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RWA.xyz counted 4,010,763 addresses holding tokenized stocks on 28 September, up 67% in thirty days. The industry took two routes to get there. One camp put the registered share itself on-chain, with rights verified, holders checked in advance and transfers restricted to approved wallets; the other built tokens that give economic exposure and that eligible holders can keep in any wallet and move freely. The holder counts on the two sides are not close. bStocks reports 1,402,291 and xStocks 666,831, both classified as transferable. Superstate Opening Bell, which puts the registered shares themselves on-chain under token-level permissioning and KYC'd wallets, reports 84. The caveats are real: these are addresses rather than people, Opening Bell lists only three assets, and two large platforms fit neatly on neither side. The gap that remains is read here as a preference for tokens that are easy to hold and move. Tessera sits in the second camp and has a commercial interest in that reading being right. The data counts addresses; the preference is an interpretation of them.

Tokenization headlines tend to focus on dollar value. But if the real question is whether access is expanding, there may be a better number to watch: holders. Wallets holding tokenized stocks passed 1.02 million in early August, up 33% in just 8 days and from fewer than 59,000 a year ago. Tokenized equities now represent roughly 63% of all RWA holders on-chain, far ahead of any other category. The dollars tell us how large tokenization is becoming. The holder count tells us something more interesting: how many people are actually participating.

Tokenized IPOs moved from theory to reality in 2026. Securitize’s NYSE listing showed how an issuer-sponsored token can represent the same underlying share on-chain, while new models from Backpack, Superstate, and Ondo are beginning to move IPO allocation and debut-day access onto Solana. With tokenized equity volume reaching roughly $3.86 billion in June, the infrastructure is taking shape. The next question is whether tokenization changes only how shares settle, or who gets access in the first place.

This month, DTCC is set to begin limited production trades of its tokenization service for U.S. equities, major ETFs, and Treasuries, with a full launch targeted for October (DTCC, May 2026). This advancement has been facilitated by an SEC no-action letter and the SEC’s approval of Nasdaq’s tokenized-securities rule changes in March and NYSE’s in April. A common reaction in certain market segments questions why Wall Street is focusing on tokenizing assets like Apple, which are easily accessible, rather than assets that are less reachable. However, this perspective misses the mark. The initial focus on tokenizing public markets is logical. It allows for a controlled environment to test the plumbing of tokenization while ensuring that other aspects are already established. Moreover, it lays out a roadmap for the tokenization of private markets by clarifying which layers will be carried over and which will need to be developed from the ground up.