Alpaca has joined the Issuer Sponsored Token Coalition, an industry group formed by Bullish and Equiniti that brings brokerage, trading, and market-infrastructure firms together around a shared goal: making tokenized public securities work with the capital markets we already have, without breaking the link between issuers and their shareholders.
Alpaca, a global leader in agent-first brokerage and clearing infrastructure, is participating as one of the Coalition’s early market-infrastructure members. The Coalition comes at an important moment for tokenized stocks, as the industry begins defining how these markets will operate at scale. Alpaca sits at the intersection of traditional US equities and tokenized stocks, providing us with an opportunity to contribute to discussions in helping shape standards that preserve investor protections while enabling interoperability between the two. We plan to bring issuer-sponsored tokens to Alpaca's Instant Tokenization Network (ITN) in the coming months.
Why the Model Matters
As more firms bring US equities onchain, the topic is evolving into how to keep the token tied to the same ownership rights, corporate-action entitlements, and investor protections that come with a conventional shareholding. The Coalition is working to develop frameworks and architecture that address these questions.
Recent regulatory momentum makes that work more urgent. The SEC’s September 17 Innovation Exemption opened limited onchain trading of US-listed equities and underscored that tokenized stocks should carry the same rights and privileges as their traditional counterparts. That puts many of the questions the Coalition is addressing, such as shareholder rights, interoperability, and market infrastructure, squarely in focus.
Where Alpaca Already Operates
By the end of 2025, Alpaca held approximately 94% market share as the leading infrastructure layer supporting tokenized US stocks and ETFs, measured by custody of the underlying assets*. Today, Alpaca works with several Issuers, including Anchored Finance, Binance (bStocks), Bitget (rTokens), Crypto.com, Gate, Monetae, Ondo Finance, xStocks (Backed), and more.
Additionally, ITN enables Authorized Participants (market makers) to deliver underlying shares to mint tokens in-kind. On redemption, the tokens are returned and they receive the corresponding underlying share, rather than exchanging the token for cash. In this process, Alpaca handles the brokerage, custody, clearing, settlement, and movement of the underlying shares, while issuers support the in-kind minting and redemption of the tokens onchain.
Connectivity through the ITN is subject to separate bilateral agreements between the issuer and each Authorized Participant.
We have also been active in adjacent industry forums, including the DTCC Industry Working Group on DTC’s tokenization service. The Bullish and Equiniti Coalition adds another avenue for Alpaca to shape interoperability, operating standards, and the commercial plumbing required for tokenized equities to scale alongside traditional rails.
How the Coalition Plans to Work
The group’s early agenda concentrates on a few practical problems:
- Rights and Protections: How issuer-sponsored tokens can retain the legal and economic characteristics of traditionally held shares, including corporate-action treatment and investor protections.
- Interoperability: Shared technical and operational patterns so securities can move between traditional clearing and settlement infrastructure, blockchain networks, and newer entitlement frameworks without fragmenting the market.
- Adoption Infrastructure: The regulatory, operational, and commercial requirements around issuance, transfer, settlement, custody, and secondary trading.
- Ecosystem Growth: Convening issuers, broker-dealers, exchanges, transfer agents, custodians, market makers, and technology firms around an open, non-exclusive model.
“Tokenization creates an opportunity to connect issuers and investors in ways that weren’t possible with traditional market infrastructure,” said Arush Sehgal, Head of Digital Assets at Alpaca. “Getting it right means keeping the shareholder at the center so that rights are preserved and new onchain markets don’t become disconnected from the markets they’re built on. Alpaca is a critical infrastructure layer between traditional and onchain markets, and through this Coalition, we’re working to create the interoperability that allows tokenized equities and their traditional counterparts to be converted instantly and 24/7 through Alpaca’s Instant Tokenization Network.”
What’s Next
On October 27, Coalition participants plan to meet issuers and other capital markets leaders at the New York Stock Exchange to discuss the future of tokenization. This includes how public companies can approach tokenization, what infrastructure is required, and how issuer-sponsored designs can bridge traditional securities markets with onchain rails.
For Alpaca, helping traditional US equity and tokenized markets operate as one connected system directly advances our mission and vision: to open financial services to everyone on the planet by leading the global shift to programmable financial systems.
Contact Alpaca
Interested in learning more about Alpaca’s infrastructure for tokenization? For prospective partners, please contact Alpaca’s Sales team at [email protected] or complete our contact form.
For existing partners, please contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) or email the Success team at [email protected]
*Alpaca analysis based on publicly and privately available information as of November 15, 2025, comparing tokenizers that issued new tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, or derivatives referencing them, between June 1 and November 1, 2025. The calculation reflects Alpaca’s defined market universe and may not capture all tokenized products or platforms.
The content of this blog is for general informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, regulatory, financial, or other professional advice.
Alpaca Securities LLC (dba “Alpaca Clearing”) is a wholly owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Bullish and Equiniti are not affiliated with AlpacaDB, Inc. or Alpaca Securities LLC. Participation in the Issuer Sponsored Token Coalition is non-binding and does not require any participant to enter into a commercial arrangement, issue or list a security, provide liquidity, or support any particular product.
Additional geographic restrictions may apply for tokenization services based on local regulatory requirements. Alpaca’s Instant Tokenization Network is owned and developed by AlpacaDB, Inc. Neither AlpacaDB, Inc. nor Alpaca Securities LLC issues tokenized assets or performs the tokenization of assets; tokenization is performed by third-party issuers. Alpaca Securities LLC provides brokerage, custody, clearing, and settlement services solely with respect to the underlying securities.
Unless explicitly stated otherwise in the applicable offering materials, tokenized assets generally provide economic exposure to underlying securities rather than direct equity ownership in the underlying company. Accordingly, holders may not possess shareholder rights, including voting rights, dividend entitlements, or legal claims to the underlying shares or residual assets in the event of the underlying company’s liquidation or insolvency.
Tokenized assets involve risk, including the possible loss of the entire investment. For more information, please review our Tokenization Risk Disclosure
All investments involve risk and the past performance of a security, or financial product does not guarantee future results or returns. There is no guarantee that any investment strategy will achieve its objectives. Keep in mind that while diversification may help spread risk, it does not assure a profit, or protect against loss. There is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities, or other financial products. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing.
Securities brokerage services are provided by Alpaca Securities LLC (dba "Alpaca Clearing"), member FINRA/SIPC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Technology and services are offered by AlpacaDB, Inc.
This communication does not constitute an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell any security or tokenized asset, or to open a brokerage account, in any jurisdiction where the applicable Alpaca entity is not registered, licensed, or otherwise authorized to conduct business.
