Bitget has
launched Stock+, a feature that lets users buy shares in US-listed companies
using USDC and other digital assets, the cryptocurrency exchange said today (Monday).
The product
routes orders through regulated US brokers and gives holders direct ownership
of the underlying shares rather than synthetic or derivative exposure,
according to the company.
The launch
sits inside Bitget’s Stocks 2.0 ecosystem and extends a push to let customers
move between crypto and equities inside one account.
It arrives
during a broader scramble among trading venues to fold tokenized and traditional stock
trading into
crypto platforms.
How Stock+ Works
Users fund
their accounts with digital assets, convert them into USDC, and buy listed
shares from there, the company said. Trades are executed through brokers
including RQD Clearing and Atomic Vaults Securities, with holders eligible for
cash dividends and stock split adjustments.
Trading
hours follow US pre-market, regular, and after-hours sessions. Bitget said
Stock+ also supports inbound transfers from participating brokers, letting
users consolidate existing US equity holdings on the platform.
“Access
is important, but ownership matters too,” CEO Gracy Chen said in a
statement.
Promotional
launch fees start from 0.1%, with a 50% discount running through Aug. 31, the
company said. The discount is a marketing offer tied to the rollout.
A Step Beyond Bitget’s Own
Tokenized Stocks
The feature
marks a shift from a model Bitget introduced only weeks earlier. In early June,
the exchange launched Reality, which it describes as a regulated real-world
asset protocol, alongside rToken, its own tokenized stocks.
Bitget says
it has listed more than 500 US stocks and exchange-traded funds through that
program, including SpaceX, Tesla and NVIDIA, with rToken assets under
management above $50 million. Those figures are self-reported and have not been
independently verified.
rToken
gives users tokenized exposure to equities. Stock+ instead aims to place real
shares in customer hands through the broker arrangement, a distinction Bitget
put at the center of its announcement.
Exchanges Race to Merge
Crypto and Equities
Bitget is
entering a crowded field where the line between crypto venues and stock
exchanges keeps thinning. Coinbase has
asked the SEC for approval to offer tokenized stock trading, while Kraken has
sought regulatory clearance for a 24/7 tokenized equity platform.
Traditional
venues are moving too. The SEC approved a
Nasdaq pilot allowing
tokenized stock trading, and newcomer 24X National
Exchange filed to
trade tokenized equities on an already approved exchange.
Consumer
routes are opening as well, with xStocks
placing tokenized US equities inside a Telegram wallet.
Most of
those efforts wrap equities in tokens. Stock+ takes the opposite path by
settling real shares through US brokers. That sidesteps some of the regulatory
questions tokenization still faces, but it also ties the product to
conventional clearing pipes rather than blockchain rails.
What Bitget Did Not
Disclose
Bitget
describes itself as the world’s largest Universal Exchange, a label it has not
benchmarked against named rivals. The company did not specify which
jurisdictions can access Stock+, the full broker lineup, or how custody of the
underlying shares is structured.
Because
settlement runs through RQD Clearing and Atomic Vaults Securities, the
ownership claims rest on those broker relationships rather than on the exchange
itself.
How crypto
platforms split responsibility with licensed brokers has become a recurring
question as the industry rethinks the
boundaries of market access and hours through tokenization and round-the-clock
trading.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
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