My takeaways from the excellent @Bullish x @Equiniti tokenization event yesterday at the @NYSE: -blockchains are the next upgrade in mkt tech, & Bullish wants issuers at the center of it. In the NYSE boardroom (the old bond room!), @ThomasFarley traced the line from horses and telegraphs to pneumatic tubes & electronic ledgers. Bullish wants the product ready before the market is; its 1 non-negotiable is the issuer’s central role -multiple versions of the same stock won’t last. Asset managers present don't expect today’s multiple types of tokenized stock (DTCC, custodial, synthetic, issuer) to all survive, since fragmented liquidity hurts everyone -the @SECGov Innovation Exemption gives issuers a narrow veto. Before a tokenized securities venue can trade a 3rd-party token of a company’s stock, the issuer gets 30 days to object, venue by venue. Bullish’s pitch is that issuer tokens give companies more control, since the transfer agent’s smart contract decides where they can move, including NYSE, Nasdaq, defi -tokenization gives issuers control & data they don’t have today. It solves 3 problems now: 24/7 trading with instant settlement, a live view of who holds your stock + for how long, transfer rules coded into the token. Shares can only move to KYC’d wallets, & RSUs can stay locked in an employee’s wallet until they vest -shareholders can become customers. an airline could give shareholders their own boarding group or lounge access. A coffee chain could give a free coffee to anyone who votes their proxy, regardless of how they vote. -the transfer agent holds the keys. Bullish told issuers “you’re in control,” but the TA runs the smart contract + decides which wallets can hold the token. That’s where the leverage sits & it’s why Bullish is buying Equiniti -tokens can make deal closings instant. On stage, Bullish moved 61M reserved shares (the purchase price for its $4.2B Equiniti acquisition) as tokens into a BitGo-custodied wallet. When the deal closes, the tokens move to the seller, & anyone can watch it happen onchain -a token is only as good as the market around it. 1 broker bought $60M of Figure’s February offering, issued as an SEC-registered token. With no market maker for the first few hours, trading was so bad that clients sent ~1k complaints. Once one stepped in the next morning, the token became as liquid as the regular stock. Utility matters too: $10k of Nvidia in a brokerage acct is good for little beyond a margin loan, but on chain it could back a car loan -once the infra is built, mkts will switch over quickly, & underwriters could lose the most. Issuing tokens straight into investor wallets cuts out much of the 4-7% IPO fee. Bund futures show the pattern: electronic trading competed with LIFFE’s floor for years, then took nearly the whole mkt in ~1 yr once liquidity tipped. 1 panelist expected most of the S&P 500 to trade as tokens within 2-4 yrs -tokenization is a big upgrade for a small group of investors. 1 asset manager said it’s only ~5% better for most, which isn’t enough to beat inertia. For some it’s 100% better: people who want 24/7 trading + instant settlement, DeFi / stablecoin users, & offshore investors with poor access to US brokerage -instis need privacy before they’ll move at scale. The tech already works: Cumberland helped execute a Saturday repo of tokenized Treasuries against USDC, in + out in ~20 minutes. That said, no fund wants competitors watching its wallets while it builds or exits a position. Onchain trades need to be private to the market but visible to regulators, issuers