Tokenized stocks can swing up to roughly 50% more than the shares they track, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded in chapter three of its October 2026 Global Financial Stability Report. The finding lands as Wall Street institutions and crypto firms race to move US equities onto blockchain rails, a contest that spans Bitcoin (BTC) and other blockchain networks.

The Global Financial Stability Report is the IMF's flagship semiannual assessment of risks to the international financial system, published each April and October. The Washington, D.C.-based institution, whose member countries number around 190, regularly uses the report's analytical chapters to examine fast-moving developments in markets and technology, and chapter three of the October 2026 edition turns to the tokenization of assets, including blockchain-based representations of listed shares. Appearing in the GFSR places the subject in front of the policymakers and market participants who treat the report as a barometer of systemic risk.

Tokenized stocks are digital tokens designed to mirror the price of traditional equities, typically issued and traded on public blockchains. Proponents cite around-the-clock trading, near-instant settlement and fractional ownership as core advantages over conventional exchanges, which operate only during fixed market hours. How reliably those tokens actually track the shares they reference is where the IMF's analysis raises its warning.

The push to bring US equities on-chain has accelerated in recent years. Asset managers, brokers and crypto-native platforms first targeted money market funds and US Treasury products — BlackRock introduced a tokenized money market fund in 2024 — before extending their tokenization efforts toward equities and settlement infrastructure. The sequence traces how the market's focus has moved from cash-equivalent products toward equities and the plumbing needed to settle them.

The IMF's warning arrives at a moment when issuance and trading of tokenized equities are moving closer to the mainstream of US financial markets, giving the Fund's findings direct relevance for the institutions building and trading these products.

This article was first published by COINOTAG on October 12, 2026.