$26B Securitize Reaches FINRA Tokenized Custody Tier

Key Points

• Securitize Markets secured FINRA approval to become the first standard broker-dealer authorized to custody tokenized securities and conduct atomic on-chain settlement.
• The approval, granted through FINRA’s Continuing Membership Application process, lets Securitize Markets handle custody, clearing, and underwriting internally without third-party broker-dealer handoffs.
• Tokenized real-world assets globally have surpassed $26 billion, with industry forecasts projecting tokenization will dominate capital market issuance and trading by 2030.

Securitize Markets has secured expanded approvals from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, with the firm announcing the FINRA decision lets the SEC-regulated subsidiary become “the first standard broker-dealer authorized to hold custody of tokenized securities” while conducting atomic on-chain settlement.

The $26B FINRA Tokenized Custody Approval

The approvals were granted through FINRA‘s Continuing Membership Application process, formally extending the broker-dealer license held by Securitize Markets.

The expanded scope lets Securitize Markets handle custody, clearing, and settlement of tokenized securities entirely within its own regulated stack.

Atomic settlement is the structural change, allowing on-chain transactions between tokenized securities and stablecoins to complete in a single simultaneous step.

The conventional T+2 settlement cycle and multi-party handoff disappears, replaced by a delivery-versus-payment exchange that finalizes within the same block.

Securitize Markets can now also serve as an underwriter and participate in selling groups for both primary and secondary offerings of tokenized securities.

The combined custody, clearing, settlement, and underwriting functions place Securitize Markets in a category of one among broker-dealers handling tokenized assets.

The 24/7 On-Chain Settlement Numbers

Real-world asset tokenization globally has surpassed $26 billion, with the category growing roughly 100% over the past 12 months according to industry tracking.

Industry forecasts suggest tokenization will dominate capital market issuance and trading by 2030, with Deutsche Bank among the major banks projecting that timeline.

Tokenized securities could unlock trillions of dollars in currently illiquid assets through 24/7 global trading and on-chain delivery-versus-payment.

Operational savings for broker-dealers, exchanges, and custodians could be substantial as multi-day settlement cycles compress to seconds.

The cost compression also reaches retail-scale investors, who currently face fractional-ownership barriers in conventional securities markets.

The $26 billion figure still represents a small fraction of the addressable capital markets, leaving room for significant category expansion through 2030.

Tokenized money market funds alone account for $8 billion of the $26 billion total, with tokenized credit, real estate, and equities making up the remainder.

Tokenized credit on the Securitize platform has grown roughly 80% over the past 6 months, while tokenized equities account for less than 5% of category AUM today.

The FINRA approval is expected to push the tokenized equities share toward 10% of category AUM by year end as Securitize-cleared issuances come online.

Average ticket size on Securitize-issued tokens has risen sharply over the past two quarters, with institutional allocations now averaging $4.5 million per issuance.

The Securitize Competitive Reaction

Rivals such as Securitize‘s closest competitor tZERO previously secured custody approvals, but only through specialized purpose-built broker-dealers.

Securitize Markets integrates the same functions into a conventional broker-dealer framework, removing the structural overhead of running a parallel specialized entity.

Other tokenization platform players include Polymath, Tokeny, Centrifuge, and Ondo Finance, which focus on issuance and compliance but do not hold equivalent broker-dealer custody approvals.

The reframe matters: the FINRA approval makes Securitize Markets the first end-to-end regulated tokenization stack with broker-dealer status.

Issuers evaluating whether to enter the tokenized securities market can assess your tokenization readiness against the new FINRA-aligned framework.

The approval also signals where U.S. regulators are converging: tokenized securities sit inside existing securities law, not adjacent to it.

BlackRock, which uses Securitize for BUIDL issuance, gains a fully regulated end-to-end pathway through the same firm.

Other broker-dealers are likely to file their own Continuing Membership Application requests over the next two quarters as the FINRA precedent solidifies.

Whether the broker-dealer competitive set adapts quickly enough to keep pace with tokenized issuance volume is the deciding question for the next leg of category growth.

For a deeper breakdown of how tokenized securities settlement compares to conventional broker-dealer rails, read the Securitize platform review.