The way investors buy and sell shares is undergoing a quiet but profound transformation — and the leaders driving this shift 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 international investors. A tokenised stock is a blockchain-based digital version of a real listed share (like Apple or Tesla). For every token issued, the underlying share is held by a licensed custodian, ensuring that token holders receive the same economic benefits — including dividends — as traditional shareholders.
What Makes This Different?
The real game-changer is the technology: these tokens are issued on open, public blockchains like Solana, Ethereum, and Arbitrum, rather than closed banking systems.
This shift unlocks several powerful advantages:
- 24/7 trading — no more waiting for market hours.
- Instant settlement — transactions clear in seconds, not T+1 or T+2 days.
- Fractional ownership — investors can buy tiny portions of expensive stocks, even 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, allowing investors in Mumbai, Singapore, or Dubai to buy tokenised US stocks without the delays and costs of traditional cross-border banking.
Strong Market Momentum
The demand is already visible. Backed Finance’s xStocks, launched on Solana 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 has entered the space with its BUIDL tokenised Treasury fund, which surpassed $2.5 billion in assets under management.
Earlier attempts using private, permissioned blockchains largely failed because they simply replicated the old system. Open blockchains, by contrast, are delivering real innovation.
India’s Opportunity
India is already experimenting. 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 integrate open blockchain infrastructure, stablecoins, and India’s existing Virtual Digital Asset (VDA) exchanges into the ecosystem.
India’s VDA platforms already follow strict KYC and FIU-IND reporting norms, making them natural gateways for compliant tokenised products. Combining these with open blockchains could deliver:
- Round-the-clock markets
- Near-instant settlement
- Democratised access through micro-investments
- Faster and cheaper capital movement
While crypto assets still lack full regulatory clarity from SEBI and RBI, global trends are clear: every successful tokenised equity platform in 2025 has relied on open blockchains and crypto distribution channels.
The Way Forward for India
Rather than treating crypto rails as a separate issue, India should view them as an enabling infrastructure layer for the next generation of capital markets. IFSCA’s work on tokenising real-world assets already provides a foundation. By building on this, India can develop a vibrant domestic market for tokenised securities instead of ceding the innovation to global players.
The future of stocks is becoming increasingly intertwined with crypto technology. The question for India is not whether to engage — but how quickly it can seize this opportunity.
