Dinari, a technology company from San Francisco, has become the first firm in the United States to get official approval to offer stocks as digital tokens on a blockchain.
This means that, soon, Americans could buy and sell shares of real companies using blockchain technology, not just through traditional brokers.
Dinari will not sell these digital stocks directly to individual investors. Instead, it will provide the technology to other brokerages and financial apps.
These companies can then let their customers trade real stocks in the form of digital tokens.
Each token represents a real share, and all trades are recorded on a blockchain, which is a secure digital ledger. The main advantage of this system is speed and convenience.
Traditional stock trades can take days to settle, but blockchain trading can happen almost instantly and at any time, even outside normal market hours.
U.S. Approves First Tokenized Stock Platform, Opening New Chapter for Blockchain in Equities
This could also lower costs by reducing the number of middlemen involved. Other big crypto companies are working on similar projects.
Coinbase is waiting for approval to launch its own tokenized stock service in the US.
Kraken has already started offering tokenized shares of major US companies like Apple and Tesla to customers outside the US.
Robinhood plans to launch a similar service in Europe, giving people there easier access to American stocks.
However, there are still some challenges. Experts point out that there is not yet enough trading activity in these new markets, which can make it hard to buy or sell at fair prices.
There are also different technical systems in use, which can make things confusing. Regulators are watching closely to make sure these new products are safe and fair for investors.
Dinari’s approval is a big step for the use of blockchain in financial markets. If more companies follow, trading stocks could become faster, cheaper, and more flexible for everyone.
But the technology must prove it can work reliably and securely, and regulators will need to keep up with these changes.
