Tokenized equity framework xStocks has partnered with alternative investment platform Fundrise to bring the newly public Fundrise Innovation Fund on-chain, increasing its exposure to late-stage private market companies.
A single tokenized asset, VCXX, will go live on the xStocks platform within the next few days, according to an announcement on Friday.
The move to bring Fundrise on-chain comes just days after the closed-end fund began trading on the New York Stock Exchange with a portfolio that includes private equity in technology companies such as Anthropic, Databricks, and SpaceX. In early trading, the stock price soared from its opening price of $31 on March 19 to $575 per share.
But a critical report released Thursday by short seller Citron Research said Fundrise Advisors LLC could face SEC charges in 2023 over paid solicitation activities. Citron asked regulators to investigate whether the company currently pays influencers to promote VCX. The stock fell almost 34% on Friday, ending the week at $173, and was down another 5.9% in after-hours trading.
Fundrise Innovation Fund co-founder and CEO Ben Miller told CNBC on Friday that critics are waging a baseless smear campaign and is defending the fund’s strategy and efforts to expand access to private tech companies.
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Total on-chain tokenized stocks exceed $1 billion
The total on-chain value of tokenized stocks surpassed $1 billion earlier this month, amid growing investor interest in the fast-growing Real World Assets (RWA) sector.
Data from RWA.xyz shows that platforms offering blockchain-based exposure to traditional stocks are attracting more investor trading and liquidity, with tokenized stocks valued at over $1 billion.
Indeed, much of that activity is concentrated in a small number of operators. According to RWA.xyz data, Ondo holds about 58% of the market, while tokenized equity products issued on the xStocks platform account for about 24%, forming an nascent duopoly in the sector.
In a March 10 report, Foresight Ventures cited regulatory barriers, liquidity advantages, and different tokenization models as key factors shaping competition in the space, and posited that the market is consolidating around these early leaders.
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