Update
IMF Finds Demand for Tokenized Stocks, Notes Volatility and Liquidity Issues
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a study examining the five most actively traded tokenized U.S. equities, including Tesla (TSLA), Nvidia (NVDA), and Alphabet (GOOG). The study reveals that investors are using blockchain-based shares for smaller and after-hours trades, with more than half of trading taking place outside regular U.S. market hours. About 80% of trades are for less than one share. The IMF found that overnight moves in tokenized stocks carry useful information for the underlying shares, with more than 85% of the overnight movement reflected in their traditional counterparts within five minutes of U.S. market opening. The study also highlights that tokenized stocks are about 1.5 times as volatile as the equivalent shares on traditional venues and significantly less liquid. The IMF suggests that while the use case is real, the market is still nascent and needs to develop legal rules, settlement systems, and compatibility between platforms to achieve promised savings in cost and time.