Nasdaq Tells SEC: “Tokenize Stocks Now!”

Six years.

That’s all it takes to turn the impossible into a new reality…

And skeptics into believers.

Back in 2019, Nasdaq released a short explainer video about a strange new idea called tokenization.

Johan Toll, then Nasdaq’s Head of Digital Assets, used diamonds to explain it.

Each diamond is unique, he said. So imagine creating a digital certificate for one, logging it on a blockchain, and letting that certificate trade hands instantly.

That was “tokenization.”

At the time, Toll predicted tokenization would begin in simple places—insurance payouts handled automatically by smart contracts, airline miles you could swap like cash, grain shipments tracked with digital receipts, shipping documents that couldn’t be faked.

Low-hanging fruit. Easy wins.

Capital markets, he said, due to all the regulatory friction, would take longer than everything else to play out.

But that’s not what happened… 

Instead of loyalty points and grain, tokenization has broken into the heart of finance: bonds, treasuries, and now stocks.

From Diamonds to Dow Jones

Just this week, Nasdaq urged the SEC to approve tokenized stocks—real shares that would live both on the exchange and on a blockchain.

If approved, it means faster settlement, global access, around-the-clock trading, and new programmable features built into the shares themselves.

This hasn’t exactly come out of nowhere…

But it is even further confirmation of a trend we’ve been pounding the table on for over a year now.

The biggest names on Wall Street—BlackRock, Fidelity, WisdomTree—are already building tokenization products. Stablecoins have proven the pipes work. Bonds and treasuries are moving on-chain.

The next domino is obvious: equities.

And in fact, it’s already started.

Here’s exactly what it looks like:

The First Stock to Walk On-Chain

Galaxy Digital, the crypto investment firm led by Mike Novogratz, just put its own shares (GLXY) on the Solana blockchain with the help of tokenization experts at Superstate.

This isn’t a copy or a synthetic—it’s the real stock, recognized by regulators, mirrored directly on a blockchain.

If you hold the token, you hold the share.

That means dividends can be distributed like an airdrop via stablecoins. Voting for board members could happen with a click. Settlement happens in seconds instead of two days.

And down the line, these shares could even trade on decentralized platforms alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other DeFi assets.

How to Play It

The big bet here isn’t night-trading GLXY tokens—it’s about the rails.

If equities, treasuries, and funds all end up living on blockchains, then the chains that host them—Solana for speed, Ethereum for security and institutional comfort—become the core settlement layers for global finance.

Stablecoins already run on these rails. Tokenized treasuries are following.

Stocks are next.

If you want exposure to this shift, watching the ecosystems around Solana and Ethereum is the most direct way to play the theme.

Much more on that to come.