The Essence of 'Fake US Stocks' Under Three Paths
Crypto exchanges claim to offer US stock trading, but users do not own actual shares. These products are delivered through three routes: traditional API access, tokenized assets, and perpetual swaps. Among them, tokenization is the most opaque — holders own on-chain synthetic assets, not registered securities.
Equity Erosion Under the Five-Layer Architecture
Tokenized US stocks sit atop a five-layer pipeline: custody/clearing → smart contract → price oracle → cross-chain bridge → user wallet. Each layer strips away original equity: voting rights vanish, dividends become contractual payouts, and SIPC protection becomes void. A single failure (e.g., oracle lag) can render a user's 'stock' value zero almost instantly.
Alpaca's 94% Clearing Monopoly and Liquidity Fragmentation
Data shows Alpaca Finance now dominates approximately 94% of the tokenized US stock clearing and custody market. This extreme concentration creates liquidity fractures — during volatile markets, a single clearing engine cannot handle massive order flow, triggering cascading liquidations and amplified slippage. Risks are systematically passed down to end users, with exchanges rarely disclosing these structural flaws.