Tokenized Stocks: IMF Finds Real Demand, but a More Volatile and Less Liquid Market Than Traditional Equities

An IMF Study on Tokenized Stocks

Tokenized stocks already deliver two long-standing promises of the crypto world: continuous trading and the purchase of fractional shares. They are nonetheless markedly less liquid and more volatile than the traditional stocks they replicate, according to a new study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), reported on October 11, 2026 by CoinDesk.

The work appears in the IMF's latest Global Financial Stability Report, titled "Scaling Tokenization: New efficiencies and new vulnerabilities." It examines the five most actively traded tokenized U.S. stocks, including Tesla, Nvidia and Alphabet, as well as measures such as the Nasdaq 100 index, on both centralized and decentralized platforms.

Demand Driven by Round-the-Clock Access and Small Ticket Sizes

According to the IMF, more than half of the trades took place outside regular U.S. market hours. About 80% of transactions involved less than one share. The report says these figures show that investors value 24-hour access and lower entry thresholds, beyond the technology itself.

The study also finds that overnight movements in tokenized stocks carry useful information for the underlying securities. At the opening of U.S. markets, more than 85% of these overnight price changes were reflected in traditional stocks within five minutes, the IMF says.

Volatility and Liquidity: The Downside

According to the IMF, tokenized stocks were about 1.5 times more volatile than equivalent stocks on traditional exchanges, and significantly less liquid. CoinDesk notes that the problem is not solely due to the small size of on-chain markets. Tokenization requires enough issuers, investors, platforms and settlement assets operating on compatible systems to deliver the promised cost and time savings. The current market is fragmented among private platforms, public blockchains, custodians and settlement tools that often do not communicate with one another.

Still a Modest Market With a Growing Number of Players

The IMF estimates the market for tokenized real-world assets at about $65 billion as of July 31, after rapid growth. Tokenized stocks account for roughly $2.3 billion of that. CoinDesk puts this figure in perspective against the global stock market capitalization in 2025, just under $160 trillion, according to SIFMA, the professional organization for the U.S. securities industry.

The IMF concludes that the use case is real but the market remains nascent. According to CoinDesk, Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, said that moving assets onto the chain is only a first step, and that the real question is how efficiently that capital can then be deployed.

According to CoinDesk, the movement is continuing. Bullish, a crypto company based in Gibraltar and CoinDesk's parent company, launched trading of tokenized stocks in August. Earlier in October, OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, which owns and operates the New York Stock Exchange, filed plans for a continuous trading platform for tokenized U.S. stocks. Coinbase Global, Kraken, Binance and Robinhood Markets also offer these products.

Risks Identified by the IMF

The IMF explains that tokenization could replace some manual tasks in reconciling records, automate operations such as dividend payments, and speed up collateral transfers. It warns, however, that automated margin calls and liquidations, the circulation of collateral across platforms, and 24-hour trading could make a market shock harder to contain.

Risks remain limited as long as tokenized markets are small, the institution notes. Its report nonetheless argues that legal rules on ownership, liquidity safeguards, links between systems and settlement arrangements must be developed before the market grows substantially.

Analysis: based solely on the report's findings, the IMF paints a nuanced picture. Off-hours and fractional usage suggests a tangible investor interest, while higher volatility, lower liquidity and fragmented infrastructure explain why the institution stresses the need to anticipate the legal framework.