Robert Leshner’s Superstate to Launch On-Chain Stocks

Superstate, the digital asset management company known for its on-chain U.S. Treasuries, is now launching on-chain equities.

Superstate’s equities platform, called Opening Bell, allows companies with the necessary clearance to issue and trade public shares of their company on-chain. The product will launch initially on Solana and SOL Strategies, a Solana-based infrastructure company, will be the first company to debut on the platform.

The firm, founded by Compound Finance founder Robert Leshner, plans to expand to other chains in the future.

Leshner told The Defiant, “companies stand to gain access to a new capital market, a new investor base, and a new demand for their stock, and that's incredibly important and incredibly valuable to issuers.”

Leshner founded Superstate in 2023, and the firm has brought nearly $1 billion worth of traditional capital onchain between its $100 million USCC fund and its $650 million USTB tokenized treasury fund. USTB is one of the fastest-growing tokenized treasury products in DeFi and is up 39% over the last 30 days.

Tokenized equities and stocks trading via an on-chain platform has been a hot topic in 2025, fueled by a renewed sense of freedom for DeFi builders ushered in by the new U.S. presidential administration, which dropped 10 crypto cases in Q1, among other pro-DeFi court ruling and bill proposals.

Unsuccessful Attempts

Opening Bell is not the first to attempt a large-scale offering of stocks onchain, and previous iterations such as Mirror Protocol and Synthetix have not fared well. Mirror, which was launched by Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs, was subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) for violating United States securities laws through the creation, promotion, and sale of mAssets and MIR tokens to U.S. investors. The enforcement came in November 2021, shortly after the platform was exploited.

“A lot of companies have tried to go about this, I think unsuccessfully, because they didn't try to work hand in hand with the regulators to create infrastructure systems that create seamless integrations with the current traditional financial capital markets; that allows for the Internet capital markets, and therefore real tokenization, to happen.” said Leah Wald, the CEO of SOL Strategies.

Opening Bell will require legal cooperation from both the listing company and anyone using the platform, as well as know-your-customer (KYC) checks.

SOL Strategies announced its intent to list on NASDAQ and begin the process of entering U.S. exchanges in December, alongside its Opening Bell listing.

24/7 Trading

Through Opening Bell, companies can issue and trade their shares outside traditional market hours without relying on legacy listing processes. The platform is available to existing public companies and late-stage private firms seeking access to liquidity.

Opening Bell works alongside a transfer agent that allows Opening Bell to pass stocks back and forth between traditional stock exchanges and Opening Bell. This ensures that the asset being traded outside of traditional market hours is still trading in line with all other marketplaces.

“The more demand there is for stock, the more capital the company has to expand, to grow, to do all the things that companies do. You know, it's really the foundation of capitalism itself,” Leshner said.