# Who holds the share behind a tokenized stock?

> Sometimes a custodian, sometimes a US broker-dealer, sometimes an SPV, and in one structure there is no specific share held for your token at all. The answer changes with the issuer.

- **Kind:** Explainer
- **Checked:** 2026-07-29
- **Author:** Stocks On Chain

## Sources

- Robinhood: stock token documentation: https://docs.robinhood.com/chain/stock-tokens/
- Ondo Global Markets: Ondo Stocks overview: https://docs.ondo.finance/ondo-stocks/overview
- Backed: xStocks product and legal overview: https://docs.xstocks.fi/docs/product-legal-overview
- Dinari documentation: https://docs.dinari.com/

---

You do not hold the share. That is true of every tokenized stock on this site, and
of every one we are aware of anywhere.

Who does hold it has several answers, and one of them is "nobody, for your token
specifically". That case is worth understanding first. It is a disclosed design
choice rather than something hidden.

## The backed structures

Backed, through xStocks, states its certificates are collateralized one to one by
the share it tracks, held with a custodian. Dinari states a dShare is backed one to
one by a real share held at a US broker-dealer.

In both, the issuer's position is that a real share exists for each token in
circulation. A custodian or a broker-dealer holds it, and you hold an instrument
that references it.

## The SPV structure

Ondo Global Markets issues through a bankruptcy-remote special purpose vehicle and
states its tokens give economic exposure similar to holding the share and
reinvesting dividends, rather than title to the share. Ondo describes them as total
return trackers.

The vehicle sits between you and whatever it holds, and what you are promised is
the economic outcome.

## The debt structure

Robinhood states it issues its stock tokens as debt securities through Robinhood
Assets (Jersey) Limited. A debt security is a claim on the issuer.

Here, asking "which share is mine" has no answer, because that is not what the
instrument is. Your token is the issuer's obligation to deliver an economic result
tied to the share price. Whether the issuer hedges that obligation by holding
shares, and how, is the issuer's business rather than a promise made to you about a
specific share.

We want to be careful here, because it is easy to make this sound like an
accusation. Robinhood published this structure, and an issuer cannot object to its
own disclosure. A debt security is an ordinary financial instrument. The useful
point is that it differs from a share held for you in an account, while the price
on the screen looks identical either way.

## This is less exotic than it sounds

Most people who own shares through an ordinary broker do not hold them either. The
broker holds them, and the company's register shows a nominee where your name might
be. That is called street name, and it is how the large majority of retail share
ownership already works. Direct registration, where your name is on the company's
books, is the exception.

"Someone else holds the share" is old news about the world. What is new is that the
someone else, the legal form and the mechanism differ from the ones your broker
uses, and that they vary between issuers of the same stock.

## Where to check

Every stock page names the issuer for each token and prints the wrapper. Where one
stock has tokens from several issuers, it has several rows, because those are
several products with several answers to this question. The
[issuers list](/issuers) carries each issuer's own description in full, and the
[glossary](/glossary) defines custodian, street name, direct registration and
transfer agent.

Every claim about an issuer above is that issuer's own description of its product, linked above.

---

Source: https://stocksonchain.io/wiki/who-holds-the-underlying-share
Data read: 2026-07-29T00:00:00.000Z
Published by Gwei, Inc.
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Attribute to Stocks On Chain, https://stocksonchain.io.

Not a broker-dealer, exchange, or investment adviser. We do not sell securities and we hold no customer funds. Not investment advice, and not an offer or recommendation of any
asset. Nothing on this site is ranked or rated, and every ordered list states its
own sort key. This site publishes no issuer's rule on who may buy; it links to the issuer instead.
**Stocks On Chain never asks a reader to sign in or use a wallet.**