Tokenized Stocks Risk Repeating 1960s Paper Crisis

The tokenized stock market is on the cusp of repeating the 1960s paper crisis, warns Joris Delanoue, CEO and co-founder of Fairmint. In that era, the New York Stock Exchange's back-office infrastructure collapsed under the weight of increased trading volumes.

Delanoue argues that today's private equity markets suffer from fragmentation, illiquidity, and a reliance on centralized intermediaries that weren't designed for digital transactions. Tokenization may become a cosmetic upgrade rather than a structural one if issuers don't overhaul their systems.

Fairmint is building an onchain-native SEC-registered transfer agent, which handles record-keeping natively on a blockchain. Its core product, the Open Cap Table Protocol (OCP), has administered over $1.6 billion in equity value across 180 issuers and funds on the Canton Network.

The company's bet is that native onchain solutions will outperform hybrid models that bolt blockchain onto traditional systems. Delanoue recently became General Director of the Canton Foundation, joining leadership ranks with institutions like DTCC and HSBC.