Securitize logs on to the NYSE as SECZ — and tokenizes itself before the bell 🔔

Securitize Corp. began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the ticker symbol SECZ, eight years after its founding, following the closing of its merger with Cantor Equity Partners II on June 30. Shareholders of the Cantor Fitzgerald–backed special purpose acquisition company approved the business combination on June 29, and the deal is expected to deliver approximately $400 million at a $1.25 billion pre-money valuation, according to company announcements and filings. Shares climbed more than 8% in their debut, recently changing hands at $12.75, while CEPT had jumped more than 19% on the merger approval.

The company, backed by BlackRock and Morgan Stanley, becomes the first pure-play tokenization infrastructure provider to list on a major U.S. exchange. Founded in 2017, Securitize holds SEC-registered broker-dealer, transfer agent, fund administrator and alternative trading system (ATS) operator licenses in the United States, along with authorization under the EU DLT Pilot Regime in Europe. Benchmark Equity Research reiterated a "Buy" rating on the stock with a $16 price target earlier in June. "Today, tokenization is moving into the mainstream, and we believe becoming a public company gives us the visibility, credibility, and capital to lead that next phase of growth," CEO and co-founder Carlos Domingo said.

Alongside the listing, Securitize tokenized roughly $266 million worth of SECZ shares at launch — a figure the company said makes it the largest tokenized stock in the world. The on-chain version is issuer-sponsored common stock, not a synthetic or offshore wrapper, and is available initially on the Avalanche and Solana networks, as well as through Securitize's own regulated platform. "We have long said that public equities are moving on-chain, and there is no stronger validation of that belief than tokenizing our own public stock on Day 1," Domingo said. "SECZ is not a synthetic token or offshore wrapper. It is issuer-sponsored tokenization of the same common stock trading on the NYSE, made available through regulated infrastructure."

Securitize's flagship client relationship is with BlackRock, whose BUIDL tokenized money market fund administered on the platform has grown to more than $3 billion in total value locked. Apollo, KKR, Hamilton Lane and VanEck round out the institutional client roster, and the firm reported more than $4 billion in assets under management as of June. President Brett Redfearn, a former director of trading and markets at the Securities and Exchange Commission who joined Securitize in April, said tokenization is "like a trojan horse for consumers," pointing to potential uses such as decentralized lending once intermediaries are removed. "I think that business is totally disruptible," Redfearn said in an interview with Decrypt. "There's a lot of opportunities when you start to disintermediate traditional businesses."