The United States Securities and Exchange Commission allowed third parties on Monday, May 18, to list tokenized stocks without the issuer’s prior approval. This decision creates structural liquidity fragmentation and revenue diversion risks, according to a report published Friday, May 22, by the firm Tiger Research.
— Tiger Research (@tiger_research_) May 22, 2026
The research director of the entity, Ryan Yoon, warned that traditional finance perceives the division of its historically centralized liquidity as a severe structural threat. Capital dispersion from traditional platforms toward multiple blockchain networks fundamentally weakens the functional efficiency of the established institutional stock market.
When external entities tokenize the same listed asset across different decentralized networks and platforms, trading volumes suffer direct alterations. The order flow that usually concentrates in a single location, such as the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq, ends up dividing into various digital trading environments.
This dynamic generates price discrepancies between the involved platforms and increases execution slippage during the processing of large orders. Beyond operational fragmentation, the financial report highlights revenue fragmentation as a direct consequence that affects the long term domestic competitiveness of traditional national stock exchanges and established institutional operating systems.
The financial revenues that should accumulate within United States stock markets now flow offshore through distributed networks. This operational shift complements the sustained growth where tokenized stocks reach significant transaction volumes within the global financial structure based on distributed ledger technology architectures across decentralized markets.
RWA trading on Hyperliquid reached a new ATH of $2.6B in open interest, double the amount from two months ago. Demand for 24/7, onchain access to real world assets continues to grow. pic.twitter.com/TZi0mm8Q8V
— Hyperliquid (@HyperliquidX) May 18, 2026
Capital dispersion advances rapidly across decentralized markets globally. During the third week of May, the open interest for real world assets reached a maximum of 2.6 billion dollars, a verified figure directly reported on the official account of the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange for the institutional market participants.
Liquidity and operational fragmentation risks
The chief executive of digital assets at FG Nexus, Maja Vujinovic, warned that markets risk splitting into disconnected pools. This separation facilitates price tracking errors and hidden shadow shorting vulnerabilities caused by the lack of local stabilizing buyers for the different specific assets traded across these parallel environments.
The segment of shares represented in digital format maintains a reduced size compared to the total market. Data from the RWA.xyz repository indicates that tokenized stocks represent exactly 4.4% of the total on chain value for real world assets under custody and active operation during the current month.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce specified on Thursday, May 21, that any regulatory exemption will have a strictly limited scope. The rules will only permit digital representations of the exact same underlying equity security that an investor can formally acquire in the secondary market under current structural financial conditions.
The Blockchain Council documented the structural advantages of trading tokenized stocks. The reported benefits include rapid transaction settlement, fractional ownership of corporate assets, reduction of operating costs, and the technical viability of enabling continuous trading twenty four hours a day without standard operational market interruptions or closures.
This international accessibility facilitates investors outside the United States territory to acquire exposure to high demand shares registered in the North American country. The technological design eliminates the barriers imposed by the usual limitations presented by local brokerage agencies and significantly expands the global base of active market participants.
The senior research analyst at Siebert Financial, Brian Vieten, indicated that capital will move from the traditional United States financial system toward blockchain infrastructures. The specialist projected the migration of economic flow toward decentralized networks with high operational specifications like Bitcoin and the native Hyperliquid digital asset exchange.
The authorities of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission are pending the final drafting of the exemption rule. The traditional financial industry expects the publication of the definitive regulation to establish the exact legal specifications for equity assets that can formally trade in these secondary digital decentralized markets.
Decentralized blockchain platforms maintain structurally different risk and execution parameters compared to centralized traditional systems. By involving secondary markets, varied investment instruments, fluctuating asset prices, and direct liquidity exposure, this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
