The Rise of On-Chain US Stock Trading: A New Chapter in Asset Tokenization

Recently, several well-known trading platforms have successively launched trading services for US stock tokens, attracting widespread attention in the cryptocurrency industry. One trading platform was the first to launch the xStocks product, which supports trading of 60 US stock tokens, while another platform quickly followed suit by listing popular stock token pairs including Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia. In addition, a stock trading app also announced that it will support US stock trading on-chain and plans to launch its own public blockchain.

This series of actions seems to indicate that the US stock market is becoming the new darling of the blockchain field. However, upon careful consideration, it is not difficult to find that this new narrative built by dollar stablecoins, the tokenization of US stocks, and on-chain infrastructure is pushing the cryptocurrency industry to the vortex of financial narratives and geopolitical games, inevitably redefining its role.

US Stock Tokenization: Old Wine in New Bottles?

In fact, the tokenization of US stocks is not a new concept. During the last cryptocurrency cycle, some projects explored an on-chain synthetic asset mechanism. This model allows users to mint and trade various "US stock tokens" through over-collateralization, even covering multiple tradable assets such as fiat currencies, indices, gold, and crude oil.

However, this synthetic asset model has not achieved large-scale application. The core reason is that price anchoring does not equate to asset ownership. The US stock tokens traded under this model do not represent actual ownership of the stocks in reality, but merely speculate on price trends. Once the oracle fails or there are issues with the collateral assets, the entire system will face risks of liquidation imbalance, price decoupling, and collapse of user confidence.

Moreover, since the funds only circulate within the on-chain closed loop and lack participation from institutions or brokers, these types of US stock tokens always remain at the level of "shadow assets." They cannot truly integrate into the traditional financial system, nor can they attract structural inflows of incremental funds.

The Fund Flow Structure of US Stocks Under the New Architecture

Unlike in the past, this time the tokenization of US stocks adopts a brand new approach. From the disclosed information, these newly launched US stock token trading products use a real stock custody model, with funds flowing into the actual US stock market through brokers.

In this model, users only need to hold a crypto wallet and stablecoin to bypass account opening thresholds and identity verification at decentralized exchanges anytime and anywhere, easily purchasing US stock assets. Throughout the process, there is no need for a US stock account, unaffected by time zone and identity restrictions, directly importing funds into the US stock market on-chain.

From a macro perspective, this is actually a way for the US dollar and US capital markets to attract incremental global funds through cryptocurrencies, which serve as a low-cost, highly elastic, and around-the-clock operating channel. It is worth noting that under the current structure, users can only go long, cannot go short, and there are no leverage or non-linear return structures.

Analysis of the Pros and Cons of Tokenization of US Stocks

For users lacking access to U.S. stock investment channels, especially retail investors in third-world countries and cryptocurrency natives, the tokenization of U.S. stocks undoubtedly opens up an unprecedented low-threshold avenue, achieving a certain degree of "asset equity."

However, for cryptocurrency traders who already have US stock accounts, the current tokenization products for US stocks seem to be somewhat inadequate. Due to the limitation of only being able to go long, the lack of supporting derivatives, and even the absence of basic options and margin trading functions, it is difficult to meet the needs of trading-oriented users.

Nevertheless, the tokenization of US stocks may bring new opportunities to the DeFi ecosystem. One of the biggest issues with current on-chain DeFi is the severe lack of quality assets. If these physically-backed, on-chain issued US stock tokens can gradually penetrate various DeFi protocols, they are expected to become new underlying assets, supplementing the on-chain asset portfolio and providing a more certain value foundation and narrative space for DeFi.

Conclusion

With the development of the cryptocurrency industry, the boundaries between it and traditional finance are gradually becoming blurred. By using stablecoins to break through the geographical restrictions of traditional financial channels, bypassing sovereign barriers, tax obstacles, and identity checks, the ultimate goal of establishing a new dollar channel with cryptocurrencies has become the central theme of several recent narratives dominated by compliant dollar stablecoins.

The rise of the tokenization of US stocks not only provides global investors with a more convenient trading channel for US stocks but also creates new possibilities for the further development of the DeFi ecosystem. However, this trend has also sparked reflections on the role of the cryptocurrency industry. In this rapidly changing field, how to balance innovation with regulation, inclusiveness with risk will be an important topic that the industry needs to continuously explore.