IMF Warns Tokenized Stocks Are 1.5x More Volatile, Yet Traders Keep Buying After Hours

TLDR

• The IMF found that more than half of tokenized stock trading happens outside regular U.S. market hours.
• About 80% of trades involved less than one share, pointing to demand for fractional ownership.
• Tokenized stocks were about 1.5 times as volatile as the same shares on traditional exchanges.
• The tokenized real-world asset market is about $65 billion, with stocks making up roughly $2.3 billion.
• The IMF wants clearer ownership rules, compatible settlement systems and stronger liquidity safeguards.

---

The International Monetary Fund says investors are using tokenized stocks for after-hours and small trades. The same study found these products are more volatile and less liquid than regular shares.

Tokenized assets have grown rapidly, reaching roughly $65b. Yet they remain tiny compared with traditional capital markets’ $300t in assets. Our new GFSR explores the policy and market conditions needed for tokenization to scale safely: https://t.co/Xd1NOgqMla pic.twitter.com/F9tf7uhMsb

— IMF (@IMFNews) October 8, 2026

The findings appear in the IMF’s October 2026 Global Financial Stability Report. The chapter is titled Scaling Tokenization: New Efficiencies, New Vulnerabilities.

Researchers looked at five actively traded tokenized U.S. equity products. They tracked Tesla, Nvidia, Alphabet, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-linked exposure across 11 trading venues.

The sample covered about $345 million in tokenized equity value over 365 trading days. It included products from Ondo Finance and xStocks on both centralized and decentralized platforms.

How Investors Are Using Tokenized Stocks

More than half of the trading took place outside regular U.S. market hours. U.S. exchanges usually trade from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time on business days.

About 80% of trades involved less than one share. The IMF said this points to demand for fractional ownership, mostly from individual investors.

The IMF also studied overnight price moves. Once U.S. markets opened, more than 85% of the overnight movement was reflected in traditional share prices within five minutes.

Volatility, Liquidity and Market Size

Tokenized stocks showed about 1.5 times the realized volatility of the same shares on traditional venues. Decentralized exchanges were the most volatile and the least liquid.

The IMF said trades moved prices more sharply on tokenized platforms because fewer participants were available to absorb orders. Higher-volume platforms kept prices closer to those on traditional exchanges.

The IMF estimated the tokenized real-world asset market at about $65 billion as of July 31. Tokenized equities made up roughly $2.3 billion of that total.

Global equities were valued at just under $160 trillion in 2025, according to SIFMA. Ondo Finance and Backed Finance accounted for more than 70% of tokenized stock value.

The IMF called for clearer ownership rules, compatible settlement systems and stronger liquidity safeguards. It said automated margin calls and 24-hour trading could make a market shock harder to contain.

The fund said current risks are limited because the market is small. It did not announce new binding rules or a deadline.

Companies keep adding products. Bullish began trading tokenized versions of its own shares on August 12, and Securitize launched tokenized stocks on Solana linked to 12 companies, including Apple, Nvidia and Tesla.

Earlier this month, OKX and Intercontinental Exchange filed plans for a venue offering round-the-clock trading in tokenized U.S. shares. Coinbase, Kraken, Binance and Robinhood also offer tokenized stock trading.

The SEC approved a tokenized securities pilot involving Nasdaq. Nasdaq then agreed to invest $100 million in Kraken parent Payward, and the companies expect Nasdaq Equity Tokens to launch in the second quarter of 2027.