Citrini Names Securitize, Circle and Aave as Tokenization Winners

Citrini Research published a 79-page report on Thursday, Oct. 8, titled Breaking the Wall, and its argument is narrower than the tokenization headline it sits under. The firm says the biggest winners from moving stocks, bonds and other financial assets onto blockchains may be the companies and crypto protocols collecting fees from that activity, not bitcoin or ether.

The report does not treat a tokenization-driven rally in the two majors as a given. "We can't assume that majors, primarily BTC and ETH, will make new ATHs on this," it said, referring to all-time highs. "Even if they do, there are better expressions."

The alternative is two baskets, one of publicly traded stocks and one of crypto tokens. Citrini said it was "actually more excited" about the token list, arguing it offers broader exposure than the limited universe of listed companies.

The Stock Basket Names Securitize, Circle and Coinbase

Seven listed names carry the stock basket, each tied to a specific piece of the tokenization stack rather than to digital assets generally.

• Securitize (SECZ), described as maintaining the legal link between blockchain tokens and the securities they represent.
• Coinbase (COIN) and Robinhood (HOOD), for exposure through their trading platforms and blockchain infrastructure.
• Circle (CRCL), through greater demand for its USDC stablecoin to settle transactions.
• Figure Technology Solutions (FIGR) for tokenized lending, SoFi (SOFI) for stablecoin payments and Bullish (BLSH), the institutionally focused digital asset exchange operator.
• Hyperliquid exposure by way of the Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP), not through the token itself.

The Token Basket Is the Wider Bet

Citrini's reasoning for the token side is that the products built on tokenized assets follow the assets themselves onto blockchains.

If we're right that stocks, commodities and other financial assets are moving onchain, then eventually all of the financial products built around those assets should follow them.

Nine names appear in the basket, most of them protocols with an existing fee line attached to trading, lending or settlement.

• Aerodrome (AERO), a trading platform that could collect fees from tokenized stock transactions.
• Maple (SYRUP), which manages blockchain-based lending products for institutional investors.
• Pendle (PENDLE), which lets investors trade future income from interest-bearing assets.
• Ondo Finance (ONDO), for tokenized US Treasury and stock products and, more recently, perpetual futures.
• Aave (AAVE) for lending infrastructure, Uniswap (UNI) as a decentralized trading marketplace, and Ethena (ENA), which issues stablecoins and recently expanded into high-yield savings, cards and payments.
• ether.fi (ETHFI) for crypto-based financial services, Chainlink (LINK) for market data and LayerZero (ZRO) for connecting blockchains.
• Derive (DRV), a decentralized options trading protocol that could benefit if tokenized stocks and other assets bring more derivatives trading onchain.
• Lighter (LIT) and Variational (VAR), perpetual futures venues named as challengers that may gain traction alongside Hyperliquid as the perps market grows.

What the Report Asks Investors to Check

The report's own caution cuts against the easy version of the trade. Growing trading volumes and network activity do not always translate into higher token prices, it said. Investors need to look at how a protocol makes money, who collects the fees and whether token holders get a share of that.

That test separates the names in the basket from each other. A venue that routes tokenized stock trades and keeps the fee is a different proposition from a token attached to a network that only carries the activity.

The Risks, and What the Record Does Not Settle

Citrini flagged three risks: liquidity spread across competing blockchains, security risks that could slow adoption, and legal hurdles around synthetic tokenized stocks, which offer exposure to share prices without the voting rights or direct ownership of traditional shares.

The firm's wider case leans on activity it describes on its own page. It says tokenized equities have become composable outside the issuer venue, with Robinhood Chain first opening the floodgates with "Stock Tokens", and that the Bloomberg Terminal now lists Hyperliquid perps and tokens under WSL HYPE <GO>. It also says Hyperliquid was one of the only liquid venues where traders could price crude oil during a weekend of escalation in the Iran conflict in March.

Three items in that case are Citrini's claims, not confirmed regulatory facts. The report's public page states that two days after the CLARITY Act fell short in the Senate, the SEC issued an innovation exemption for tokenized stock trading, and that Coinbase's proposed US stock perps product is listed by the CFTC as "approval pending". Neither was checked against the underlying documents. The claim that Solana temporarily processed more trades than the NYSE in September is also Citrini's and was not checked against exchange or network data.

The basket weights are the largest gap. Citrini's post is paywalled after the introduction, and the 15-name weight table circulating in secondary reports was not confirmed on the firm's own page. Only the names above are supported. Anyone sizing these positions from a percentage list should treat those figures as unverified until the report itself or Citrini publishes them.