Bullish-led coalition pushes issuer-backed tokenized stocks — SkimNews
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- Bullish and Equiniti convened the new Issuer Sponsored Token Coalition, unveiled Thursday with Alpaca, Apex Fintech Solutions and DriveWealth as founding members; Equiniti is being acquired by Bullish (parent of CoinDesk).
- The coalition will develop technical standards, settlement, custody and methods to transfer securities between traditional market infrastructure and blockchain networks.
- Issuer-sponsored tokenization links tokens directly to a company's official shareholder register, preserving voting, dividends and corporate-action rights that synthetic price-tracking products may not confer.
- The push follows last week's SEC exemption allowing limited onchain trading of U.S.-listed equities under certain conditions.
- Alpaca said it will contribute via its Instant Tokenization Network, with digital-assets head Arush Sehgal stating that onchain markets must stay connected to underlying markets.
- The initiative responds to a recent dispute between AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron and Robinhood over whether synthetic or tokenized products leave investors without registered-shareholder legal rights.
Why it matters: With the SEC's recent exemption opening limited onchain equity trading, the coalition's push to standardize issuer-backed tokens could draw a sharper legal line between products that confer real shareholder rights and synthetics that only track prices — the same gap AMC's Adam Aron flagged in his dispute with Robinhood.
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