Carlos Domingo, CEO of Securitize Inc., speaks at the Messari Mainnet Summit on Thursday, September 21, 2023 in New York, USA. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Securitize, the “real world assets” platform behind BlackRock’s tokenized money market funds, will go public through a merger with a special acquisition vehicle, CEO Carlos Domingo told CNBC in an exclusive interview.
The fintech company will merge with Cantor Equity Partners II, a blank check company sponsored by an affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald and trading under the ticker CEPT. The transaction values Securitize’s business at $1.25 billion in pre-money capital.
“Tokenization is something everyone is talking about… but no public company is doing it,” Domingo told CNBC. “In the same way that people buy Circle because they want to index stablecoins, we will do well in the public markets because people want to index themselves into tokenization.”
Tokenization refers to registering ownership of real-world assets such as stocks, bonds, and gold on a blockchain. Proponents of the process say it is more transparent than traditional methods and allows for 24-hour trading. Its supporters include Robinhood Markets CEO Vlad Tenev and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
Following the merger, the shares of the combined entity, Securitize Corporation, will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol SECZ. Domingo said the stock could begin trading as early as January.
The company expects to record gross proceeds of $465 million from this transaction. This includes $225 million from private investors such as Borderless Capital and Hanwha Investment and $240 million from the SPAC’s trust account, assuming no redemptions.
RWA tokenization begins
The deal comes amid a boom in tokenized RWA. According to data provider RWA.xyz, the market value of tokenized U.S. Treasuries was approximately $8.6 billion at the time of writing, an increase of more than 200% over the past year.
According to data, the overall RWA tokenization market has expanded by 135% in the past year and is currently worth $35 billion. Citi analysts see significant growth in the tokenized RWA market, saying it could grow to around $4 trillion by 2030.
This puts SecurityTise, which Domingo says has been profitable in recent quarters, into the fray of companies looking to capitalize on growing demand for digital assets. Earlier this year, Circle went public on the New York Stock Exchange, raising about $1.1 billion in a blockbuster IPO. cryptocurrency exchange gemini and strong It was also listed in early 2025.
Domingo added that as the digital asset space continues to grow and mature, tapping into public markets will create winners and losers.
“The crypto industry needs to consolidate,” he said. “If you are publicly traded and have access to the equity capital markets as well as cash, you can stand to be consolidated and not be consolidated by someone else.”
“Better ledger”
Founded in 2017, Securitize has facilitated the first foray into tokenized funds for several large financial companies.
In March 2024, BlackRock partnered with Securitize to launch the USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing accredited investors to digitally hold US Treasuries and earn yield. The company has also tokenized more than $4 billion in assets through partnerships with tokenization funds with Apollo, Hamilton Lane, KKR, and VanEck.
According to RWA.xyz, Securitize is the largest tokenization platform, controlling 20% of the RWA tokenization market.
The company also plans to digitize its stock, a move aimed at demonstrating how a public company’s processes and transactions can be moved on-chain, Domingo told CNBC. This executive sees a future where everything is brought on-chain.
“There is $400 trillion in assets that could be tokenized,” Domingo said. “This is an upgrade… within the next five to 10 years, everything will be on-chain because it’s just a better ledger.”
