Nov 10, 2026, 3:15 p.m. EST
4 min read
Summary
- Former NYSE President Stacey Cunningham states that stock tokenization is unavoidable and views Bullish as a key player in migrating traditional securities onto blockchain ledgers.
- Bullish intends to leverage its $4.25 billion purchase of Equiniti to move into tokenized equities, centering on granting businesses greater authority over their own equity.
- Cunningham anticipates tokenization will gain momentum as organizations recognize its advantages, noting that Bullish can progress even absent new federal crypto legislation.
As several major American corporations push back against having their equities traded on fresh blockchain marketplaces, former New York Stock Exchange President Stacey Cunningham identifies a fundamental flaw in the sector’s strategy: Stock issuers are frequently excluded from the dialogue.
Cunningham, who moved to CoinDesk parent and digital asset platform Bullish as president this week, aims to alter that dynamic by providing firms with a direct voice in how their shares are tokenized and exchanged.
“There’s a lot of synthetic tokenization happening. Issuers are not part of those conversations,” she mentioned to CoinDesk during a discussion.
Nevertheless, while tokenization becomes a primary topic on Wall Street, initial corporate resistance exists. By November 6, 56 out of the 62 enterprises initially chosen for an upcoming tokenized-stock platform supported by cryptocurrency exchange OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange had contested the initiative, according to a CoinDesk tally.
These objections, involving firms like Apple, Amazon, and Tesla, do not automatically reflect hostility toward tokenization itself. Instead, they highlight the hurdles involved in establishing a market for tokenized securities without the collaboration of the underlying companies.
Cunningham, who managed the NYSE from 2018 through 2022, is convinced that tokenization will integrate into mainstream financial systems as the logical evolution of conventional markets, regardless of lingering questions regarding the timeline and winning business models.
“It’s no longer a question about whether or not things are going to get tokenized. It’s just a matter of how long it takes for it to happen,” Cunningham remarked.
Bringing stock issuers into the process
Bullish aims to construct an issuer-centered tokenization network by merging its exchange, custody, and trading capabilities with the shareholder registry operations it will acquire via its planned $4.2 billion buyout of Equiniti.
The agreement, slated to finalize in January 2027 pending regulatory clearances, will integrate Equiniti’s connections with nearly 3,000 corporate issuers and upwards of 20 million shareholders into Bullish’s portfolio.
Transfer agents oversee official equity ownership registries and process modifications to those registries. Their function could grow increasingly critical should corporations wish to issue tokenized equities bearing identical legal and financial privileges as standard stock.
“I think the interesting thing about Bullish is we really have all the puzzle pieces, because we have an exchange, the transfer agent coming, the custodian, an AMM, their indices,” Cunningham observed.
An automated market maker, or AMM, is software that streamlines trading through asset pools rather than a conventional exchange order book.
From Cunningham’s perspective, this transaction can assist Bullish in forging connections with firms prior to equity tokenization, steering clear of digital products tied to equities without issuer involvement.
Distinct variations separate these methodologies.
Certain tokenized equity offerings grant exposure to share pricing without conferring the exact ownership privileges tied to the underlying stock. Alternative frameworks, such as the proposed OKX–ICE exchange, seek to preserve shareholder rights while permitting businesses to contest third-party tokenization of their equities.
Bullish has already commenced testing its issuer-backed framework utilizing its proprietary stock. The enterprise tokenized its shares on Solana earlier this year and, during October, showcased the movement of 61 million reserved tokenized Bullish shares managed by Equiniti during an event at the NYSE.
The firm has additionally pinpointed Solana, Ethereum, and Aptos as blockchain networks for its tokenization offerings, providing issuers multiple protocol options.
While those milestones showcase the technology’s application with Bullish’s own equities, winning over external corporate issuers presents a distinct hurdle.
What companies stand to gain
Cunningham argues that organizations demand a clearer motivation for participation than simply granting round-the-clock trading access for their stocks.
One prospective upside involves enhanced visibility into equity distribution. Blockchain-backed registries could empower enterprises to identify and communicate with investors more directly, while accelerated settlement and streamlined recordkeeping might alleviate administrative burdens inherent to traditional securities markets.
Such benefits, however, are not guaranteed. They rely heavily on how tokenized equities are structured, how ownership logs are kept, and whether prevailing market players embrace the underlying technology.
Cunningham noted she joined Bullish because she is convinced blockchain innovation is expanding past cryptocurrency speculation and into the architecture supporting traditional financial systems.
“There would be pieces of the technology that would replace financial market infrastructure, and that’s what we’re seeing happen now,” she stated.
This transformation is unlikely to unfold overnight, however.
Widespread pushback against the OKX–ICE marketplace underscores the complexity of convincing public corporations to engage in ecosystems that might alter share trading mechanisms and investor relations.
Cunningham likewise perceives an opening to advance Bullish’s roadmap independently of comprehensive U.S. cryptocurrency legislation from Congress. Addressing whether stalled regulations like the CLARITY Act presented an obstacle, she emphasized that current regulations still accommodate opportunities for building novel market architecture.
“There are a lot of things we can do to build and provide solutions even without Clarity, and so I’m not worried about that at all.”
For Bullish, the immediate objective is transforming its technical architecture, trading systems, and prospective transfer agent acquisition into a compelling service that enterprises genuinely want to utilize.
Cunningham maintains that issuer engagement will follow organically once businesses witness the specific advantages tokenized shares can provide.
“Once issuers see the value that tokenization delivers to them, I’m confident we’ll see fast adoption,” she concluded.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/11/10/former-nyse-president-says-stock-issuers-hold-the-key-to-tokenization-as-bullish-builds-its-platform.
