tZERO Group, which provides blockchain-powered multi-asset infrastructure, expects increased institutional demand for its ‘tokenization in a box’ offering due to the significant amount of political, regulatory and industry tailwinds over last 12 months.

The firm aims to be the connective tissue bridging market participants, asset types and geographies in tokenization and traditional finance. Since December 2025 tZERO’s broker-dealer subsidiary has received regulatory approval to distribute mutual funds, including tokenized mutual funds; enhanced trading on its alternative trading system (ATS) to move towards a connected, multi-asset platform that bridges traditional finance and Web3; enabled custody and settlement for its ATS via self-hosted wallets and the firm received approval to support cryptocurrencies on its digital asset securities brokerage platform.

Alan Konevsky, chief executive of tZERO, told Markets Media that the overall thesis behind the firm’s infrastructure-as-a-service strategy is that many broker dealers, registered investment advisors (RIAs) and other regulated intermediaries who want to explore tokenized assets do not have the ability to build the necessary technology stack. In addition, tZERO’s infrastructure is useful to crypto-native firms looking to diversity into other asset classes  and for launching prediction markets.

“Their return on investment on getting the necessary licenses, bringing on talent and building out operations is currently not there,” he added. “We can be a better partner.”

A goal for 2026 is for tZERO to monetize the infrastructure it has developed to offer “tokenization in a box” to institutions who want multi-asset exposure. For example, Konevsky said he is having conversations with a “very significant” non-U.S. broker dealer that is looking into tokenization.

In December last year Uphold, an infrastructure provider for onchain finance, made a regulatory application to offer tokenized securities to U.S. customers. Uphold said in a statement that it had chosen tZERO to provide trading, clearing and custody of tokenized securities for Uphold customers within its app.

Simon McLoughlin, chief executive of Uphold, said in a statement: “Tokenized securities and real world assets (RWA’s) represent the next frontier for the integration of blockchain technology into traditional finance – building on the strengths and utility of conventional services while adding new features and extending access to more people.”

Security Token Group said in its What’s Drippin’ newsletter that Integrations like these put the plumbing in place to feed more liquidity to tokenized private market assets and vice versa to make those assets available to larger audiences.

Mutual funds

On 2 December 2025, tZERO said its broker-dealer subsidiary received approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the U.S. regulator, to offer a broader range of investment products to retail investors. tZERO Securities can now integrate tokenized mutual fund products into its retail platform.

“It is a simple product to understand, which is important to demonstrate the benefit of tokenization rails converging with traditional finance in a multi-asset environment,” added Konevsky. “From that perspective, having a deeper footprint where we can act as a retailer for a range of fund products, including mutual funds, is important.”

He believes there is untapped demand from registered investment advisors (RIAs) interested in simple to understand yield-bearing products as they test and learn the benefits of tokenized securities, and they will partner with firms who can provide access.

“Not many RIAs are able to build out their own tokenization infrastructure and we can be a partner,” he said.

24/7 order entry

Since 15 December 2025 tZERO’s SEC-regulated alternative trading system (ATS) has supported 24/7 order entry and 23.5 hours of trading from 12:05am to 11:35pm ET, Monday through Friday, excluding market holidays. The ATS is operated by tZERO’s broker-dealer subsidiary, tZERO Securities.

tZERO’s said the enhancement is an important step forward in its long-term global convergence strategy, which envisions a unified and interoperable smart contract-driven infrastructure providing seamless, 24/7 cross-border and cross-asset access to tokenized and traditional assets.

Activity outside day time trading hours is still developing, according to Konevsky, but he said this initiative has been “particularly well received.” He added: “If you think about the interoperability of asset classes and the benefits of tokenization, unlocking liquidity 24/7 is the right answer.”

On 21 January 2026, Streamex, a tokenization technology and infrastructure company, said in a statement that it had chosen the tZERO ATS to support secondary trading of GLDY, a soon-to-be-launched, gold-linked tokenized security.

This announcement is about Streamex working with tZERO to enable secondary trading of GLDY on tZERO’s regulated ATS. In simple terms, it means investors will be able to trade the tokenized gold product after issuance, not just buy it and hold it.

That matters because secondary… https://t.co/sDL0zq5GvN

— Nicki Sanders (@nickisanders) January 21, 2026

Nicki Sanders, advisory board at UtahBlockchainCoalition, said on X: “That matters because secondary trading is what turns tokenization into a real market. It allows liquidity to form, prices to update based on demand, and investors to enter and exit positions with confidence.

What’s especially interesting here is how this is being done. Instead of trying to bypass regulation, the asset is being integrated directly into existing market structure. That’s the kind of quiet infrastructure progress that actually moves tokenization forward.

This is a good example of tokenized assets starting to behave like real financial instruments, not just digital wrappers.”

National U.S exchanges are also becoming more friendly to tokenization. In September 2025, Nasdaq filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow securities to be traded on its markets in either traditional or tokenized form. The filing enables trading of tokenized securities under existing regulatory frameworks, using the Depository Trust Corporation (DTC) to clear and settle trades in token form. Both the traditional and tokenized shares would have the same value, the same rights and benefits, and the same market identification number.

ICE said in a statement on 19 January 2026 that the New York Stock Exchange is developing a platform for trading and for onchain settlement of tokenized securities, subject to regulatory approvals. NYSE’s new digital platform will include 24/7 operations, instant settlement, orders sized in dollar amounts, stablecoin-based funding and support multiple chains for settlement and custody.

Konevsky argued there is a secular trend of convergence between tokenized and conventional rails and that assets will eventually be interoperable.

“At the end of the day, it’s like having jelly beans,” he said. “They may be different colors, but they are all jelly beans.”

He also expects that eventually there will be technology-enabled ecosystem to trade tokenized securities between wallets using automated market makers and other technology-enabled liquidity venues, dependent on political and regulatory decision making.

Self-hosted wallets

Since 30 December 2025 the tZERO ATS can facilitate the trading of crypto asset securities that are directly custodied onchain by customers in their own self-hosted wallets, and these transactions are settled directly by customers onchain. tZERO said it is one of only two broker-dealers can custody securities directly onchain. The firm will also continue to offer omnibus or individual wallet custody for investors who prefer broker-dealer custody, enabling seamless movement between traditional finance  and the decentralized ecosystem, which unlocks liquidity.

“These services will be available to our institutional API partners who elect to use tZERO’s leading infrastructure versus building their own, which is an operational lift for many even in a more permissive regulatory climate,” said Konevsky.  “tZERO is opening up new pathways to decentralized finance (DeFi) connectivity and interoperability for the marketplace.”

Going public

tZERO said in a statement last October that it plans to pursue an initial public offering, subject to regulatory approvals and market conditions. Konevsky views tokenizing liquid assets, such as equities, as a priority.

He said: “It is important for us to eat our own cooking, as we have done with our private asset tokenization.”

In March 2025 tZERO said the full tokenization of its Series-A Preferred Equity Security (TZROP) was complete. TZROP became the first digital asset security to be custodied by tZERO’s special purpose broker-dealer, tZERO Digital Asset Securities.