Bybit, the cryptocurrency exchange, now allows users to put up tokenized shares of major US companies as collateral for loans across its trading and lending products. The move covers six stocks: Nvidia, Apple, Tesla, and three other unnamed US firms. Both retail and institutional customers are eligible.
Tokenized shares as collateral
Tokenized shares are digital representations of real company stock, issued on a blockchain. They track the price of the underlying equity and can be traded or transferred like crypto tokens. Bybit is letting users pledge these tokens to secure loans, effectively letting them borrow against their stock holdings without selling them.
The exchange did not disclose the loan-to-value ratios, interest rates, or which specific tokens are accepted beyond the six named companies. The three additional US firms were not identified in the announcement.
Who can use it
Bybit said the service is open to both retail traders and institutional clients. That means individual investors with tokenized stock positions can access liquidity through loans, while larger firms can use the same mechanism for margin trading or other leveraged strategies.
The company did not specify whether the loans are denominated in stablecoins, fiat, or crypto. It also did not say if the tokenized shares are held on Bybit's platform or if users can deposit them from external wallets.
Bybit is one of the larger crypto derivatives exchanges, and adding tokenized equities as collateral broadens the types of assets users can leverage. It also blurs the line between traditional finance and crypto lending. Tokenized stocks have been around for a few years, but their use as collateral in crypto lending is still relatively new.
The move could attract traders who hold both crypto and tokenized stocks and want to borrow against the latter without cashing out. It also gives Bybit a way to compete with other platforms that offer similar services, such as Binance or decentralized lending protocols.
No details were provided on the three other US companies whose tokenized shares are accepted. Bybit did not say whether it plans to add more stocks in the future.
