A beginner’s guide to tokenized stocks, and how to give yours an onchain market with your own buy and sell prices.
Wall Street has started moving shares onto blockchains. In July 2026, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), which settles most US stock trades, ran its first live trades of tokenized stocks and Treasuries with firms including JPMorgan, BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.
If you hold a tokenized stock and nobody is trading it onchain, you can create the market for it yourself. This guide explains what tokenized stocks are and walks through doing that on Carbon DeFi, built by Bancor.
What is a tokenized stock?
A tokenized stock is a token on a blockchain that represents a share of a company, or tracks its price. It is stored in a crypto wallet and moves like any other token, so it can be sent, held or traded at any hour, including nights and weekends when the stock exchange is closed.
How fast are tokenized stocks growing?
According to RWA.xyz, tokenized stocks held about $2 million in distributed onchain value in June 2025. By the end of March 2026 that was about $486 million. As of November 2026, it's $3.99 billion, up 19% in the past 30 days.
The number of people holding them grew just as quickly. RWA.xyz counted about 1.18 million holders in August 2026. At the time of writing, that count has grown to 4.71 million.
In the DTCC trades, the tokens were interchangeable with traditional shares and carried the same ownership, dividend and governance rights. Tokenized versions of Microsoft and an S&P 500 ETF were among the first assets, according to The Wall Street Journal's reporting.
How to create a market for a tokenized stock on Carbon DeFi
Carbon DeFi is permissionless: anyone can create a market for any pair of standard ERC-20 tokens, with no listing approval. You set the prices, you choose how much to commit, and you can change both later.
Step 1: Check the token can trade on Carbon DeFi
Run three checks first.
The chain. As of November 2026, Bancor has deployed Carbon DeFi on Ethereum, Sei, Celo, COTI and TAC. The token needs to be on one of these.
The token standard. Carbon DeFi supports standard ERC-20 tokens. Rebasing tokens and fee-on-transfer tokens aren't supported. Some tokenized stocks pay dividends by changing the balance in every holder's wallet, which is a form of rebasing, so check how your token handles dividends and stock splits.
The transfer rules. Your funds sit in Carbon DeFi's smart contracts under your strategy, and your wallet controls edits and withdrawals. If the issuer only allows transfers to approved wallets, the token may not be able to move into the contract. The issuer's terms will say.
Step 2: Choose your strategy
Carbon DeFi has five strategy types. Each one sets how your orders buy, sell, or both.
Limit order. Create a buy or sell wall when your token should only trade at a single price. The order fills only at that exact price, with 100% price certainty.
Range order. Release supply gradually as the price rises, or accumulate as it falls. Spread a sell or buy order across a custom price range, with zero third-party dependencies.
Recurring order. Keep a two-sided market running without a bot. Set a buy range and a separate sell range, and when one side fills, even partially, the tokens it acquires automatically fund the other side.
Concentrated liquidity. Provide tight, two-sided liquidity around the price you expect your token to trade. Set the range and your own fee tier, and fees compound into the position automatically, with no vault and no manual claiming.
Full-range liquidity. Give your token liquidity at every price level, the way a traditional AMM does, by deploying capital across the entire market range.
To start a brand-new market, a limit or a range order lets you fund one side only. A recurring order lets you fund one side or both. On the sell side you deposit only the tokenized stock. On the buy side you can deposit whatever token it's paired with. In a recurring order, as the tokenized stock is sold, the newly acquired tokens automatically fund the buy order.
Why the buy and sell sides are separate
Every token in a Carbon DeFi strategy sits on its own independent pricing curve, so the buy logic and the sell logic never have to move together. That's what makes one-sided orders possible, lets you adjust prices onchain without recreating a position, and makes your orders immune to MEV sandwich attacks. Your order fills only at the prices you set: zero slippage.
Step 3: Create the strategy
Open app.carbondefi.xyz, choose the chain, and connect your wallet. Pick the pair, such as your tokenized stock against ETH or a stablecoin. If the token isn't listed by name, enter the contract address and save the token to Carbon DeFi. Enter your prices and budgets, review, and sign.
Once the transaction confirms, a market now exists for your tokenized stock.
Step 4: Adjust as the market finds its level
You can change your prices, ranges and budgets onchain at any time without withdrawing and starting over.
Who trades against your orders?
Your orders fill when a taker trades against them. Takers include traders, aggregators, and Carbon DeFi's built-in solver, the Arb Fast Lane. It acts as a de-facto taker that fills Carbon DeFi orders, pulling liquidity from all major DEXs chainwide.
Orders can fill in parts, in full, or if the market never reaches your price, not at all. Either way, until it fills, it stays onchain with no expiry date.
As of November 2026, makers pay no maker fees on Carbon DeFi: no trading fee and no gas when an order fills.
Frequently asked questions
Can tokenized stocks trade 24/7? Onchain, yes. A tokenized stock can be traded whenever, including when the stock exchange is closed.
Do I need permission to create a market on Carbon DeFi? No. Carbon DeFi is permissionless. Any pair of standard ERC-20 tokens can have a market, with no listing approval.
Can I provide liquidity on one side only? Yes. You can fund only the sell side, only the buy side, or both, each with its own price and budget.
Does Carbon DeFi support every tokenized stock? No. It supports standard ERC-20 tokens on the chains where Carbon DeFi runs. Rebasing and fee-on-transfer tokens aren't supported.
Do I pay fees when my order fills? No. Makers pay no trading fee and no gas when their orders fill.
Start your market
To create a market for your tokenized stock, check that the token is supported, choose your side, set your prices and sign.
Create a strategy on Carbon DeFi · Read about order types
This guide is for information only and isn't investment, legal or tax advice. Smart-contract risk applies, and every tokenized stock carries its issuer's own terms and risks.
