Most people have heard the story of GME, and a fair number have walked into one of its stores. Underneath the personalities and the headlines sat a question that turned out to be durable: when you buy a share, what do you actually hold, and who holds it for you?
The one stock about ownership
Most shares are held in "street name." Your broker holds them for you, and on the company's own books the registered owner is usually Cede and Co., a nominee tied to the central clearing system. You own the economic value while your name stays off the register. The SEC explains this plainly in its investor bulletin on holding your securities.
Registered ownership, or "direct registration," works differently. The share is recorded in your own name on the issuer's books, held by the issuer or its transfer agent. Around the events of 2021, some GameStop holders began moving shares into direct registration, to hold them in their own name instead of through a broker.
People disagree about why, and the arguments are still going. Holders wanted proof of what they owned, held in a way they did not have to take on trust.
GameStop is already on chain
A public blockchain answers that wish a different way. On chain, a holding is an entry on a ledger anyone can read.
GameStop is already there, and our board tracks it: /stocks/gme carries what we read from the chains, stamped with when we read it. Ondo Global Markets lists GMEon on Ethereum, BNB Chain and Solana. Robinhood lists GME on Robinhood Chain.
Two more issuers publish a tokenized GameStop that our board does not yet read:
- Backed issues GMEx through xStocks, which Backed states is backed one to one by GameStop Class A shares held with a third-party custodian.
- Dinari issues GME.d, which Dinari states is a one-to-one backed "dShare" representing a GameStop share held in a custodial account with a US broker-dealer.
Those two are reported from each issuer's own pages rather than read from live on-chain data here. CoinGecko lists the products side by side.
What on-chain ownership changes
A tokenized share makes some things checkable that were not before. The token supply, the number of holders, and every transfer are public. You can look up a balance on a block explorer without asking anyone.
A token still is not a share. Each one is a product from a single issuer, wrapped in that issuer's legal terms, and the issuer decides what you hold and who is allowed to buy. A one-to-one backed token gives you a claim on a share sitting with a custodian. Direct registration puts your name on the company's books. Both are real arrangements, and a holder choosing between them is choosing between two different things.
Where to check
- The issuers publish their own token pages. Read what xStocks, Dinari, Ondo and Robinhood say, in their words.
- CoinGecko lists the tokenized GameStop products next to each other.
- The SEC bulletin sets out street name, registered ownership and direct registration in plain terms.
- Our own reading of the chains, with timestamps, is on /stocks/gme.