A new report from Bitget drops a headline figure: 95% of users trading tokenized stocks on its platform also hold crypto assets. The statistic challenges the narrative that tokenization primarily attracts new demographics—demand is coming from within the existing crypto ecosystem. These users are not abandoning crypto; they are layering traditional exposures on top of it.
Tokenization: The Next Phase After Stablecoins
The report frames tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) as the logical evolution after stablecoins. Stablecoins already proved tokenization works: fiat value represented digitally, transferable 24/7. Tokenized equities and ETFs are now following the same adoption curve. Since Q3 2025, products tracking major U.S. tech stocks and indices like the S&P 500 have seen meaningful uptake, driven by deeper liquidity pools, tighter intraday spreads, and growing market-maker participation.
During core market hours, tokenized stock prices track their off-chain counterparts closely, with arbitrage mechanisms functioning effectively. However, outside traditional trading hours—overnight and weekends—pricing deviations widen due to paused minting/redemption and lack of live reference prices. Bitget views this not as a flaw but as a defining feature of 24/7 price discovery.
User Behavior Signals Convergence
The report's most telling insight is behavioral. With 95% of tokenized stock traders already holding crypto, demand comes from crypto-native users expanding outward into equities and ETFs—rather than traditional investors migrating on-chain. For exchanges, the strategic implication is clear: instead of competing with traditional brokerages for new users, platforms like Bitget can deepen engagement and wallet share among their existing base. Tokenized stocks become a retention tool for diversification without leaving the crypto environment.
Participation includes both retail and institutional traders. Institutional interest is driven by operational efficiency: on-chain settlement, faster transfers, reduced back-office complexity. Thabib Rahman, Research Analyst at Block Scholes, notes that growth in 2025 coincided with a friendlier U.S. regulatory climate and rising institutional comfort with on-chain custody. He sees tokenized stocks as the next logical narrative for 2026.
Why the Universal Exchange Model Matters
Bitget's Universal Exchange (UEX) sits at the center of the report's conclusions. The model eliminates fragmentation by letting users trade crypto, stablecoins, and tokenized traditional assets from a single account funded with digital assets like USDC. Under legacy structures, investors maintain separate brokerage accounts for each asset class. UEX integrates tokenized stocks and ETFs alongside spot and derivatives markets, enabling cross-asset portfolio management without switching platforms or currencies.
The report argues that unified access is a prerequisite for scale: liquidity improves when assets are tradeable in familiar environments, and user confidence grows when execution and custody follow known patterns. Bitget acknowledges the market remains early—pricing gaps outside core hours, regulatory fragmentation, and complex minting/redemption processes remain constraints. Still, the trajectory mirrors early crypto development: imperfect at first, steadily improving as infrastructure and standards evolve.
As tokenized assets expand into equities, treasuries, commodities, and index-linked products, the line between “crypto trading” and “investing” continues to blur. The report concludes that platforms capable of supporting this convergence—through unified access, 24/7 markets, and scalable liquidity—are likely to shape the next phase of global market structure.