US Stock RWA Path Divergence: A Multi-Party Game of Synthetic, Derivatives, and Physical Stock Custody

2025-09-04 20:00:02

Collection

From synthetic assets to CFD contracts and then to actual stock custody, how do compliance, liquidity, and user experience interact?

Author: Kean

Imagine this: when you click "Buy" TESLA tokens in your Web3 wallet, an off-chain partner broker simultaneously places an order to buy the corresponding amount of Tesla stocks; and vice versa.

Does this count as bringing Wall Street's investment logic on-chain?

Looking back at the development of tokenized U.S. stocks, players have emerged one after another, with various models evolving: from early entrants like Mirror and Synthetix using synthetic assets, to derivative trading with Contracts for Difference (CFD), and now platforms like Robinhood and MyStonks attempting to offer actual stock custody, tokenized U.S. stocks have always been exploring different paths.

The latest radical exploration comes from Ondo Finance, which adopts a more direct model of "on-chain orders, off-chain actual stock synchronous trading"—the trades completed by investors on-chain will be executed in real-time by partner brokers off-chain, meaning that tokenized stocks do not rely on additional on-chain liquidity pools and inherently possess the potential for large-scale expansion.

As of the time of writing, Bitget and Bitget Wallet have taken the lead in integrating with Ondo, allowing users to directly trade hundreds of tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs through the on-chain entry of Bitget Wallet, further lowering investment accessibility, clearly positioning themselves as disruptors.

Synthetic assets, CFD contracts, actual stock custody, and real-time on-chain and off-chain interaction have brought the tokenized U.S. stock sector to a whole new watershed.

1. Wall Street on-chain: The "American Dream" of the 21st Century

In the 19th century, the American Dream was the California Gold Rush, the freedom of the New World.

In the 20th century, the American Dream was transoceanic immigration, the belief that "all men are created equal," and the struggle for a happy life.

In a sense, tokenized U.S. stocks represent the "American Dream" of the 21st century. It is not only a vision of wealth freedom for global investors but also an extension of the influence of the U.S. capital markets—bringing the pulse of Nasdaq to every connected corner of the Earth, strengthening the dollar's settlement position, expanding the radius of capital attraction, and allowing Wall Street to continue to hold the rules in a borderless digital world.

Looking back, from MakerDAO and Centrifuge pioneering the concept and practice of RWA to Polymath and others attempting to bring Wall Street rules on-chain through STOs, tokenized U.S. stocks have always been seen as the RWA form closest to the public's investment habits and the easiest to implement. However, limited by regulatory uncertainty, insufficient liquidity, and weak technology, the STO boom quickly receded.

The turning point came in 2020 when DeFi Summer proved the feasibility of on-chain liquidity, and the popularity of stablecoins provided a solid anchor for cross-border settlement and asset pricing.

Mirror Protocol and Synthetix launched on-chain synthetic assets for U.S. stocks.
FTX and Binance partnered with licensed brokers to launch tokenized U.S. stock trading anchored to real U.S. stock prices.

However, with the collapse of FTX and tightening global regulations, on-chain liquidity gradually dried up, forcing most tokenized stock businesses on both CEX and DeFi to go offline.

In 2023, the Federal Reserve initiated the most aggressive interest rate hike cycle in 40 years, U.S. Treasury yields soared, and funds returned to favor high-yield, low-risk assets. MakerDAO shifted to a RWA model based on U.S. Treasury bonds, regulatory frameworks were established in places like Hong Kong, and traditional financial institutions began to test compliant tokenized securities.

Today, RWA has made breakthroughs in regulation, technology, and product levels, and tokenized U.S. stocks are re-entering a growth curve. According to data from RWA.xyz, as of August 13, the total value of tokenized stocks is approximately $362 million, with 167 asset categories and a monthly trading volume of about $290 million, with over 60,000 holders.

This number may not seem large, but it marks a trend—the liquidity edge of U.S. stocks is quietly being rewritten by the on-chain world.

2. Who is tokenizing U.S. stocks?

After several years of experimentation and accumulation, the participants in the tokenized U.S. stock sector are gradually taking shape, forming differentiated patterns in compliance pathways, technical architecture, and liquidity strategies. Currently, there are four major representative platforms in the market:

Bybit TradFi

Currently, Bybit's MT5 Gold & FX platform has launched U.S. stock CFD functionality, initially supporting 78 U.S. listed companies, offering up to 5x leverage. CFDs are derivative contracts that allow investors to trade and profit from price differences without actually holding the underlying asset, which generally carries higher risk volatility.

For crypto users, registering on Bybit and completing KYC Level 2 certification is sufficient. However, Bybit MT5 only holds a license issued by the Mauritius Financial Services Commission and currently cannot cover major markets such as the EU, UK, and the U.S.

MyStonks

MyStonks is a decentralized RWA trading platform that officially launched an on-chain U.S. stock token market supported by 100% custody from Fidelity on May 10. After users deposit USDT/USDC into MyStonks, the platform converts it into U.S. dollars and purchases the corresponding stocks, subsequently minting ERC-20 tokens at a 1:1 ratio on Base. MyStonks supports direct login with Web3 wallets. Recently, MyStonks completed compliance filing for U.S. STOs and can issue compliant security tokens.

