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Cryptoprowl / Securitize and Computershare have reached an agreement to support U.S.-listed companies in issuing equity securities in tokenized form, creating a new pathway for public issuers that want to bring shares on-chain while staying aligned with existing market infrastructure. The companies said the model will let issuers include Issuer-Sponsored Tokens, or ISTs, as part of their issued capital alongside traditional shares and holdings in the Direct Registration System.

The agreement puts tokenized equities closer to the plumbing of public markets rather than leaving them as a separate wrapper around existing shares. Under the structure, participating issuers would be able to offer tokenized equity ownership without relying on derivative-style tokens that sit on top of underlying stock. Shareholders would also get another way to hold securities, while issuers keep direct control over their capital structure and communication with investors.

Computershare will act as transfer agent for its clients' ISTs and process corporate actions for tokenized holdings alongside other directly registered shares. That places the model closer to the shareholder-record and corporate-action layer of public markets, where tokenization has to work cleanly before it can move beyond a trading-side experiment.

Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, said the partnership is meant to give listed U.S. companies a way to tokenize shares while keeping direct equity ownership intact in token form. Ann Bowering, CEO of Issuer Services at Computershare North America, said ISTs were designed to work inside the current regulatory environment while preserving the oversight expected from a transfer agent.

Tokenized shares have often been discussed as a trading innovation. This structure pulls the idea closer to issuer records, shareholder services and the back-office systems public companies already rely on.

Securitize, which has announced a proposed business combination with Cantor Equity Partners II, Inc. (NASDAQ: $CEPT ) is currently trading at $11.22 U.S. per share.