Binance’s renewed push into tokenized stocks gained regulatory backing on Tuesday when the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) approved trading of Ondo Finance’s tokenized stocks on the exchange’s regulated platform.
The ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority has cleared Ondo Global Markets’ tokenized shares and ETFs for trading on Binance’s FSRA-regulated Multilateral Trading Facility, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk. The list includes tokenized versions of Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Circle, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, and the Invesco QQQ ETF. Products are available to users outside the US.
This is the first time ADGM has approved trading in tokenized securities under its regulatory framework, allowing UAE-based financial institutions, brokers and counterparties to trade tokenized versions of stocks, Ondo said.
“By offering tokenized Ondo shares for trading on Binance, we are expanding access to hundreds of millions of investors,” Ian de Bode, president of Ondo Finance, said in a statement.
The approval gives Binance a regulated venue to trade tokenized stocks, nearly five years after it shut down a similar service following scrutiny from regulators in the United Kingdom and Germany. The move comes after Binance listed Ondo’s tokenized shares on its Alpha platform, dedicated to riskier early-stage projects.
Tokenized stocks have attracted interest from cryptocurrency exchanges like Kraken, brokerages like Robinhood, and traditional market operators like Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. The total market value has exceeded $1 billion, data from RWA.xyz shows.
Supporters argue that placing stocks on blockchain rails can expand investor access and allow assets to move across trading and lending platforms more easily, linking stock markets with decentralized finance.
Ondo structures its products as equity-linked notes linked to the underlying stocks. The company says it has processed more than $11 billion in cumulative trading volume with more than $600 million in total value locked since launching its offering less than six months ago.
Last year, Ondo obtained approval of its core securities prospectus in the European Union, allowing for its public distribution throughout the European Union.
