IMF Finds Tokenized U.S. Stocks Are About 1.5 Times as Volatile

Tokenized U.S. equity products are trading around the clock and in fractional amounts, but the products examined showed realized volatility about 1.5 times higher than in corresponding traditional markets.

More than half of trading took place outside regular U.S. market hours, while about 80% of trading value involved less than one share. The figures point to active use of overnight access and fractional exposure in a market that remains small relative to traditional equities.

The sample covered five of the most actively traded tokenized U.S. equity products, including Tesla, Nvidia, Alphabet and the Nasdaq 100 Index. More than 85% of overnight price movements in the tokenized products were reflected in traditional stock quotes within five minutes of the U.S. market open.

Tokenized real-world assets totaled about $65 billion as of July 31, with tokenized stocks accounting for roughly $2.3 billion. Global equity-market capitalization was nearly $160 trillion in 2025, putting tokenized stocks at less than one-thousandth of the broader market.

Coinbase, Kraken, Binance and Robinhood offer tokenized-stock services. Bullish launched tokenized-stock trading in August, while OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) jointly submitted a plan in October for an around-the-clock tokenized U.S. stock venue.

The market remains divided among private platforms, public blockchains, custodians and settlement systems. Different platforms may provide different prices, liquidity and access conditions for the same tokenized stock, leaving liquidity in separate pools.

Those conditions may increase stress when 24/7 trading operates alongside automated margin calls, liquidations and collateral transfers across systems that cannot easily connect. Current risks remain limited while the market is small, but wider adoption requires clear ownership rules, liquidity safeguards, interoperability and secure settlement arrangements.

The assessment builds on earlier reporting on the still-small tokenized-markets sector.