By Vicky Ge Huang
Shares of Securitize traded as much as 16% higher in the tokenization firm's New York Stock Exchange debut Thursday.
The stock, which trades under the ticker SECZ, recently changed hands at around $13 a share.
The company is expected to raise $400 million in gross proceeds after shareholders approved its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald.
It is also bringing its own common stock on the blockchain at the start of its life as a public company. The total tokenized market cap of Securitize on the Avalanche blockchain will be over $300 million on Thursday, making it the largest tokenized stock. As part of the launch, Securitize will make 15% of its recent average trading volume available to trade on the Solana blockchain.
- Founded in 2017, Securitize has partnered with major Wall Street firms including BlackRock, Apollo and KKR to launch tokenized versions of their investment funds. The company counts BlackRock, ARK Invest, Jump Crypto and Morgan Stanley Investment Management among its investors.
- Securitize's public debut comes as the tokenization movement has taken off on Wall Street. Major players, including the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, are racing to launch their tokenized securities platforms.
- Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies have tumbled down to earth, with bitcoin roughly 50% below its previous peak.
"I think this is a good signal that crypto is growing up and it's just moving from more speculative assets into real-world assets," said Carlos Domingo, chief executive of Securitize.
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