An agreement between Securitize and Computershare, the world's largest transfer agent, could become a major unlock for bringing U.S. equities onchain as tokenization becomes part of the ownership layer.

The two companies said Wednesday they have entered into an agreement that will allow publicly traded companies to issue tokenized versions of shares alongside traditional ones.

Securitize founder and CEO Carlos Domingo noted that his company has become Computershare's "tokenization partner to bring stocks on-chain natively in the U.S. and abroad."

"Tokenize the world," he said in a post on X.

The new agreement will give listed companies another option in both how they issue shares and how shareholders hold them.

"Issuers can now add Issuer-Sponsored Tokens (ISTs) alongside traditional shares, including DRS, without changing their existing capital structure," the company said, adding that "these are the actual shares in token form, not derivatives or wrappers, designed to fit within existing regulatory frameworks."

Currenc Group Inc., a Nasdaq-listed firm, recently tapped Securitize to tokenize its shares, opening the door to additional options such as round-the-clock trading, fractional ownership, and DeFi deployments. Securitize is a leader in the tokenization sector and recently agreed to help the New York Stock Exchange develop its 24/7 tokenized securities platform.

Tokenizing the world

Both companies and regulators have been touting for well over a year the potential benefits and efficiency gains of tokenizing U.S. equities and other real-world assets. The SEC has authorized different tokenization initiatives, including allowing Nasdaq to support tokenized share trading. Companies like Robinhood, Kraken, and Coinbase, which let users trade crypto, have all expressed interest in participating in the move to offer investors 24/7 trading of U.S. equities.

Some analysts expect tokenized assets to grow into the trillions of dollars over the next decade. Ciarán Fitzpatrick, JPMorgan's global head of ETF product, recently said tokenization should drive change "not just for ETFs but across the funds industry as a whole."

Securitize said Wednesday that the agreement could be a "major step forward for tokenization, opening the door for millions of investors to hold their equities in tokenized form."

Computershare manages the shares for "close to 60% of the S&P 500, including companies like Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Nvidia, Disney, Coinbase," Domingo said. As a transfer agent, Computershare manages the registry of who actually owns shares, in addition to handling the transfer of ownership.