VICTORIA GEDDES, Executive Director.

In the US, right now, financial markets are obsessed with tokenisation. At the NIRI Conference in Chicago in June, it was the lead topic of conversation with the market described as being at an “inflection point,” with tokenisation seen as the most significant change to market structure in decades.

So what is tokenisation? In simple terms it is defined as the process of converting ownership rights of an asset—such as equities, bonds, or real estate—into digital tokens recorded on a blockchain or distributed ledger. Instead of your broker holding a record that you own 100 BHP shares, you’d hold a digital token representing those shares — one that can be traded, transferred, or even used as collateral, potentially 24/7, with near-instant settlement.

The US is the global leader here, driven by big institutions and a very supportive regulatory environment. The conversation there has moved decisively from “why tokenise?” to “how fast can we deploy?”

Tokenisation in the US is moving at lightening speed

The SEC signalled a new approach in a mid-2025 speech, announcing it would adopt rules to permit the tokenisation of equities and other assets, including their use in decentralised applications. The GENIUS Act established the first federal framework for stablecoins, and the Clarity Act — currently being debated in the US Senate — offers further guidance on how digital assets will be regulated more broadly.

Over the past year things have been moving at pace. The Depository Trust Company (DTC) — the central plumbing of US capital markets — is now permitted to create blockchain-based “digital twins” of securities it already holds, including US equities, ETFs, and Treasury securities.

Platforms like Robinhood, Kraken’s xStocks, Ondo Global Markets, and Coinbase are developing tokens that mirror the prices of US stocks and ETFs, while legal ownership of the underlying security remains with a broker. By contrast, platforms like Securitize and Superstate issue fully SEC-registered on-chain shares where token holders retain all rights.

In March 2026 the tokenised stocks market crossed a US$1 billion in aggregate market cap with over 185,000 holders, up from just US$20 million and fewer than 1,500 users in December 2024.

The US exchanges, however, are not sitting on their hands. The SEC approved Nasdaq’s proposal to begin trading tokenised securities on March 18, 2026, followed a month later by the NYSE. Under both approved frameworks, eligible securities include stocks in the Russell 1000 Index and ETFs tracking major indices like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100.

Under Nasdaq’s model, tokenised and traditional shares will trade on the same order book, carry the same ticker symbol, and share the same CUSIP number — meaning an investor buying a tokenised share gets exactly the same legal and economic rights as someone holding the traditional version. It is targeting a December 6, 2026 launch for 23/5 trading (23 hours per weekday), with the full equity token program expected to be operational in 2027. Nasdaq’s approach is also notable for how it’s structured with tokenisation sitting                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     entirely in the post-trade settlement layer where participants can choose between traditional and tokenised settlement.

NYSE is taking a different approach and plans to launch a separate venue for tokenised securities by the end of 2026. It will bolt on blockchain infrastructure to its existing Pillar matching engine (equivalent to ASX Trade). Features include round-the-clock trading, instant settlement, dollar-denominated orders, and stablecoin-based funding, with support for multiple blockchains.

A live debate in the U.S. is whether tokenisation requires issuer consent or merely issuer notification. There is currently a risk of “walled gardens” where multiple, non-fungible versions of the same stock trade on different platforms without the issuer’s direct involvement. So this is one to watch.

In Australia we are moving much “more cautiously”

It would be safe to say that Australia is a least 2-3 years behind the US although this year a few things have started to fall into place.

On 8 April 2026, the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Act 2026 received royal assent, making it enacted law, with the new regime to commence in April 2027. This is Australia’s first comprehensive legal framework for tokenised assets and digital asset platforms. The new law creates two regulated categories:

• • Digital Asset Platforms (covering exchanges and platforms that hold crypto on behalf of users); and
  • Tokenised Custody Platforms (handling the tokenisation of real-world assets).

While a fintech could tokenise ASX-listed shares today by holding the underlying shares with a licensed custodian and issuing blockchain tokens against them, it has yet to happen. The US platform, Kraken, is the closest thing the world has to a mainstream tokenised equities platform and indicated its intention last year to introduce its xStocks to Australia – we are still waiting.

So what’s the hold-up – is it CHESS? The ASX’s long delayed replacement of the clearing component of CHESS was never a prerequisite for tokenisation of equities in Australia. It is, however, important for proving how well it can eventually work at scale. The second release, targeted for 2029, is a prerequisite for full, native tokenisation of ASX equities at the infrastructure level. This will replace the settlement and sub-register functionality with blockchain, which is the part most directly relevant to tokenised share ownership records.

This does not, however, stop tokenisation happening around the ASX through custodian-based or platform models (as currently exists in the US). The only constraint on that is the regulatory framework. The Reserve Bank of Australia, the RBA, has been running Project Acacia, a pilot exploring how wholesale digital money could underpin tokenised asset markets. It is now working with regulators and industry on next steps, including a potential digital market infrastructure “sandbox”. This will test the plumbing of the financial system itself, providing a permanent, structured and safe environment where companies can progressively scale up with regulators adjusting the rules in real time as they learn. For example, a big unresolved question is what form of “money” can be used when a trade in tokenised shares comes to be settled? For that money to be truly safe and final, it ideally needs to be central bank money — but the RBA hasn’t yet committed to issuing a wholesale digital dollar that can live on a blockchain. So there is a long way to go.