Securitize Is Going Public at $1.25 Billion: What the First Nasdaq-Listed Tokenisation Company Means for the Sector
- Shawn Jhanji
- May 22
- 3 min read
For a sector that has spent years justifying its infrastructure ambitions to sceptical capital markets, Securitize's announcement this week that it will list on Nasdaq at a $1.25 billion valuation is more than a corporate milestone. It is the first time a company built entirely around tokenised securities infrastructure will be subject to the scrutiny, discipline and visibility that a public listing demands. For UK founders, investors and platforms watching how institutional capital flows into this space, the implications extend well beyond Wall Street.
The deal sees Securitize merge with Cantor Equity Partners II, a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald and currently listed on Nasdaq under the ticker CEPT. The combined entity will trade as Securitize Corp under the ticker SECZ, with gross proceeds of approximately $465 million if no redemptions occur. That figure includes $240 million from the SPAC trust and $225 million in private investment from Borderless Capital and Hanwha Investment, among others.
Existing investors are rolling 100% of their stakes into the combined company. The list of those investors should concentrate attention: ARK Invest, BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Tradeweb Markets. These are not speculative positions. They are strategic bets from institutions that have already built tokenised product infrastructure in partnership with Securitize, and who have every incentive to see the platform succeed at scale.
Record performance underlines the timing
The listing announcement came alongside Securitize's Q1 2026 earnings, which showed total revenue of $19.5 million, up 39% year on year. That headline figure is driven by a 201% jump in asset-servicing fees, reflecting explosive institutional demand for tokenised real-world assets. BlackRock's BUIDL fund and the wider RWA ecosystem are doing the work.
The company remains unprofitable, with a net loss of $7.9 million in the quarter.
Management has framed this clearly as a deliberate choice: spending is being brought forward ahead of the listing, and the capital raised through the SPAC deal will fund expansion into a broader universe of tokenised securities. The next stage of growth is focused on equities tokenisation, beyond the current strength in debt and fund structures.
During Q1, Securitize secured a notable new partnership with the New York Stock Exchange to support tokenised securities markets, and expanded liquidity options for BlackRock's BUIDL through Uniswap. Tokenised assets under management on the platform stand at $3.4 billion.
Tokenising its own equity
One detail in the listing announcement is worth setting apart. Securitize has confirmed it intends to tokenise its own equity as part of the transaction. That would make it the first publicly listed company to offer a tokenised version of its own shares alongside the traditional exchange-listed stock. The logic is demonstrative: if the infrastructure works, use it.
For institutional observers who have watched the sector produce proof-of-concept after proof-of-concept without committing capital to the underlying rails, this is a concrete stress test. Tokenising equity that has a real-time public market price, real shareholders and real regulatory obligations is a different proposition from tokenising a private fund structure or a bond.
What this means for UK platforms and investors
Securitize's path to public markets is a US story, but its consequences are global. A publicly listed tokenisation infrastructure company creates a reference price, a disclosure regime and a performance benchmark against which the entire sector will now be measured. UK platforms, investors and regulators will be watching how institutional capital responds to the level of public transparency that a Nasdaq listing imposes.
It also raises questions about the UK's own ambitions. PISCES, the FCA's private intermittent securities and capital exchange system, is moving toward a live pilot. Archax, the UK's FCA-regulated digital securities exchange, has expanded both its product range and its geographic footprint. Whether any of these develop into publicly listed entities of comparable scale remains to be seen. But Securitize's move sets a clear direction for how the infrastructure layer of this industry ultimately gets capitalised.
Key Takeaways
Securitize will merge with Cantor Equity Partners II and list on Nasdaq as SECZ at a $1.25 billion pre-money valuation, becoming the first publicly traded tokenisation infrastructure company
Q1 2026 revenue of $19.5 million, up 39% year on year, driven by 201% growth in asset-servicing fees
Investors including BlackRock, ARK Invest and Hamilton Lane are rolling 100% of their existing stakes into the combined company
Securitize plans to tokenise its own equity as part of the transaction, the first publicly listed company to do so
The listing creates a global benchmark for how tokenisation infrastructure companies are valued and scrutinised
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