Dubai-based crypto exchange Bybit has enabled six tokenized US stocks to serve as collateral for margin trading and lending products, allowing retail and institutional clients to borrow against blockchain-based versions of shares in some of the world’s largest companies.
It is the third major exchange to do so in two months. It is also the third to do it using tokens issued by the same company.
Six tokenized stocks now accepted
Bybit’s update allows eligible users to pledge tokenized shares of Nvidia (NVDAX), Robinhood (HOODX), Circle (CRCLX), Tesla (TSLAX), Alphabet (GOOGLX) and Apple (AAPLX) as collateral. The feature spans three products: Bybit’s Unified Trading Account, Crypto Loans and Institutional Loans, and is subject to Bybit’s lending terms and product availability.
Bybit first launched its xStocks offering in June through a partnership with tokenization platform Backed, listing more than 60 tokenized US stocks and exchange-traded funds on its spot market. Each asset is backed 1:1 by the underlying security, held with a regulated custodian.
Three exchanges, one issuer
Bybit is not alone in moving in this direction. Kraken began accepting select tokenized stocks and ETFs as collateral for futures and margin trading earlier this month. Bitget also supports tokenized stocks as collateral, having introduced the feature for futures margin in June before expanding it to crypto loans in July.
The three moves look like an industry-wide race, but they share a single dependency. All three exchanges distribute xStocks, the tokenized equity product issued by Backed. Kraken agreed to acquire Backed in late 2025, which means one of the three venues offering these tokens is also buying the company that issues them.
That concentration matters more once the tokens are being used as collateral. A problem at a single issuer, whether operational, custodial or regulatory, would not be contained to one exchange. It would surface simultaneously at every venue lending against the same instrument.
What traders are actually borrowing against
A tokenized stock is not a share. It is a claim on an issuer that says it holds the underlying security with a regulated custodian. Holders do not get voting rights, and the position carries counterparty exposure to both the issuer and the custodian in addition to the price risk of the stock itself.
The timing mismatch is the more immediate risk for anyone borrowing. Tokenized equities trade continuously, while the US stock market does not. A position collateralised by tokenized Nvidia can be liquidated over a weekend at a price the actual share never traded at, because the token’s price is set by whoever is trading it at the time rather than by the underlying market. Thin weekend liquidity makes that gap wider, not narrower.
Neither risk is unique to Bybit, and both apply to every venue now accepting these tokens as collateral. They are simply the terms of the trade, and they are worth understanding before pledging one.
A fast-growing but small market
Data from RWA.xyz shows total distributed value in tokenized equities rose from roughly $361 million in late July 2025 to about $1.72 billion as of Friday, growth of nearly five times in twelve months.
The rate of growth is real, and the base it grew from was small. At $1.72 billion the entire global market for tokenized equities is roughly the size of a single mid-cap listed company, and the figure measures tokens issued rather than trading activity or the amount actually pledged as collateral. Neither Bybit, Kraken nor Bitget has disclosed how much borrowing against these assets is taking place.
That is the gap between availability and adoption. Three exchanges have built the plumbing. Whether traders use it in size, and how the collateral behaves the first time markets move sharply while equity exchanges are closed, is still unknown.
