SharpLink Gaming (SBET), the Ethereum treasury firm led by Joseph Lubin, unveiled plans on Thursday to tokenize its equity on the Ethereum blockchain as the stock tokenization trend is gaining steam. The Minnesota-based firm said it has tapped tokenization specialist Superstate as its digital transfer agent, while its equity token will be natively issued through Superstate’s Opening Bell platform, a system designed to issue SEC-registered shares directly on blockchain rails. The move comes as tokenization of financial instruments such as equity is gaining momentum across crypto markets. A slew of tokenized equity offerings debuted in the past few months predominantly for investors outside the U.S., including by Robinhood, Gemini with Dinari, Ondo Finance's Global Markets and xStocks by Kraken and Backed Finance. However, some products drew concerns such as limited shareholder rights and fragmented regulation. SharpLink's tokenized stock will be legally identical to traditional equity, while it can be stored in digital wallets and integrated with on-chain protocols, the press release said. Beyond issuance, SharpLink and Superstate also plan to explore how such shares could eventually trade on decentralized exchanges and automated market makers (AMMs). That step, if approved, would test how tokenized securities can circulate in markets built around smart contracts while remaining compliant with U.S. securities rules. SharpLink's initiative follows digital asset investment firm Galaxy's (GLXY) similar effort to tokenize its Class A common shares on Solana (SOL) with Opening Bell. SBET is lower by 7% in early trading Thursday alongside a steep slide in the price of ETH to below $4,000.
