The way investors buy and sell shares is undergoing a quiet revolution — and the leaders driving this change are not traditional stock exchanges, but crypto platforms.
Over the past year, major crypto exchanges such as Robinhood, Kraken, and Bybit have begun offering tokenised US stocks to investors outside the United States. A tokenised stock is a blockchain-based digital version of a real share (like Apple or Tesla). For every token issued, the underlying share is held securely by a licensed custodian. Token holders enjoy the same economic benefits as traditional shareholders, including dividends.
What Makes This Different?
The real game-changer is the technology behind these products. Unlike closed banking systems, these tokens are issued on open public blockchains such as Solana, Ethereum, and Arbitrum.
This shift unlocks powerful advantages:
- 24/7 trading — no more waiting for market hours
- Instant settlement instead of T+1 or T+2 delays
- Fractional ownership — investors can buy tiny portions of expensive stocks for as little as a few rupees
- Programmability — tokens can be used as collateral, swapped for stablecoins, or transferred across borders instantly
Stablecoins further simplify the process. An investor in Mumbai can buy tokenised US stocks using USDC or similar stable assets, bypassing slow and expensive traditional cross-border banking channels.
Strong Global Momentum
The demand is already visible. Backed Finance’s xStocks on Solana, launched via Kraken and Bybit in June 2025, crossed $300 million in trading volume within weeks. Robinhood’s European platform now offers over 200 tokenised US stocks and ETFs. Even BlackRock’s BUIDL — a tokenised US Treasury fund — surpassed $2.5 billion in assets under management in 2025.
Earlier attempts using private, permissioned blockchains largely failed because they simply replicated the old system. Open blockchains, by contrast, are delivering genuine innovation.
India’s Position
India is not sitting on the sidelines. In mid-2025, SEBI approved a regulatory sandbox for Xaults, an IIM Ahmedabad-incubated startup, allowing retail investors to buy fractional shares of Reliance Industries for as little as ₹10, with ownership recorded on a distributed ledger. The pilot is now expanding to more companies and even real estate assets.
This is a promising start. The next logical step is to leverage India’s existing strengths — open blockchain networks, stablecoins, and regulated Virtual Digital Asset (VDA) exchanges — to scale this opportunity.
India’s VDA platforms already follow strict KYC and FIU-IND reporting norms, making them natural gateways for compliant tokenised products.
The Way Forward for India
While crypto assets still lack full regulatory clarity from SEBI and RBI, global trends are clear: successful tokenised equity platforms rely heavily on open blockchain infrastructure and crypto distribution channels.
India has a golden opportunity through IFSCA’s work on real-world asset tokenisation and its mature VDA ecosystem. By treating blockchain and crypto rails as an enabling layer for tokenised securities — rather than a separate issue — India can build this market domestically.
This approach would deliver:
- Round-the-clock markets
- Near-instant settlement
- Democratised access to high-value assets
- More efficient capital flows
The future of stock ownership is being written in code on open blockchains. India should actively shape this narrative instead of watching it unfold elsewhere.
Also read: Binance Highlights $300 Million Annual Compliance Spend After Blocking $10.5 Billion in Fraud
Mansi Sharma 
Khushi Sikarwar