The IMF found that tokenized stocks showed approximately 1.5 times the volatility of traditional shares. More than half of their trading happened outside regular U.S. hours, and the fund called for clearer ownership rules and stronger liquidity safeguards.
The International Monetary Fund says tokenized stocks experienced approximately 1.5 times the realized volatility of their traditional counterparts. The finding comes from an October 8 study, part of the October 2026 Global Financial Stability Report, on how blockchain-based securities trade and what risks come with them.
The IMF attributed part of the gap to limited trading liquidity and to continuous trading during periods when fewer buyers and sellers participate. Decentralized exchanges recorded the highest volatility, followed by centralized cryptocurrency exchanges and traditional stock markets.
Over half of sampled tokenized stock trading fell outside regular U.S. hours
The researchers examined five actively traded tokenized U.S. equity products from Ondo Finance and xStocks across 11 trading venues. More than 50% of the trading occurred outside regular U.S. stock market hours.
Approximately 80% of tokenized equity trades involved quantities smaller than one conventional share, which researchers read as demand for fractional ownership.
However, the IMF cautioned that this is an early-stage market, so trading patterns could change as more participants enter.
A small market inside a $65 billion field
The IMF estimated the public tokenization market for real-world assets at approximately $65 billion as of July 2026, excluding stablecoins and repurchase agreements. Tokenized equities made up approximately $2.3 billion of that.
Ondo Finance and Backed Finance accounted for more than 70% of the estimated market value of tokenized stocks, according to the IMF.
IMF calls for clearer rules
The fund named four requirements for further development: legal certainty, regulatory clarity, compatibility between networks and access to suitable settlement assets. It also recommended evaluating circuit breakers and other controls to limit disorderly market activity.
Even so, the IMF assessed current systemic risks from tokenization as limited because the market remains relatively small.
Source: crypto.news
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