Crypto Exchanges Blur Lines Between Stocks and Tokens
In recent years, investors have faced a choice between traditional brokerage accounts for buying U.S. stocks and crypto exchanges for trading digital assets. However, this divide is starting to disappear in 2026 as several major crypto platforms now offer both direct access to real U.S. equities and separate tokenized versions of those same stocks.
Five prominent crypto exchanges, Bitget, Kraken, Binance, Crypto.com, and Gemini, currently provide both product categories at the platform level, with varying structures, backing, trading pairs, shareholder rights, and geographic availability.
Bitget stands out for combining direct U.S. stock access through its Stock+ feature with a separate 1:1-backed tokenized-stock market. The platform offers more than 10,000 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs alongside 600+ rTokens, including major USDT markets such as rAAPL/USDT, rNVDA/USDT, and rTSLA/USDT.
Other exchanges also offer tokenized equities, but the way they are structured and presented can differ significantly. Some use crypto-style markets like token/USDT or token/USD, while others present tokenized equities through conversion or app-based trading.