Key Takeaways
Computershare, the world's largest stock transfer agent, partnered with digital asset firm Securitize to allow the 58% of S&P 500 companies it serves to issue equities as on-chain tokens.
"Our focus has been to empower U.S.-listed companies to issue tokenized equity while retaining control with confidence over their issued capital," Ann Bowering, CEO of Issuer Services at Computershare North America, said in a statement.
The deal enables the creation of Issuer-Sponsored Tokens (ISTs), which function as direct legal ownership of shares, unlike derivative products. Computershare, which manages 35 million shareholder accounts for firms including Apple, Tesla, and Microsoft, will maintain the master registry for these tokens alongside traditional shares. Securitize has already tokenized over $4 billion in assets for clients like BlackRock and KKR.
This partnership creates a direct, regulated pathway for trillions of dollars in blue-chip equities to enter on-chain ecosystems, potentially revolutionizing liquidity and automating corporate actions like dividends and proxy voting through smart contracts on blockchains like Ethereum.
The collaboration marks one of the most significant moves to date in merging traditional capital markets with blockchain technology. By keeping Computershare as the transfer agent of record, the model allows public companies to experiment with digital assets without disrupting their existing vendor relationships or capital structures.
"We recognize that Computershare is a huge incumbent... and figured out that the least disruptive path for many companies seeking to tokenize their shares was to keep the same transfer agent," said Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize. "This allows issuers to access new liquidity venues and digital-native investors who want to hold assets in wallets rather than go through a traditional broker."
Securitize, which is backed by BlackRock and plans to go public via a SPAC merger, brings the technical infrastructure for tokenization. The firm is already the engine behind BlackRock's tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, which has grown to nearly $2.6 billion in assets. The new ISTs will allow investors to hold direct ownership of shares on a blockchain, complete with the same voting rights and dividend entitlements as traditional stockholders.
The move is expected to modernize a corner of market infrastructure that still relies on manual processes, enabling transfer agents to automate corporate actions and provide issuers with more timely ownership information. The total market for tokenized equities stood at over $900 million as of April 2026, a figure this partnership is poised to dramatically increase.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
