IMF finds demand for tokenized stocks, says the market is still volatile, illiquid — SkimNews
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- IMF found more than half of tokenized stock trades occur outside regular U.S. market hours and about 80% involve less than one share, which it read as demand for 24/7 access and lower entry points, not just the underlying tech.
- IMF found overnight moves in tokenized stocks carried useful price information, with more than 85% reflected in conventional shares within five minutes of U.S. markets opening.
- IMF said tokenized stocks were about 1.5 times as volatile as the equivalent traditional shares and significantly less liquid, calling the market small and fragmented across private platforms, public blockchains, custodians and settlement tools.
- Tokenized equities made up roughly $2.3 billion of an estimated $65 billion tokenized RWA market as of July 31, compared with a 2025 global equity market capitalization of about $160 trillion per SIFMA.
- Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Robinhood and OKX now offer tokenized stock trading, while Intercontinental Exchange (parent of the NYSE) and OKX filed plans this month for a tokenized U.S. share venue, joining crypto firm Bullish, which launched tokenized equity trading in August.
- IMF warned that automated margin calls, cross-platform collateral movement and 24-hour trading could make a market shock harder to contain, and called for legal, liquidity, interoperability and settlement safeguards before the market grows further.
Why it matters: The IMF's data cuts both ways on crypto's stock-tokenization thesis: the report confirms real investor demand (80% of trades fractional, 85%+ of overnight moves carrying signal into regular markets within five minutes) but quantifies the maturity gap — 1.5x volatility and a $2.3 billion equity float against $160 trillion in traditional markets. With NYSE-parent ICE, Coinbase and Robinhood now building venues, the infrastructure is going in before the $65 billion RWA market has the legal, liquidity and settlement rails the IMF says it needs.
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