eToro Group Ltd. plans to launch tokenized versions of US-listed stocks, enabling customers to trade equities at any time of day. Though the company declined to specify when the offering would begin, it said it would likely start in Europe.
The trading and investing platform will issue the assets as ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Once live, users will be able to trade shares 24/7 and transfer the tokenized stocks between eToro digital wallets. The company added that it will soon offer 24/5 trading with an initial list of 100 US-listed stocks and ETFs.
“This is really the beginning of digital assets and tokenized real world assets,” Yoni Assia, eToro’s cofounder and chief executive officer, said during a webinar on Tuesday. “We’re excited to see that convergence again, between the crypto wallet of eToro and our customers who are sending and receiving crypto assets, to the world of stock trading in eToro.”
eToro began offering cryptocurrencies to US users in 2019 and now supports more than 50 digital assets in the market including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stellar and Cardano. Also in 2019, eToro launched tokenized gold and silver for its customers. The company announced a partnership with CME Group to offer spot-quoted futures, which are now available in select European markets. Further global expansion is planned.
The tokenized shares plan follows a similar announcement by rival Robinhood Markets Inc., which said that it would make tokenized US securities available for its European customers. The rollout was quickly met with skepticism from regulators and drew rebukes from artificial intelligence giant OpenAI after Robinhood paired the launch with a giveaway of $1 million OpenAI “tokens.”
Robinhood discloses in its fine print that the tokens are technically derivative contracts pegged to an internal estimation of a price of the underlying private company stock, but the company still disapproved.
“These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity,” OpenAI wrote in a July 2 post on social media platform X. “We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it.”
Operational drag between an advisor signing and accounts going live is emerging as a competitive liability for wealth management firms.
Bain says companies face a "winner's paradox" as AI transformation collides with complex integrations.
Deal lifts global assets to roughly $523 billion under management.
Choice anxiety, prestige bias, and the temptation to make selections based on outsourced confidence are just some of the parallels between investing and the world of wine tasting.
Regulators found Bank of America's monitoring software had a known flaw Merrill left uncorrected for years.
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
Direct indexing is on pace to outgrow ETFs and mutual funds. Northern Trust's Ken Lassner explains why the advisors who get it wish they had started sooner.
