Bullish, Equiniti, Alpaca, Apex Fintech Solutions and DriveWealth have formed an industry group focused on issuer-sponsored tokenized securities, called the Issuer Sponsored Token Coalition. The group was unveiled on Thursday.
CoinDesk parent company Bullish and Equiniti, a shareholder-services and market-infrastructure firm being acquired by the crypto platform, convened the group. The coalition’s main focus is issuer-sponsored tokenization, where a tokenized share is linked to a company’s official shareholder register.
The group plans to work on technical standards, settlement, custody and moving securities between traditional market infrastructure and blockchain networks. Its stated goal is to preserve rights such as voting, dividends and participation in corporate actions.
Tom Farley, CEO of Bullish, announced the group. Arush Sehgal, head of digital assets at Alpaca, said tokenization creates an opportunity to connect issuers and investors in ways that weren’t possible with traditional market infrastructure, and that getting it right means preserving shareholder rights.
The coalition’s work follows last week’s U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission exemption allowing limited onchain trading of U.S.-listed equities under certain conditions. That exemption is a notable backdrop for the group’s effort, since it signals regulatory interest in onchain markets while the coalition pushes for standards that preserve traditional investor rights.
The timing also comes after a recent dispute between AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron and Robinhood. That fight centered on whether synthetic or tokenized products may leave investors with economic exposure to a stock but not the same legal rights as registered shareholders.
Who Is In The Group
The coalition brings together issuers, broker-dealer infrastructure providers and crypto platforms. The group’s membership spans market infrastructure, crypto trading and tokenization technology.
Equiniti is being acquired by Bullish, which owns CoinDesk.
Why The Rights Matter
The coalition’s stated aim is to preserve voting, dividend and corporate-action rights for token holders. That is a direct response to the AMC-Robinhood dispute, where the question of economic exposure versus legal rights was raised.
If a token holder has economic exposure to a stock but no legal rights, the holder can lose out on dividends, votes and other corporate actions. The coalition wants to ensure tokenized shares stay anchored to official shareholder registers to prevent that split.
What Comes Next
The coalition is still forming, and its work is just beginning. The group’s technical standards will shape how tokenized securities move between traditional and blockchain infrastructure.
The SEC’s exemption allows limited onchain trading of U.S.-listed equities under certain conditions, so the coalition’s work is happening against a backdrop of regulatory activity.
The Coalition’s Stated Goals
The coalition’s stated goals include:
- Technical standards for issuer-sponsored tokens
- Settlement processes for tokenized securities
- Custody arrangements for tokenized assets
- Interoperability between traditional markets and blockchain networks
Each of these areas touches a different stage of the token lifecycle, from issuance to holding to transfer across systems. The coalition’s focus on issuer-sponsored tokenization means the token itself is tied directly to the company’s official records, rather than being a synthetic product that only tracks price.
“Getting it right means preserving shareholder rights and ensuring onchain markets remain connected to the markets they’re built on.”
The AMC-Robinhood dispute illustrated that gap: investors may hold economic exposure to a stock but lack the legal rights that come with registered shareholding.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs the coalition’s focus on narrow, practical standards for issuer-sponsored tokenization and is against any regime that would force smaller fintech firms to clear some kind of licensing hurdle that only the biggest firms could afford. The coalition’s stated goal of preserving voting, dividend and corporate-action rights for token holders is a reasonable and modest ambition. The danger is not the technology itself but the concentration of power that would follow a licensing regime that only the largest firms could afford.
The coalition’s work on technical standards, settlement, custody and interoperability between traditional and blockchain networks is exactly the kind of practical, industry-led effort the paper favors. These are standards that startups can follow without having to hire armies of lawyers and regulators. The paper supports these narrow, practical efforts while opposing broader rules that hand the market to the incumbents.
Readers should watch for any proposal that would require smaller fintech firms to jump through licensing hoops that only the biggest players can afford. That would be a moat, not a safeguard.
Source material: “Bullish, Alpaca and Apex Fintech form coalition to push issuer-backed tokenized stocks,” CoinDesk.
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