Binance's CZ Predicts On-Chain IPOs: Is the Crypto Industry Already There?
Binance's Changpeng Zhao recently sparked excitement in the crypto industry with his bold statement that initial public offerings (IPOs) will move on-chain. However, this idea is not entirely new, and several companies have already experimented with tokenized IPOs.
French aerospace and defense supplier ST Group completed a tokenized IPO through Paris-based Lightning Stock Exchange in April, while Hyperliquid experimented with the launch of a pre-IPO for SpaceX in May. These moves suggest that CZ may be pointing towards the idea that the traditional IPO process will eventually become on-chain rather than taking place through traditional infrastructure and being tokenized afterwards.
Experts argue that what the industry has seen so far are wrappers around companies that already listed through a stock exchange, but moving to native on-chain issuance would bring listing of shares and records directly onto blockchain. Vivek Raman, co-founder and CEO of Etherealize, emphasized that synthetic and wrapped products will not carry the industry forward, while real issuance should happen on-chain from day one.
The shift to on-chain IPOs could bring several benefits, including increased accessibility, faster settlement, easier global participation, and higher interoperability. As companies like SpaceX and ST Group have demonstrated, tokenized venues can list businesses that traditional processes price out. However, experts also caution that issues may arise when regulated assets start sitting on decentralized infrastructure.
Regulators will still care about disclosure, custody, investor protection, and who can own or trade particular securities. But once those assets live on open infrastructure, it becomes much harder to control everything people build around them. The SEC's modernization of rules and forms governing registered transfer agents is a step towards clearer messaging, but the industry still needs clear delineation of when an issuance triggers securities law.