Uniswap Founder Hayden Adams: Tokenized Stocks Are Similar to Early Stablecoins
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams stated that tokenized stocks are not inferior when measured by programmability, night and holiday trading, use outside the U.S., no bank account requirements, access to decentralized applications, or inclusion in crypto wallets. When assessing early crypto products' market fit, people often focus solely on risks, overlooking that these demands themselves constitute the fit.
He compared tokenized stocks to early stablecoins: they are not equivalent to the dollar, but meet user needs in ways that existing channels cannot cover. Similarly, early automated market makers had flaws but were still adopted because the old market structure did not serve a large number of users and scenarios.
His more complete argument is detailed in a lengthy article from August: tokenization is not just a faster and cheaper version of the same market, but allows any asset to trade against any other asset. Nvidia can be compared to the S&P 500, and the S&P 500 can be compared to the dollar, which can be broken down into related assets to create a bridge. Robinhood's on-chain pool of ten stocks against the S&P 500 saw approximately $33 million in trades over 12 days, with over 11,000 traders, a significant portion occurring during U.S. market closures; he later stated that on-chain tokenized stock trading has surpassed $1 billion.
The Uniswap protocol has accumulated spot trading volumes exceeding $4.4 trillion to $4.6 trillion. Tokenized securities can be traded on its webpage, wallets, and interfaces for assets like Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia, but are subject to restrictions based on issuer qualifications, know your customer (KYC) regulations, and jurisdiction. On the same day, listed companies like AMC continued to accuse synthetic stock tokens of lacking shareholder rights.
In terms of market mechanisms, buyers are on-chain users seeking 24-hour, composable exposure, while sellers are brokers and issuers that create on-chain inventory to track prices. This is driven by product structure: funds can still change hands after market hours without entering the company shareholder registry. Beneficiaries are protocols and chains that can provide market-making for related assets, while traditional issuers that tie ownership, voting, and refinancing to the same stock are under pressure.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Adams is vying for order flow after tokenization for automated market makers. He does not deny that tokens are not equivalent to underlying stocks; he simply reframes "not equal" into the logic of early stablecoins: first serve those excluded by banks and market hours, then discuss whether to perfectly replicate fiat currency or equity. Uniswap survived on long-tail tokens and stablecoins, and now aims to extend the same curve to stocks against indices.
The capital path shifts market making from broker seats to passive liquidity pools. When related assets move in the same direction, impermanent loss decreases, and ordinary liquidity can provide Nvidia quotes against the S&P 500. Money enters Robinhood's on-chain pool from overseas and unbanked users during market closures, then bridges back to stablecoins via index tokens. The protocol extracts fees, not shareholder registry service fees.
The analogy is not about moving stocks to the chain like the NYSE, but rather stablecoins relative to bank deposits: the settlement layer is unified first, and the rights layer is supplemented later. Traditional market makers like Citadel have already demanded that open-source developers be treated as unregistered brokers. The industry's position is shifting from internal crypto exchanges to competing with listed companies for "corporate name pricing power."
Structural changes represent a transfer of pricing power. Trading hours and counterparties are no longer determined by exchange calendars but by wallets and smart contracts. The mechanism is: when prices can form on non-voting certificates 24 hours a day, the opening of the underlying stock is just one of many price sources; early users seek composability, while issuing companies want registry control, and the two will not automatically overlap.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Early products survive by serving the unserved, not by perfect replication
Exposures that can trade on weekends will first capture demand during market closures
Not equivalent to underlying stocks, but can still become liquidity first