On Tuesday, Binance’s new push into tokenized stocks received regulatory support as the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) approved trading of Ondo Finance’s tokenized stocks on the exchange’s regulated platform.
According to a press release shared with CoinDesk, ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority has authorized Ondo Global Markets’ tokenized stocks and ETFs to be traded on Binance’s FSRA-regulated multilateral trading facility. The list includes tokenized versions of Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Circle, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, and Invesco QQQ ETFs. Products are available to users outside the United States.
Ondo said this is the first time ADGM has approved trading in tokenized securities under its regulatory framework, allowing UAE-based financial institutions, intermediaries and counterparties to trade tokenized versions of stocks.
“We are expanding our access to hundreds of millions of investors through our offering of Ondo tokenized shares that can be traded on Binance,” Ondo Finance President Ian de Bode said in a statement.
The approval gives Binance a regulated venue to trade tokenized stocks, nearly five years after it shut down similar services following scrutiny from regulators in the UK and Germany. The move comes after Binance listed Ondo’s tokenized shares on its Alpha platform, which is reserved for high-risk early-stage projects.
Tokenized stocks are attracting interest from crypto exchanges such as Kraken, brokerages such as Robinhood, and traditional market operators such as Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. According to RWA.xyz data, the total market value exceeds $1 billion.
Proponents argue that putting stocks on blockchain rails will widen investor access, allow assets to move more easily between trading and lending platforms, and link stock markets and decentralized finance.
Ondo structures its products as equity-linked bonds tied to the underlying equity. The company said that in less than six months since its launch, it has processed more than $11 billion in cumulative transaction volume, with a total of more than $600 million locked.
Last year, Ondo won basic securities prospectus approval in the European Union, allowing it to be made publicly available across the European Union.
