European Securities and Markets Authority report: Tokenized stocks may lead to liquidity fragmentation

According to Ledger Insights, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) recently published the "Trends, Risks, and Vulnerabilities Report for the First Half of 2026," in which digital assets and prediction markets occupy three chapters. Regarding crypto assets, the report warns that the increasing ties between cryptocurrencies and the traditional financial sector pose risks. Concerning tokenization, the report points out that issuing different tokenized versions of the same stock may lead to fragmented liquidity.

As for prediction markets, the report believes that prediction markets have not yet seen significant development in Europe. This is because major platforms do not yet hold EU licenses, and in most cases, they need to obtain licenses. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) outlines some potential advantages of tokenization, including increased efficiency, expanded investor access, programmability, and atomic settlement. On the other hand, ESMA also questions how much these advantages are actually realized within these encapsulated structures.

Since the ownership of the underlying stocks is off-chain, there is no single data source on-chain, and self-custody can only be achieved indirectly through these structures. Tokenization structures also introduce additional layers of intermediaries, leading to complexity and risk. The settlement advantages are also difficult to realize. Even if token transfers occur on-chain, the cash portion of the transaction is usually settled separately, whether through bank payments or other channels. This means that for certain transactions, the promised atomic settlement (i.e., simultaneous delivery of securities and cash) has not yet been achieved.