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Former NYSE President Stacey Cunningham says companies whose shares may be tokenized need a direct role in how those products are issued and traded. Bullish is building an issuer-focused business around a planned Equiniti acquisition, but the deal awaits regulatory approvals and corporate participation remains uncertain.
Stacey Cunningham, the former New York Stock Exchange president who joined digital asset company Bullish as president this week, says companies whose shares are tokenized need a direct role in deciding how those shares are represented and traded. Her position frames Bullish’s planned expansion into tokenized stocks around its proposed $4.25 billion acquisition of Equiniti, a shareholder-recordkeeping business whose relationships could help connect the platform with corporate issuers.
Cunningham told CoinDesk that some existing products amount to “synthetic tokenization” and leave issuers out of discussions. She said Bullish wants companies to have more control over their shares as tokenization develops. Cunningham led the NYSE from 2018 to 2022 and joined Bullish, CoinDesk’s parent company, as president this week.
Bullish’s proposed acquisition of Equiniti is expected to bring the company relationships with nearly 3,000 corporate issuers and more than 20 million shareholders. Equiniti acts as a transfer agent, maintaining official share-ownership records and processing changes to them. The transaction is expected to close in January 2027, subject to regulatory approvals; it has not yet closed.
Bullish says its platform combines exchange, custody and trading operations with the transfer-agent business it expects to acquire. Cunningham also pointed to an automated market maker and indices as parts of the company’s planned offering. Bullish has identified Solana, Ethereum and Aptos as networks for its tokenization services, allowing issuers to choose among blockchains, according to the report.
Why Issuer Participation Matters
Whether companies participate could affect what tokenized stocks actually represent. Some products give users exposure to a stock’s price without granting the same ownership rights as the underlying shares. Other approaches aim to preserve shareholder rights, making the issuer’s involvement and the way official ownership records are handled central to the product.
Cunningham argues that tokenization could offer companies more visibility into who holds their shares, more direct communication with shareholders and faster settlement or simpler recordkeeping. Those are potential benefits, not guaranteed outcomes: they depend on how a token is structured, how records are maintained and whether companies and market participants adopt the infrastructure.
The issue has practical consequences for the development of tokenized securities. Without cooperation from issuers, a platform may struggle to offer tokens that reflect the rights associated with company shares. Bullish’s strategy is an attempt to build issuer relationships into its model, but the proposed acquisition and its own pilot work do not establish that outside companies will join.
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Bullish Builds Around Transfer Agents
Companies have already pushed back against some efforts to trade their shares on blockchain-based venues. A CoinDesk tally reported that by Nov. 6, 56 of 62 companies initially selected for a planned tokenized-stock venue backed by crypto exchange OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange had objected. The tally does not mean those companies oppose tokenization in general; it illustrates resistance to third-party tokenization of their shares without their involvement.
Bullish has tested an issuer-sponsored approach using its own stock. It tokenized its shares on Solana earlier in 2026 and demonstrated the transfer of 61 million reserved tokenized Bullish shares, administered by Equiniti, at an NYSE event in October, according to the report. The demonstration concerned Bullish’s own shares and does not show whether other public companies will adopt the model.
Transfer agents could have a larger role if tokenized shares are intended to carry the same legal and economic rights as traditional stock. Their records underpin the identification of shareholders and changes in ownership. Cunningham joined Bullish on the view that blockchain may be used in financial-market infrastructure beyond cryptocurrency trading, but the pace and form of that change remain unsettled.
““There’s a lot of synthetic tokenization happening. Issuers are not part of those conversations.””
— Stacey Cunningham, Bullish president and former NYSE president
Adoption and Deal Timing Remain Open
Equiniti’s acquisition by Bullish remains pending and is subject to regulatory approvals. The report gives an expected closing date of January 2027, but does not establish that the transaction will close then or that its expected issuer relationships will lead to tokenized-stock launches.
It is also unclear how many outside companies would choose Bullish’s platform, which token structures they would accept or whether tokenized shares would carry the same legal and economic rights as traditional shares. Cunningham’s statements that tokenization is inevitable and that Bullish has the pieces to build a platform are her views, not independently established outcomes. The objections to the OKX–ICE plan likewise do not establish that the companies involved reject all forms of tokenization.
Regulatory Review and Issuer Decisions
The immediate milestone is regulatory review of the proposed Equiniti acquisition, which Bullish expects to close in January 2027 if approvals are secured. Until then, Equiniti remains a planned addition to Bullish’s business rather than an acquired operation.
After the deal’s status becomes clearer, the key test will be whether corporate issuers choose to work with Bullish and what rights and records its tokenized-share products provide. The report does not give a confirmed timetable for outside issuer launches or details of a wider rollout. Any broader adoption will depend on company participation, regulatory requirements and acceptance of the underlying market infrastructure.
Key Questions
What did Stacey Cunningham say about tokenized stocks?
Cunningham said issuers should be part of decisions about how their shares are tokenized and traded. She criticized models in which tokenized products are developed without the companies whose shares they reference.
What is Bullish’s planned Equiniti acquisition?
Bullish has agreed to a proposed $4.25 billion acquisition of Equiniti, a transfer agent that maintains shareholder records. The deal is expected to close in January 2027, subject to regulatory approvals, and has not yet closed.
No. The report distinguishes products that provide share-price exposure from approaches intended to preserve the rights of shareholders. The rights depend on how a token is structured and how ownership is recorded.
Have other companies agreed to use Bullish’s tokenization platform?
The report does not identify outside companies that have committed to Bullish’s platform. Bullish has tested tokenization with its own shares, but participation by other issuers remains unconfirmed.
Why did companies object to the OKX–ICE tokenized-stock plan?
CoinDesk reported that 56 of 62 companies initially selected for the planned venue had objected by Nov. 6. The tally indicates resistance to third-party tokenization of their shares; it does not establish that they oppose tokenization in every form.
Source: coindesk.com
