Securitize and Cantor Explore Tokenized IPOs for Public Trading

Securitize and Cantor Fitzgerald have announced a partnership aimed at enabling blockchain-based primary issuances and follow-on equity offerings for listed companies using tokenized securities. The initiative is designed to fit within existing regulatory pathways for public offerings, positioning tokenization as a potential upgrade to traditional IPO and secondary capital-raising workflows.

According to the companies, they are developing a framework that would allow issuers to raise capital through tokenized securities while maintaining compliance with the rules applicable to public offerings. The plan covers both initial public offerings and subsequent, or secondary, share sales by companies that are already publicly listed.

Key takeaways

• Securitize and Cantor Fitzgerald plan to build a regulated issuance and settlement framework for tokenized securities covering both IPOs and follow-on equity offerings.
• Securitize will provide the tokenization infrastructure, while its SEC-registered broker-dealer affiliate, Securitize Markets, is set to participate in offering and settlement.
• Cantor will contribute its equity capital markets experience and trading capabilities associated with public offerings.
• The move aligns with a broader shift toward tokenized stocks and real-world assets as institutional infrastructure efforts accelerate.

A framework designed for public-offering compliance

The partnership is structured around the mechanics required to issue and distribute digital securities in a way that can be administered under the current public-offering regulatory environment. The companies said the framework is intended to support both IPOs and follow-on offerings—where an already listed company issues additional shares to raise capital.

Under the agreement, Securitize is expected to handle the tokenization infrastructure that underpins issuance, distribution, and ongoing servicing of the digital securities. Its SEC-registered broker-dealer affiliate, Securitize Markets, will take part in the offering and settlement process, bridging the digital issuance layer with the traditional market structure.

Cantor Fitzgerald, for its part, will bring its equity capital markets and trading capabilities—capabilities that are typically central to underwriting, market execution, and the infrastructure surrounding public equity transactions.

Why this matters as tokenized equities gain momentum

The announcement arrives as tokenized securities continue to attract increasing attention from established finance. While tokenization has historically found early traction in areas such as private credit and tokenized U.S. Treasurys, the latest wave of interest is increasingly directed at public equity markets.

RWA.xyz data cited in the announcement indicates that tokenized stocks onchain have grown notably: the value of tokenized stocks is reported to have increased 16% over the last 30 days to nearly $1.9 billion. That rate of growth, according to the piece, outpaces much of the broader digital asset market—an important sign for investors watching where tokenization is scaling beyond niche use cases.

More significantly for traditional market participants, the narrative is shifting from isolated pilots to recurring questions about issuance, trading, custody, and settlement at institutional scale. Even when tokenized products are still being explored, the industry attention itself is a signal that infrastructure and compliance teams are beginning to treat tokenization as a serious operational track rather than an experimental technology.

Institutional infrastructure: DTCC’s plans and Wall Street pilots

Tokenized equities are also being pursued through mainstream market infrastructure efforts. Earlier coverage cited in the announcement points to moves by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC). In a report published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, DTCC said it plans to pilot tokenization of stocks and U.S. Treasurys with nearly 40 financial companies, including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.

The DTCC trial is described as following its May announcement that it aims to roll out tokenized trading services by October. If the timeline holds, it would represent another step toward standardizing how tokenized assets could be cleared and settled in ways that mirror current institutional workflows.

The WSJ report also notes that the assets targeted for tokenization include shares of Microsoft and Circle, as well as exchange-traded funds tracking major indexes such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, alongside short-term U.S. Treasury bonds. The selection is notable because it spans both equity and high-liquidity fixed-income benchmarks—assets that tend to draw heavy institutional participation and could therefore stress-test infrastructure at scale.

For investors and market operators, the practical question is not whether tokenization can “work,” but whether it can interoperate with existing systems for corporate actions, settlement finality, and operational risk controls. Partnerships like Securitize and Cantor’s can be interpreted as one answer on the issuance side, while efforts like DTCC’s pilot focus on the post-trade and market structure layers.

Building on an existing relationship

The partnership is also not starting from zero. Securitize previously moved into public markets via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by Cantor Fitzgerald, according to the announcement. That prior connection helps explain why the two firms are positioning themselves to collaborate on a more ambitious use case: applying tokenization infrastructure to new public-offering activity rather than limiting it to private markets or narrow asset classes.

Even so, key details about implementation and scope remain to be seen. The announcement emphasizes the intent to remain within existing regulatory frameworks, but readers should watch for additional specifics on how the framework will be executed in practice—such as which markets or jurisdictions it initially targets, what types of issuers it prioritizes, and how the settlement and servicing process will be operationalized for tokenized IPOs and follow-on sales.

As tokenized equities continue to attract both infrastructure investment and growing onchain activity, the next phase will likely hinge on regulatory clarity, market-structure integration, and whether pilot projects can graduate into repeatable issuance pipelines for mainstream public companies.