Could 2026 be the year of unprecedented growth for the tokenized stock market, which is revolutionizing traditional finance? In any case, the low-key company Alpaca is currently establishing itself as a key player in this rapidly growing sector.
Alpaca: The Broker Dominating the Tokenized Stock Market
At the start of this year, the rapidly growing market for tokenized stocks has just crossed the symbolic milestone of $1 billion in market capitalization. Some still view this figure as a clear sign of lackluster interest from the relevant markets, while others believe, on the contrary, that we are witnessing the early stages of a genuine financial revolution underway.
If we take into account the combined market capitalization of publicly traded stocks (public equities) and those that are not (private equities), the figure currently listed on the RWA.xyz website totals $1.3 billion, of which $966 million (74%) relates to publicly traded stocks.
Market capitalization of tokenized shares reaches $1.3 billion
This represents a 110% increase over the past year, which skyrockets to over 6,500% when compared to its value in December 2024, which was close to $20 million.
A context capable of bringing to the fore “still modest but rapidly growing” players such as the California-based fintech firm Alpaca and its automated brokerage and trading APIs, according to The Information journalist Yueqi Yang.
A vision confirmed by its co-founder and CEO, Yoshi Yokokawa, on the project’s official LinkedIn account. And for good reason: “Tokenization is rapidly moving from the theoretical stage to that of a very real infrastructure” that is now impossible to ignore.
Last year, Alpaca became the leading provider of brokerage services for issuers of tokenized shares, as the company possesses both the regulatory licenses required in traditional finance and the technological infrastructure needed to connect to crypto platforms
Yoshi Yokokawa
“Few brokers are willing to sell shares to companies specializing in tokenization”
According to available data, Alpaca currently holds 94% of the market share for tokenized stocks and ETFs. This significant dominance includes flagship projects in the sector, such as the xStocks recently launched by the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, which have just surpassed $200 million in assets under management.
Alpaca holds 94% of the market share for tokenized stocks and ETFs
According to Yueqi Yang, this situation is largely due to the fact that “few other brokers are willing to sell stocks to companies specializing in tokenization.”
As a result, Alpaca has become the hub for projects like Ondo Finance, xStocks, and Dinari, managing nearly all of their users’ orders “to purchase the underlying stocks serving as collateral for the stock tokens.”
What are the most popular tokenized stocks right now, according to Alpaca project leaders? It appears that investors already involved in this venture are currently favoring six stocks that account for three-quarters of this market: Tesla, Nvidia, two S&P 500 index funds, one Nasdaq 100 index fund, and a Treasury fund with a maturity of over 20 years.
