Something’s Happening Here

By Matt Hougan | CIO, Bitwise Asset Management
July 16, 2025

Tokenization – the idea of moving stocks, bonds, and other real-world assets over blockchains instead of traditional networks – is having a moment.

Here’s what’s happened in the past few weeks:

1. Robinhood and Kraken debuted tokenized stock trading. Robinhood’s system is built on Arbitrum, a Layer 2 network on Ethereum, while Kraken’s xStocks system is built on Solana. While both systems are currently limited to non-U.S. investors, Coinbase filed paperwork with the SEC to allow tokenized stock trading in the U.S., calling it a “huge priority.”

2. Financial institutions invested $135 million into the “Canton Network,” a new Layer 1 blockchain for stock and bond trading. The round was led by the market-making giant DRW Capital and the bond-trading hub Tradeweb Markets, with participation from firms like Citadel, DTCC, and Goldman Sachs.

3. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins called tokenization a significant “innovation,” adding that the SEC “should be focused on how we advance tokenization in the marketplace” and that the days of regulation through enforcement “are over.”

And that’s not all.

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