Bullish, Equiniti Form Coalition For Issuer-Backed Tokenized Securities

Bullish and Equiniti formed a coalition to develop standards and infrastructure for issuer-backed tokenized securities, linking digital representations of shares with official ownership records and investor protections.

The Issuer Sponsored Token Coalition includes Alpaca, Apex Fintech Solutions and DriveWealth among its initial participants. Its work will cover issuance, shareholder registers, trading, settlement, custody and interoperability.

The model is designed to connect tokenized securities with an issuer’s authoritative shareholder register. That would preserve ownership rights, corporate-action entitlements and investor protections, distinguishing the structure from synthetic products that provide economic exposure to a stock without making the holder the registered shareholder.

The initiative follows the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Sept. 17 temporary framework for limited on-chain trading of tokenized National Market System stocks. The framework provides conditional exemptions for eligible Tokenized Securities Venues using permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools. The exemptions expire five years after publication, and venues must verify that tokenized stocks provide holders the same rights and privileges as equivalent traditional stocks.

Participation in the coalition is nonbinding. Members are not required to enter commercial agreements, issue or list securities, provide liquidity or support a specific product. No token, trading venue or commercial product was launched with the announcement.

“Tokenization will turn static, opaque assets into active, transparent digital shares. The architecture we establish now matters and that is why we are bringing together this group of leading firms to chart the course,” Bullish CEO Tom Farley said.

DriveWealth CEO Naureen Hassan said, “Much of what's marketed today as ‘tokenized equity’ isn't equity at all. Investors think they own the share, and they don't. That's the gap this Coalition is built to close.”

The coalition’s issuer-sponsored approach builds on the model described in Bullish and Equiniti’s shareholder-record strategy, which places the transfer agent and official shareholder register at the center of ownership records.

Bullish’s planned $4.2 billion acquisition of Equiniti is expected to close in January 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions. Bullish brings digital-asset trading infrastructure, while Equiniti provides transfer-agent and shareholder-record capabilities.

Coalition members are scheduled to meet with issuers and capital-market firms at the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 27, 2026.