Securitize Teams Up With Computershare to Tokenize U.S.-Listed Equities
Issuer-Sponsored Tokens enable direct equity ownership in token form, rather than synthetic wrappers sitting on top of underlying shares. Tokenization platform Securitize and Computershare, one of the worlds largest transfer agents, announced an agreement on Wednesday to enable U.S.-listed issuers to bring their equity onchain through a new construct called Issuer-Sponsored Tokens (ISTs). Under the deal, participating issuers can include ISTs as part of their issued capital alongside existing shares, including those held in the Direct Registration System (DRS). Computershare will serve as transfer agent for the tokenized holdings, processing corporate actions for ISTs in parallel with directly registered positions, according to a press release. Crucially, ISTs are not derivative wrappers. “ISTs do not rely on derivative tokens that sit on top of underlying shares, nor do they alter any underlying equity,” said Securitize co-founder and CEO Carlos Domingo, framing the structure as a way to create direct equity ownership in token form. That distinction matters in a market where most existing tokenized equity products, from Backed‘s xStocks to Dinari’s dShares, rely on synthetic representations backed 1:1 by deposited certificates rather than native onchain issuance. Nasdaqs own tokenized equities filing flagged the gap between wrapper-style products and tokens that confer the same shareholder rights