Superstate’s push for on-chain equities

Hello Real World!

I’m Chris (@storaker), and this is Real World—The Defiant’s update on stablecoins, tokenization, and RWAs.

This week we look at Superstate’s move to issue equities directly on-chain, positioning blockchain as the system of record at issuance rather than a post-trade mirror, and JPMorgan’s first U.S. commercial paper issuance on a public blockchain.

Together, these developments point to a gradual transition from tokenized representations toward digital-native financial instruments, seeking cost-efficiency, and signaling the growing acceptance of public blockchains for regulated, real-world assets.

Let’s get real,

Chris

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Top Moves This Week

Superstate unveiled a direct, on-chain equity issuance platform that makes the blockchain the system of record at issuance, marking a shift from tokenized “digital twins” toward digital-native securities.

JPMorgan arranged a $50 million U.S. commercial paper issuance on Solana, signaling growing institutional acceptance of public blockchains for real-world financial instruments.

Superstate’s push for on-chain equity at the point of issuance

Superstate announced a direct, on-chain stock issuance platform for U.S. public companies using blockchain infrastructure to issue shares, settle transactions, and maintain the shareholder register.

The greatest infrastructure shift since the 60s paperwork crisis

The push for digital-native issuance echoes an earlier inflection point in U.S. equity markets. In 1968, backlogged paperwork forced the NYSE to close one day per week, and trillions of dollars in securities failed to settle on time. As the SEC later summarized, markets “could not continue to rely on physical certificates and manual processing.” In order to save American capital markets from drowning under heaps of paper, the Depository Trust Company (DTC) was established in 1973 to centralize custody and ownership records and enable the gradual dematerialization of equities.

Digital-native tokenization

Superstate’s launch of a direct, on-chain, digital-native tokenized equity is an incremental yet meaningful development. Most tokenized securities to date follow a digital twin model: legal ownership remains recorded off-chain, while blockchain infrastructure mirrors balances or facilitates settlement.

Back in 2019, Overstock was the first listed U.S. company to issue a SEC-registered, publicly traded tokenized security using technology from its blockchain subsidiary, tZERO. While a major breakthrough at the time, legal ownership remained with the transfer agent off-chain. On SEC filings, the blockchain functioned as a “courtesy carbon copy” rather than the authoritative record of ownership. These preferred shares were converted into common stock in 2022.

Fast forward to 2025, and this structure remains the norm. Examples include BNY Mellon and Goldman Sachs’ LiquidityDirect initiative, which issues tokenized representations of money market fund shares while retaining conventional fund administration and ownership records. Retail-facing “tokenized stock” offerings, such as Robinhood’s, go further still in their abstraction: they provide economic exposure to custodian-held equities but do not convey shareholder rights or legal ownership.

Why bother?

This push is certainly not driven by enthusiasm for on-chain record keeping and transparency, but by its potential savings.

Traditional IPO underwriting expenses typically amount to 4–7% of gross proceeds (PwC). Corporate actions are fragmented and error-prone, contributing to billions in annual losses /costs (DTCC). Even the U.S. market’s transition from T+2 to T+1 settlement is expected to release $3–4 billion in margin, while retaining settlement risk (DTCC).

Studies by the BIS, and the World Economic Forum estimate that unifying issuance, settlement, and ownership records on shared ledgers could reduce issuance and post-trade operating costs by 30–60% (BCG), primarily through the elimination of reconciliation and manual processing.

Acceleration at the infrastructure layer

Regulatory signals are beginning to align with this direction. Today, the SEC issued a no-action position enabling DTCC to develop tokenization services for DTC-custodied assets, with the initiative expected to support tokenized stocks, bonds, and U.S. Treasuries by 2026. While limited in scope, the decision reflects formal recognition that tokenized representations can coexist with, and potentially modernize, core market infrastructure.

As with prior dematerialization efforts, the principal impact of on-chain issuance lies in infrastructure efficiency rather than immediate changes to market access. Secondary market liquidity remains the primary open variable, and one that improvements in settlement or registry design alone do not resolve.

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JPMorgan Arranges U.S. Commercial Paper Issuance on a Public Blockchain

JPMorgan arranged a $50 million U.S. commercial paper (USCP) issuance for Galaxy Digital, executed on Solana. It is the first time the largest U.S. bank has issued a short-term debt instrument on a public, permissionless network.

JPMorgan endorses public blockchains for RWAs

JPMorgan’s digital-asset work, including its $1 billion tokenized USCP program for OCBC launched this August, and its pioneering treasury and deposit solutions, have run on its permissioned Kinexys DLT infrastructure.

