Binance’s renewed push into tokenized shares received regulatory backing on Tuesday when the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) approved trading of Ondo Finance’s tokenized shares on the exchange’s regulated platform.
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of ADGM approved Ondo Global Markets’ tokenized shares and ETFs to trade on Binance’s FSRA-regulated multilateral trading facility, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk. The list includes tokenized versions of Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Circle, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla and the Invesco QQQ ETF. The products are available to non-US users.
This is the first time ADGM approved tokenized securities trading under its regulatory framework, allowing UAE-based financial institutions, intermediaries and counterparties to trade in tokenized versions of shares, Ondo said.
“By offering Ondo tokenized shares for trading on Binance, we are expanding access to hundreds of millions of investors,” Ian de Bode, president of Ondo Finance, said in a statement.
The approval gives Binance a regulated venue for trading tokenized shares, nearly five years after it shut down a similar service following investigation by UK and German regulators. The move comes after Binance listed Ondo’s tokenized shares on its Alpha platform, dedicated to riskier early-stage projects.
Tokenized stocks have drawn interest from crypto exchanges like Kraken, brokerages like Robinhood, and traditional market operators like Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. The total value of the market has exceeded $1 billion, data from RWA.xyz shows.
Proponents argue that placing shares on blockchain rails can expand investor access and make it easier for assets to move across trading and lending platforms, connecting stock markets with decentralized finance.
Ondo structures its products as share-linked bonds linked to the underlying shares. The firm says it has processed more than $11 billion in cumulative trade volume with over $600 million in total value locked since launching its offering less than six months ago.
Last year, Ondo secured approval of its base prospectus for securities in the European Union, enabling public distribution throughout the European Union.
