CryptoSlate
Alpaca, a self-clearing broker-dealer founded in 2015, says it clears or custodies roughly 94% of tokenized US stocks and ETFs and holds more than $1.5 billion of the underlying shares behind them. On July 16, the company raised $135 million led by Peak XV, with debt from Kraken parent Payward and BMO lifting the package to $435 million. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation is preparing to launch its own tokenization service in October under a three-year SEC authorization granted in December 2025, letting DTC-held securities be issued directly as tokens and converted back and forth between traditional and tokenized form.
Why it matters
The tokenized-equity market was sold as disintermediation. Follow any of those tokens back to the actual stock market and the trail converges on a single California broker most retail buyers have never heard of. Alpaca did not just warehouse shares; it executes and clears the trades, runs real-time minting and redemption through its Instant Tokenization Network, processes corporate actions for every partner, supplies stock lending and short locates, and has partnered with Broadridge to bring proxy voting and shareholder governance to tokenized equities. Its client list includes Binance, Kraken, Ondo and Dinari, covering most of the product families a retail buyer will actually encounter.
The SEC's January statement on tokenized securities drew the line that matters here: a token sponsored by the issuing company can carry the legal rights of the share, while a third-party token, the kind that dominates today's market, may give its holder only economic exposure plus the failure risk of the intermediary standing between the token and the stock. Holders of most Alpaca-backed products currently receive no voting rights and no direct dividend entitlement, and their claim runs to the token issuer under its contract terms before it ever reaches the share.
Market impact
October is when the math changes. DTCC's Tokenization Service will let DTC-held securities be issued directly as tokens, starting with the Russell 1000, major ETFs and US Treasuries, landing first on the large-cap names that drive most tokenized-stock demand. A token issued through DTC carries the same voting rights, dividends and legal ownership as the share it represents, because it originates inside the system that already records who owns what.
Frequently asked questions
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What percentage of tokenized US stocks does Alpaca custody?
Alpaca says it clears or custodies roughly 94% of tokenized US stocks and ETFs and holds more than $1.5 billion of the underlying shares, measured as of July 2026 against its own definition of live, circulating token supply.
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Why does the SEC's January tokenized-securities statement matter here?
The statement drew a line between issuing-company tokens, which can carry full legal rights of the share, and third-party tokens, which may give holders only economic exposure plus the failure risk of the intermediary between the token and the stock.
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What is DTCC launching in October?
DTCC is launching a Tokenization Service under a three-year SEC authorization granted in December 2025, letting DTC-held securities be issued directly as tokens and converted between traditional and tokenized form, starting with the Russell 1000, major ETFs and US Treasuries.
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How did the SpaceX tokenized pre-IPO offering test the market?
In June, Binance, Bybit, Bitget and MEXC had sold more than $1 billion in tokenized SpaceX pre-IPO access through xStocks, including about $557 million on Binance alone. The campaigns were canceled on listing day and every buyer was refunded, showing a token is still a promise about inventory.
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Could tokenized-stock issuers leave Alpaca after DTCC's launch?
Alpaca says the arrangements are not designed to lock anyone in, but transferring the underlying positions through DTC takes days, and the real timeline is set by rebuilding API integrations and coordinating minting and redemption cutovers with market makers who also sit on Alpaca.
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