TL;DR:
- Bullish, Equiniti, Alpaca, Apex Fintech Solutions, and DriveWealth established the Issuer Sponsored Token Coalition on September 24, 2026.
- The initiative seeks to link the on-chain representation of assets directly to the official shareholder registry of issuing corporations.
- The announcement follows a regulatory exemption granted by the SEC on September 17, 2026, allowing trading of publicly listed stocks within bounded blockchain environments.
Financial infrastructure platforms Bullish, Alpaca, and Apex Fintech Solutions entered into an alliance to standardize issuer-backed tokenized stocks. The development was formalized this Thursday, September 24.
Shareholder services firm Equiniti and brokerage provider DriveWealth have also joined the initiative, dubbed the Issuer Sponsored Token Coalition. The technical working group will address the creation of custody, settlement, and transfer frameworks designed to connect traditional stock exchange registries with distributed ledger networks.
Unlike synthetic instruments that mirror price movements without conferring corporate ownership, this consortium champions a model where the digital unit maintains a direct link to the shareholder ledger. According to the coalition’s official statement, this mechanism is built to protect corporate rights such as dividend distribution and voting rights.
This institutional rollout follows a ruling issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on September 17, 2026. The order granted a technical exemptive relief allowing, under strict conditions, the on-chain secondary trading of securities belonging to companies formally listed on U.S. public markets.
Tom Farley, CEO of Bullish, stated in the joint announcement that the operational framework established during this stage will shape the legal integration between traditional financial markets and decentralized systems.
Technical Standards and On-Chain Corporate Rights
The coalition’s central operational challenge lies in closing the gap between economic-exposure tokens and genuine equity securities. Various existing products across the crypto market operate via contracts for difference (CFDs) or unregistered derivatives that afford no legal recourse against the issuer.
Alpaca plans to contribute its Instant Tokenization Network to the coalition, aimed at streamlining two-way conversions between traditional custodied shares and tokenized formats. Meanwhile, technical documentation from Apex Fintech Solutions emphasizes the necessity of developing interoperable operational rails for regulated broker-dealers, clearing agents, and custodians.
From a corporate standpoint, Bullish agreed in May 2026 to acquire Equiniti for $4.2 billion. The transaction remains subject to customary regulatory reviews, with an estimated closing targeted for January 2027, according to corporate filings released by both firms.
According to statements from the coalition, onboarding transfer agents allows ownership recorded on-chain to retain official validity before the corporate governance bodies of listed companies. Consequently, corporations will retain visibility over investor identities in accordance with current regulatory compliance standards.
The coalition announced that it will launch pilot tests and formulate technical specifications throughout the final quarter of 2026, aiming to publish its inaugural reference framework before the close of the fiscal year.
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