# What is a tokenized stock? Stocks on chain, explained > A tokenized stock is a token on a public blockchain that tracks the price of a real share. Here is what it is, how it works, and what it is not. - **Kind:** Explainer - **Published:** 2026-07-25 - **Author:** Stocks On Chain ## Sources - SEC: what is a security, plain terms: https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/stocks - SEC investor bulletin: Holding Your Securities: https://www.sec.gov/resources-for-investors/investor-alerts-bulletins/investorpubsholdsechtm - CoinGecko: tokenized stocks, listed side by side: https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/tokenized-stock - Robinhood: what a debt security is: https://docs.robinhood.com/chain/stock-tokens/ - Backed / xStocks: what a tracker certificate is: https://docs.xstocks.fi/docs/product-legal-overview - Dinari: what a dShare is: https://dinari.com/dshares - Ondo: what a structured note is: https://docs.ondo.finance/ondo-global-markets/legal-and-regulatory --- You may have read that stocks are on chain now. This page explains what that means, in plain words, for someone who has never held a token. A tokenized stock is a token on a public blockchain that tracks the price of a real share. Apple, Tesla, Nvidia and many others already have one. The token is not sold by this site. It is issued by a company, and it lives on someone else's chain. ## The short answer A company takes a real share, or a promise tied to a real share, and it issues a token that follows the share's price. That token trades on a public blockchain. Anyone can look it up. You do not need an account with us to read it, and you never need to connect a wallet to this site to check it. The token is a wrapper around the share, not the share itself. What you legally hold depends on which company issued the token. More on that below. ## How a stock gets on chain The steps are the same for most issuers: - A company (the issuer) holds a real share, or a claim tied to one, with a custodian. - The issuer creates a token on a chain such as Ethereum, Base, Solana or Robinhood Chain. - The token is set to track the price of that share. - The token trades on chain. Its price, supply and holders are public. The share sits with the custodian. The token moves on the chain. The link between them is the issuer's legal promise, written in the issuer's own terms. ## What you can check This is the part a normal stock does not give you. On chain, some facts are open to anyone: - **The contract address.** The one place the token lives. You look it up, you do not take it on trust. - **The supply.** How many tokens exist. - **The holders.** How many wallets hold it, and how much each holds. - **Every transfer.** Each time the token moves, on a public record. - **The price.** What the token trades at on chain. You can read all of this on a block explorer without asking anyone. That is the real change: proof you can check, instead of a statement you have to believe. ## What a token is, in law, depends on the issuer Every issuer wraps the share in its own legal terms, and they are not the same. We report each in the issuer's own words: - **Robinhood** states it issues these as debt securities. A debt security is a claim on the issuer, not the share. - **Backed**, through xStocks, states it issues tracker certificates, backed one to one by the share held with a custodian. - **Dinari** states it issues a "dShare", backed one to one by a share held in a treasury vault. - **Ondo** states its product gives economic exposure to the share, not title to it. The common thread: a tokenized stock is a claim tied to a share held somewhere else. The exact claim is the issuer's to define, so read what the issuer says before you read anyone's summary of it, including ours. CoinGecko lists these products next to each other if you want to compare. ## What a tokenized stock is not A stock token is not a share. This part is general, and it is true across every issuer: - It does not, by itself, make you a shareholder of the company. - It does not carry a vote at the company. - It is not the same as registering a share in your own name on the company's books. A share held in your own name and a token that tracks a share are two different things. Both can be real. They are not the same answer to "do I own the company". ## Where to go next - Read [how to buy a stock on chain](/how-to-buy), step by step, with no wallet prompt from us. - Check the [glossary](/glossary) for the plain meaning of street name, custodian, wrapper and the rest. - Read what the issuers say, in their words. We link each one from the stock's page. This is a report, not advice. Nothing here is a reason to buy, hold or sell anything. It is an answer to one question a lot of people are asking right now: stocks are on chain, so what does that actually mean? --- Source: https://stocksonchain.io/writing/what-is-a-tokenized-stock Data read: 2026-07-25T00:00:00.000Z 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. Every claim about an issuer is quoted from that issuer. **Stocks On Chain never asks a reader to sign in or use a wallet.**