The Solana blockchain announced Monday it has enabled tokenized stock trading for major companies including Tesla and Nvidia, marking a significant integration of traditional equity markets with decentralized blockchain technology.
The initiative introduces tokenized versions of Tesla ($TSLAx) and Nvidia ($NVDAx) stocks that can be traded directly on the Solana network, according to an announcement from The Solana Post on June 30.
Tokenization converts ownership rights of assets into digital tokens on a blockchain. Solana’s network can process up to 65,000 transactions per second, according to the company’s website, compared to traditional centralized exchanges that typically operate at slower speeds and higher costs.
The development comes as asset tokenization gains momentum across financial markets. As of May, $21 billion in real-world assets have been tokenized on public blockchains, with projections reaching $2 trillion by 2030, according to a McKinsey report cited by Solana.
Growing Institutional Interest
Franklin Templeton, which manages $1.5 trillion in assets, launched its tokenized treasury fund FOBXX on Solana in February following registration of the Franklin Solana Trust. The move suggests potential plans for a Solana exchange-traded fund, according to CryptoBriefing.
Solana’s Proof-of-History consensus mechanism timestamps transactions to improve efficiency, positioning it as a competitor to Ethereum. The platform’s transaction fees average less than $0.0025, which could democratize access to stock trading pending regulatory approval.
Regulatory Hurdles Remain
The announcement has drawn mixed reactions on social media, with some users praising Solana’s capabilities while others referenced the May 2022 collapse of the Terra Luna ecosystem, which resulted in $40 billion in investor losses when its UST stablecoin lost its dollar peg.
Details on the underlying mechanism and legal framework for the tokenized stocks remain limited. Industry experts say successful implementation could reshape capital markets through faster settlement times and global accessibility, but regulatory compliance remains uncertain.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory bodies have not yet provided guidance on the tokenized stock initiative.
Solana uses approximately the same energy as a few Google searches per transaction, according to the company, making it more energy-efficient than some blockchain alternatives.
The tokenized stock trading initiative represents an early-stage experiment in combining blockchain technology with traditional finance, with broader implications for how investors access equity markets.
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