
Under This Logic, Moving Towards the Capital Market is Not Surprising
On October 28, Securitize announced that it would go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Cantor Equity Partners II, Inc. After the transaction is completed, the company's valuation is expected to reach $1.25 billion, and it plans to trade under the ticker symbol SECZ.
Cantor Equity Partners II, Inc. (NSDQ:CEPT) is sponsored by a company under financial services giant Cantor Fitzgerald, with its head being Brandon Lutnick, son of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Notably, Twenty One, the third-largest bitcoin reserve company, also went public by merging with another SPAC under Cantor Fitzgerald, showing the group's continued layout in the crypto asset field.
To support the listing and public market operations, Securitize has also simultaneously strengthened its compliance and governance capabilities, announcing the appointment of former PayPal digital asset legal head Jerome Roche as General Counsel, preparing for future continuous reporting and regulatory communication on Nasdaq.
Conclusion
Returning to Securitize itself, as a leading project in the RWA track, the market's earliest expectation for it might have been just when it would issue a token. But judging from today's progress, this expectation itself might just be the inertial thinking of the crypto market.
What Securitize is ultimately moving towards is not a narrative stage centered around a token, but the larger structure formed by the capital market and regulatory system. But this choice itself is not surprising. Because from the beginning, the role it has played has been closer to a bridge connecting TradFi and DeFi.
In this sense, Securitize's development path may reflect the profound transformation the RWA narrative is undergoing, moving from imagination to reality, from concept to institution. How far this path can go depends not only on the expansion speed of a certain company but also on whether the traditional financial system is truly willing to reserve a realistic space for "native on-chain assets."