More recently, however, the bank has shown greater openness to public rails. Last month, JPMorgan became the first U.S. bank to issue a USD deposit token on Base, Coinbase’s public Layer 2. The Solana USCP issuance extends that shift from payments into capital-markets instruments.

Choosing a public chain for a regulated credit instrument sets a precedent, broadens the set of acceptable settlement rails for institutions, and opens the door to the long-anticipated integration of open DeFi composability into Wall Street RWAs.

Taken together, the moves signal a progression future institutional programs may leapfrog: (1) Private sandboxed pilots —> (2) permissioned production —> (3) public at scale.

RWAs expand into active short-term assets

Most tokenized RWAs to date, including treasuries, money-market funds, tokenized cash (and arguably even tokenized corporate bonds and stocks), are passive instruments with relatively minimal operational complexity.

Passive assets dominate in tokenized RWAs. Source: rwa.xyz

Commercial paper introduces a more active asset class. Traditional CP markets remain operationally cumbersome, manual processes and limited settlement windows. Recording the CP lifecycle on Solana shows that public blockchains can support live short-duration credit, where issuance, distribution, and maturity are executed through programmable infrastructure rather than bilateral dealer workflows.

Commercial paper brings recurring on-chain liquidity

Liquidity has been one of the weaknesses of existing tokenized RWAs. Most tokens trade infrequently, with thin markets, few participants and fragmented venues. Commercial paper behaves differently. It rarely trades mid-cycle, but it matures quickly and is continually reissued, creating built-in turnover. MMFs must reinvest maturing paper, and corporates must roll funding.

Bringing that cycle on-chain enables a synchronized, programmable flow between borrowers and capital providers. Liquidity comes from predictable primary issuance and automated rollovers. As rollovers move to smart contracts CP begins to function as an always-on institutional funding rail. If scaled, this could become a consistent source of activity in the RWA market.

Competition between stablecoins and tokenized deposits

Settlement for this issuance occurred in USDC, showing that regulated debt can interoperate with stablecoin rails. Using USDC instead of a tokenized deposit highlights even JPMorgan, the issuer of the JPM (deposit) Coin, recognizes stablecoins provide continuous, global settlement capabilities.

For banks, this creates pressure. If regulated instruments can settle in stablecoins, tokenized deposits must compete on functionality. The question is whether public stablecoins or bank liabilities will dominate tokenized markets.

Direction of travel: actual issuance, not synthetic representations

Galaxy’s role aligns with its broader strategy. The firm previously issued tokenized shares (actual equity interests) on Solana via Superstate. Managing both equity and short-term credit on-chain positions Galaxy among the few issuers putting real instruments, not digital twins, onto public networks. For context, Galaxy Digital has invested at least $1.5 billion in SOL.

Buyers are crypto-native institutions

While JPMorgan provided the infrastructure, the buyers were crypto-aligned firms, Coinbase and Franklin Templeton. It remains uncertain whether the projected cost savings or access to untapped sources of capital will be enough to drive traditional CP participants away from systems like DTC’s MMI.

Note: An earlier version of this feature was published on The Defiant Daily on December 11th, 2025

Other Stories Worth Your Time

YouTube Enables Stablecoin Payouts for Creators — YouTube now lets U.S. creators receive earnings in stablecoins including PayPal’s PYUSD, offering faster, more flexible payout options and expanding crypto use in mainstream platforms.

UK FCA Prioritizes Stablecoin Growth in 2026 — The UK Financial Conduct Authority outlined a 2026 growth agenda that explicitly includes supporting UK-issued stablecoins and enabling firms to test and scale stablecoin products through its regulatory sandbox.

SEC Clears DTCC Tokenization Pilot — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission granted the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) a No-Action Letter to launch a regulated tokenization service for traditional assets on selected blockchains, paving the way for regulated tokenized stocks, bonds, and Treasuries.

OCC Approves Crypto Trust Banks — The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved five national trust bank charters for firms including Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paxos, and First National Digital Currency Bank, expanding federally chartered options for crypto infrastructure under U.S. banking law.

Tempo Blockchain Launches Payments Testnet — Stripe and Paradigm-backed Tempo unveiled a public testnet focused on fast, low-cost stablecoin payments, aiming to compete with existing rails and support broader adoption of programmable payment infrastructure.

Tips, corrections, rants? Let me know (@storaker), or contact the editors at editorial@thedefiant.io.

See you next week and keep it real.