Securitize, Computershare Enable Tokenized U.S. Shares

Securitize and Computershare announced an agreement on Wednesday that enables U.S.-listed public companies to issue tokenized shares, known as Issuer-Sponsored Tokens or ISTs, alongside their traditional stock holdings.

The partnership positions Computershare, which serves more than 25,000 companies worldwide and acts as transfer agent for about 58 of the S&P 500 companies, to manage records and process corporate actions such as dividends and stock splits for both tokenized and conventional shares. Securitize provides the blockchain infrastructure, allowing ISTs to represent direct equity ownership rather than derivatives or claims on underlying shares. Investors can choose to hold these tokens in digital self-custody wallets or through existing brokerage systems, without requiring companies to alter their capital structures.

Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, said the ISTs "do not rely on derivative tokens that sit on top of underlying shares. They provide U.S. issuers with the ability to create direct equity ownership in token form." Ann Bowering, CEO of issuer services at Computershare North America, added that the structure was "designed to operate within the...