Backed Finance (Swiss compliance license + DeFi access)

Backed Finance is a tokenized asset issuer headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, holding a Swiss compliance license. Its issued tokens correspond 1:1 with real assets and are custodied by a Swiss bank. Currently, Backed has launched the tokenized stock product xStocks, allowing users to trade on CEXs like Bitget and Kraken, as well as on Solana DeFi. xStocks tokens support cross-chain use and can be utilized on ETH, Base, Gnosis, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, BSC, Sonic, and Polygon. Backed does not require user KYC and currently requires whitelist access.

Helix

Helix is a DEX in the Injective ecosystem that has launched iAssets synthetic assets and recently opened trading markets for 13 synthetic U.S. stocks. iAssets are essentially on-chain derivatives that do not require physical stock backing, achieving price tracking with U.S. stock assets through smart contracts and oracle pricing. Users need to use USDT stablecoins as collateral, providing up to 25x leverage.

Unlike the above platforms, Bitget Wallet is the first Web3 wallet to enter the tokenized U.S. stock space. It combines trading entry and asset management functions, simplifying the onboarding process for Web2 users while aggregating multi-chain DeFi, allowing users to trade U.S. stock tokens directly with on-chain identities without complex KYC.

More importantly, Bitget Wallet collaborates directly with Ondo to introduce a real asset custody pathway and partners with professional market makers to provide liquidity depth close to traditional brokers.

3. The Differentiation Path of Tokenized U.S. Stocks

From an overall perspective, the current competition among tokenized U.S. stock platforms mainly presents differentiation in asset support and compliance, liquidity, and user accessibility.

1. Real Assets and Compliant Custody

First, there is the synthetic asset model that started with Synthtix and Mirror. This solution offers high flexibility but lacks real asset backing, meaning users must bear counterparty risk themselves. Ultimately, price anchoring does not equal asset ownership; the U.S. stocks minted and traded under the synthetic asset model do not represent actual ownership of those stocks in reality.

If the oracle fails or the collateral assets collapse (as Mirror did during the UST crash), the entire system faces risks of liquidation imbalance, price decoupling, and user confidence collapse.

The CFD model, like that of Bybit, leans towards high leverage and derivative trading, resembling traditional forex trading, but has limited license coverage and exists in a gray area.

The Bitget Wallet model has advantages—by collaborating with Ondo and U.S.-registered brokers, it links tokens to real U.S. stocks at a 1:1 ratio and conducts daily audits, avoiding the "paper token" risks present in some platforms, making it more resilient under regulatory trends.

2. Liquidity Optimization Capability

Liquidity directly determines user experience. Platforms like Backed and MyStonks rely more on on-chain DEX spot pools, which can be limited by the volume and slippage of single trading pairs, leading to insufficient trading stability.

Helix's iAssets are more inclined towards a leveraged derivatives market, which can indeed attract a certain level of trading activity in the short term, but this high volatility and high leverage model raises questions about long-term stability.

Interestingly, Bitget Wallet's TradFi integration approach, based on the aforementioned Ondo "on-chain orders, off-chain actual stock synchronous trading" model, allows for instant minting, redemption, and transfer outside the U.S. As researcher Chen Jian stated: "The benefit here is that any tokenized stock does not need to create on-chain liquidity from scratch upon its inception, which is why Ondo can tokenize thousands of stocks at once."

At the same time, it leverages market makers like Jump Crypto to provide liquidity depth and spreads (under 0.3%) close to traditional brokers on-chain. This "off-chain actual stock synchronization + on-chain institutional liquidity" dual mechanism allows users to enjoy lower trading friction while avoiding common liquidity shortages and slippage issues in DeFi models.

3. User Threshold and Global Accessibility

For emerging market investors, the user threshold and global accessibility of the synthetic asset model are naturally the lowest: only a blockchain wallet is needed to trade, with no identity verification required. However, this convenience comes at the cost of lacking real asset backing, with risks fully borne by the user.

The Bitget Wallet model follows closely behind. It offers an entry point of "no KYC + trade with USDT + investment starting from $1," significantly lowering the entry threshold while ensuring asset security through Ondo's actual stock custody.

In contrast, while Bybit has certain advantages in liquidity, its CFD nature and mandatory KYC limit user coverage; Backed, although supporting multi-chain cross-chain, still requires whitelist applications, limiting its openness.

At this stage, it can be said that Bitget Wallet, with its combination of "real asset custody + higher liquidity + low threshold," has carved out a path distinctly different from synthetic asset DEXs, CFD platforms, and traditional RWA protocols. This model not only responds to regulatory compliance trends regarding asset security but also accommodates the participation convenience of global users to some extent.

However, the advanced actual stock custody model of Ondo combined with the traffic entry of Bitget Wallet, while achieving a good balance between asset security, liquidity, and accessibility, still faces three major challenges:

Uncertainty of cross-border regulation: Even with U.S. broker custody, cross-border sales of tokenized securities may still trigger compliance requirements in different jurisdictions.
Market education and liquidity guidance: How to get more traditional investors to accept on-chain U.S. stock products and maintain stable liquidity depth is a long-term operational challenge.
Gray areas in tax rules: Taxation is an invisible but important variable. The recognition of capital gains and dividend taxes for on-chain U.S. stocks varies across countries. There is still uncertainty about whether and how the IRS will track on-chain transactions. This means that platforms need to provide compliant trading services while offering clear tax guidance to users to truly lower participation barriers.

Overall, the tokenized U.S. stock sector is transitioning from the "experimental stage" to "model differentiation." Those who can simultaneously address compliance, liquidity, and accessibility issues are more likely to break through.

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