Tokenisation Enters the Core of US Market Infrastructure
Established Market Operators Assume the Lead
For much of the past five years, a "tokenised stock" has usually meant a digital receipt sold by an offshore crypto firm, promising to track the price of a company such as Apple or Tesla while asking the buyer to trust that the underlying shares were in fact being held. Within two weeks in September 2026, that model began to give way, as the institutions that already operate the American stock market moved to build the necessary infrastructure themselves.
On September 10, Nasdaq announced that its venture arm would invest $100 million in Payward, the parent company of Kraken, to advance its Nasdaq Equity Token framework towards a launch in the second quarter of 2027. On September 16, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) admitted Oasis Pro Markets, the broker-dealer subsidiary of Ondo Finance, to Fund/SERV, the network that processes more than 85% of US mutual fund activity, as its first tokenisation member, and Ondo followed on September 24 with the launch of Intelligent Portfolios, a set of tokenised portfolios based on strategies developed by BlackRock.
On September 23, NYSE Group and Blockchain.com signed a memorandum of understanding to make tokenised US stocks and exchange-traded funds available to users of the crypto platform.
These developments deserve a broadly positive assessment, since they offer a considerably sounder path than one in which the crypto industry builds tokenised markets on its own. The case for them rests on three grounds: the new arrangements keep the token tied to the genuine share, they connect new products to established and well-tested infrastructure, and they extend proper market surveillance to venues that have so far operated with little of it. The transition nevertheless remains incomplete, because the Securities and Exchange Commission's temporary "Innovation Exemption", issued on September 17, has opened a parallel route for on-chain trading, and the benefits of these developments will endure only if that interim relief is replaced by permanent rules.
Three Grounds for Support
The first ground is that the token remains the genuine security. Nasdaq's approach rests on a rule change approved by the SEC in March 2026, under which a tokenised share must be fungible with the conventional share, carry the same CUSIP number and ticker symbol, confer identical shareholder rights, and trade on the same order book with the same execution priority. This design stands in direct contrast to the offshore model, and it addresses the principal concern raised by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) in its November 2025 report on tokenisation, namely that investors may be uncertain whether they hold the underlying asset or merely a token issued by a third party. Where the exchange that lists a stock also defines its token, much of that uncertainty is removed.
The second ground is that established infrastructure is what allows new products to operate safely at scale. Fund/SERV has been in operation since 1986, serves more than 1,300 clients and processes over $12 trillion in transactions each year, and membership provides Oasis Pro with a single standardized connection for transaction confirmations, reconciliation, fund distributions, tax reporting and regulatory reporting. Until now, a tokenised fund required a bespoke connection with each distributor, whereas a wealth platform can now process it in much the same way as any conventional mutual fund. It was for this reason that Talia Klein of DTCC described interoperability between traditional infrastructure and digital-asset systems as essential to achieving scale and broad market adoption.
The third ground is that broader access is arriving together with stronger oversight. Under its agreement with Nasdaq, Payward will deploy Nasdaq's market surveillance technology across its trading venues for crypto assets, equities, tokenised equities, futures and options, which means that a platform operating around the clock will be monitored for manipulation with tools of exchange grade. The NYSE arrangement, for its part, could bring regulated tokenised shares to a platform with more than 44 million confirmed accounts, and it is clearly preferable for those users to encounter US equities through a regulated NYSE venue than through the product of an unfamiliar offshore issuer.
Completing the Regulatory Framework
The infrastructure for tokenised markets is now being built by the right institutions, but infrastructure without a settled regulatory framework carries lasting risk, and the coming twelve months will therefore matter more than the past two weeks. The SEC should commence formal notice-and-comment rulemaking well before the five-year Innovation Exemption expires, as the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) has urged, and as Chairman Paul Atkins himself signalled when he described the order as a bridge toward durable rulemaking.
That rulemaking should adopt Nasdaq's standard as the minimum for every venue, so that a tokenised share traded anywhere in the United States carries the same identifier, the same rights and access to the same prices as the conventional share. Distribution partners such as Blockchain.com should also be required to state clearly, at the point of purchase, whether a customer is acquiring a share or only economic exposure to one, particularly because offshore products, including Ondo's new portfolios, which are available only to investors outside the United States, may appear within the same applications.
Finally, Nasdaq, DTCC and Ondo should publish verifiable data on settlement times and costs once their products are live, thereby answering IOSCO's observation that issuers seldom disclose any measurable efficiency gains.
If these steps are taken, September 2026 is likely to be regarded as the moment at which established market operators ceased to observe tokenisation from the outside and assumed responsibility for it, while ordinary investors retained the protections that have long underpinned confidence in American capital markets.
Sources:
Atkins, Paul S. "Statement on the Innovation Exemption: A Bridge Toward Durable Rulemaking." U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, September 17, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/atkins-innovation-exemption-bridge-toward-durable-rulemaking-091726.
"Blockchain.com, NYSE Plan Access to Tokenized US Stocks and ETFs." The Block, September 23, 2026. https://www.theblock.co/news/web3/2026-09-23-blockchain-com-nyse-tokenized-us-stocks-etfs-416176.
DTCC. "DTCC's Fund/SERV Adds Ondo Finance as Its First Tokenization Member, Bringing Tokenized Funds Into the Mainstream." Press release, September 16, 2026. https://www.dtcc.com/press-releases/2026/DTCC-FundSERV-Adds-Ondo-Finance-as-First-Tokenization-Member.
Nasdaq. "Nasdaq Deepens Relationship with Payward to Advance Tokenized Equities and Always-On Infrastructure." Press release, September 10, 2026. https://ir.nasdaq.com/node/110981.
"Nasdaq Invests $100 Million in Kraken Parent Payward." The Defiant. https://thedefiant.io/news/cefi/nasdaq-invests-100-million-in-kraken-parent-payward.
Ondo Finance. "Ondo Launches Intelligent Portfolios, Powered by BlackRock, Bringing Portfolio Strategies Onchain." Press release, CNW, September 24, 2026. https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/ondo-launches-intelligent-portfolios-powered-by-blackrock-bringing-portfolio-strategies-onchain-891751816.html.
"Ondo's Oasis Pro Markets Joins DTCC's Fund/SERV Processing Network." The Defiant. https://thedefiant.io/converge/tradfi-and-fintech/ondo-s-oasis-pro-markets-joins-dtcc-s-fund-serv-processing-network.
Payward. "Payward Deepens Relationship with Nasdaq to Advance Tokenized Equities and Always-On Infrastructure." Press release, September 10, 2026. https://www.payward.com/press-release/payward-nasdaq-tokenized-equities.
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