Bullish and Equiniti convene five-firm coalition to standardize tokenized securities

Bullish and Equiniti have convened the Issuer Sponsored Token Coalition with Alpaca, Apex Fintech Solutions and DriveWealth to set standards for tokenized securities tied to the companies issuing them.

Announced Thursday, September 24, the group will work on technical standards, settlement, custody and methods for moving securities between traditional market infrastructure and blockchain networks. Its central model is issuer-sponsored tokenization: a tokenized share linked to the company’s official shareholder register, a structure designed to preserve voting rights, dividends and participation in corporate actions. By centering the issuer rather than the exchange or the custodian, the coalition aims for tokenized shares to carry the same legal weight as conventional ones.

Bullish CEO Tom Farley said in a press statement, “The architecture we establish now matters and that is why we are bringing together this group of leading firms to chart the course.” Arush Sehgal, head of digital assets at Alpaca, said his firm plans to contribute to interoperability between traditional securities and onchain markets through its Instant Tokenization Network, adding that getting the model right means “preserving shareholder rights and ensuring onchain markets remain connected to the markets they’re built on.”

The launch follows an exemption the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued the prior week allowing limited onchain trading of US-listed equities under certain conditions, which the coalition cited as the context for its work. Apex Fintech Solutions, which supplies infrastructure to broker-dealers, said the group could help establish standards that connect tokenized markets with existing systems.

The coalition also extends the logic of Bullish’s pending $4.2 billion acquisition of Equiniti, announced May 5, 2026. Equiniti maintains official shareholder registers for nearly 3,000 issuer clients with more than 20 million verified shareholders, and issuer relationships with the firm average 18 years. That register business is the asset issuer-sponsored tokenization depends on. The transaction, which reportedly includes $1.85 billion in assumed debt and roughly $2.35 billion in restricted Bullish stock priced at $38.48 per share, is reportedly expected to close in January 2027, pending US and UK regulatory approvals.

No timeline, governance structure or specific technical standards for the coalition have been announced.