Nasdaq is prioritizing tokenization that brings securities onto blockchain rails while maintaining direct ownership of the underlying assets, and the exchange operator's chief executive has cautioned against tokenized structures that push stock trading outside established market systems. With tokenized US equities moving from concept toward scheduled product launches, the choice among competing structures — and the trade-offs each carries for transparency and ownership — is becoming a practical question for issuers and investors alike.

Speaking in a recent interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box", Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman identified three approaches to tokenization: issuing and trading tokenized shares through established market infrastructure; moving share trading outside that system under regulatory exemptions; and issuing stock-backed derivatives.

Friedman said Nasdaq is focused on the first model as it develops an end-to-end approach to tokenized equities.

"We are very focused on driving tokenization through the core of markets," she said. "When an investor is buying a company stock, whether it's in traditional form or it's in tokenized form, it's the same thing. They're buying, they actually own the stock. They own the company."

Friedman likewise raised concerns that stock-backed tokens and trading conducted outside established market systems could weaken price discovery, fragment liquidity across venues, and limit companies' visibility into trading activity in their own shares. Quotes and transactions executed beyond the core market framework, she argued, are not readily observable, reducing the transparency that supports reliable pricing.

She also drew a distinction between tokenized shares and derivatives, which do not necessarily confer direct ownership of a company — a difference that determines whether a buyer holds the security itself or a separate instrument tied to it.

"There's no visibility into the trading with quotes or trades. And it's nothing's trackable, all the services that you provide. That's kind of sitting outside the market environment that's been created for all US investors and issuers for that matter," she explained.

"You want to have price discovery. You want this to be centralized liquidity," she added.

More broadly, Nasdaq views blockchain technology as a potential way to improve capital flows across a range of securities, including stocks, Treasuries, and money-market instruments, while maintaining the transparency and ownership rights that underpin traditional markets.

The company is pursuing tokenized equities through a partnership with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, announced in March. The two firms are developing an "equities transformation gateway" based on Payward's xStocks framework, and Nasdaq subsequently agreed to invest $100 million in Payward.

Nasdaq Equity Tokens, the company's tokenized equities offering, are scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2027 — the point at which Nasdaq's ownership-preserving approach is set to move from development into production.

Other platforms are moving ahead with tokenized securities in the meantime. OKXICE, the joint venture between exchange operator ICE and crypto exchange OKX, filed earlier this month to list 63 tokenized US stocks on X Layer, though it later disclosed issuer objections from nine companies — a sign that tokenized listings can draw resistance from the very companies whose shares they wrap, even as launches proceed.