Another crypto company has hit the public markets. Securitize, the BlackRock-backed firm that specializes in tokenization, or putting financial assets like stocks in blockchain wrappers, debuted Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares fell below their IPO price in pre-market trading but are up nearly 3% since markets opened.
The tokenization specialist raised $400 million from its public offering after merging with Cantor Equity Partners II, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The deal valued Securitize at $1.25 billion. About 71 percent of the SPAC’s cash pool stayed in the merger rather than being withdrawn by investors.
“Today is a watershed event in the process of bringing traditional services on-chain,” Securitize President Brett Redfearn told Fortune in an interview at the New York Stock Exchange. “We’re at a tipping point in tokenization.”
Redfearn also said that Securitize will issue a tokenized version of its own stock as it begins trading on the public market.
The Miami-based company joins a growing list of crypto firms that have IPOed over the past two years. In June 2025, Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, became the first crypto firm to complete an IPO. Three months later, Gemini, the centralized exchange led by the Winklevoss twins, followed suit. And in January, BitGo became the first crypto company to go public in 2026.
Still, the anticipated wave of crypto IPOs has largely fizzled amid a broader downturn in the crypto markets and as mega listings from companies like SpaceX dominate investor attention. For example, in March, the crypto exchange Kraken put its multibillion‑dollar IPO on hold amid hostile market conditions, according to CoinDesk.
Wall Street goes on-chain
Founded in 2017 by Carlos Domingo and Jamie Finn, Securitize was an early evangelist for tokenization. The firm has helped asset managers like VanEck launch a tokenized U.S. Treasury fund and has partnered with the New York Stock Exchange on a planned platform for trading tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds. The company has also worked with BlackRock to create a tokenized money market fund known as BUIDL. In 2024, the financial giant led a $47 million investment into Securitize.
Despite the crypto down market, Securitize is riding a wave of enthusiasm for tokenization as Wall Street increasingly experiments with blockchains. Earlier this month, Citi rolled out a product that allows wealthy and institutional clients to trade shares of private companies through a blockchain. A series of major U.S. banks, including JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup also reportedly plan to launch a tokenized deposit network in 2027.