IMF Report Highlights 24/7 Trading and Retail Demand in Growing Tokenized Stock Market

Tokenized stocks may still represent a relatively small corner of the global financial ecosystem, but the participants driving this emerging market are decidedly ignoring traditional Wall Street operating hours.

According to the International Monetary Fund’s latest Global Financial Stability Report, more than half of all tokenized equity trading activity takes place outside of regular U.S. market hours. The finding underscores how blockchain-based financial products are fulfilling a core promise of decentralized technology: continuous, around-the-clock market access that transcends standard time zones and traditional banking schedules.

The IMF’s comprehensive study examined the five most liquid tokenized U.S. equities—including digital tokens tracking high-profile names like Tesla, Nvidia, and the S&P 500—across 11 different trading venues over a continuous 365-day period. Beyond the round-the-clock trading habits, the report revealed a profound level of retail participation. Approximately 80% of all tokenized stock trades involve less than a full share, highlighting robust, grass-roots demand for fractional ownership among everyday investors who might otherwise find traditional equity markets prohibitively expensive or restrictive.

Tokenized stocks are blockchain-based cryptographic tokens designed to track the underlying share price of publicly traded companies. As digital representations of real-world assets, they allow market participants to hold and trade equity exposure on various blockchain networks.

The IMF data suggests that these onchain price movements carry genuine financial information rather than existing in an isolated speculative vacuum. When traditional stock exchanges reopen for regular business hours, conventional shares typically absorb between 87% and 99% of the overnight price movements that their tokenized counterparts experienced while traditional markets were closed. This indicates that onchain venues are increasingly serving as price-discovery hubs during off-hours, capturing global sentiment when Wall Street is shuttered.

However, the technology’s advantages are matched by notable structural drawbacks and market frictions. The IMF’s findings emphasize that tokenized equities were roughly 1.5 times more volatile than their traditional underlying stocks. Furthermore, they suffered from significantly lower liquidity, particularly on decentralized exchanges (DEXs). On these decentralized venues, token prices frequently strayed further from traditional market valuations due to thinner order books and lower trading volumes.

The broader market for tokenized equities remains exceptionally small and heavily concentrated. The entire sector is valued at approximately $2.3 billion, with just a few key issuers dominating the landscape. Ondo Finance and Backed Finance’s xStocks account for more than 70% of the entire market capitalization. According to the IMF, both issuers primarily provide synthetic tokens that offer price exposure to equities without granting direct legal share ownership to the token holder.

Given the early stage of development and the niche size of the sector, the IMF noted that its findings should be interpreted with caution and emphasized that systemic risks to the broader financial system remain limited for now. Nevertheless, the international financial body urged global regulators to proactively consider implementing market safeguards, such as circuit breakers specifically tailored for 24/7 trading environments, while monitoring the deepening connections between digital asset rails and traditional financial markets. Earlier this year, the IMF issued separate warnings cautioning that tokenized finance and stablecoins could potentially amplify financial crises if left unchecked.

The release of the IMF report coincides with a major push by traditional U.S. financial heavyweights rushing to stake their claims in the rapidly evolving tokenization space. Traditional market infrastructure providers and financial institutions are increasingly exploring how blockchain technology can modernize settlement, expand distribution, and capture a new generation of digital-native investors.

Among these developments, the New York Stock Exchange has outlined plans to reach crypto-savvy investors by partnering with Blockchain.com to offer tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds. Meanwhile, ICE, the parent company of the NYSE, is collaborating with digital asset exchange OKX to develop 24/7 tokenized stock trading capabilities under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s newly introduced innovation exemption framework.

Similar institutional momentum is visible across the industry. Tokenization platform Securitize recently expanded its offerings by bringing tokenized stocks—including shares of tech giants Nvidia, Apple, and Amazon—to the Solana blockchain, with intentions to deploy across additional blockchain networks in the near future. Derivatives marketplace Cboe has also struck a licensing deal with S&P for tokenized options, while Coinbase launched tokenized stocks tailored for non-U.S. users on its Ethereum layer-2 network, Base.

As regulatory frameworks begin to adapt and major financial institutions continue to build out blockchain-based infrastructure, the intersection of traditional equities and digital asset technology is poised for continued scrutiny from global regulators and market participants alike.