Tokenized equities are gaining a new multichain base
Blockchain will become synonymous with FinTech over time, Dinari co-founder says
Base and Adobe stock modified by Blockworks
Dinari is expanding its offering of tokenized equities to the Base chain, complementing existing deployments on Ethereum mainnet, Arbitrum, Blast and Kinto.
In a bid to bridge traditional finance with DeFi, Dinari allows investors worldwide to access the US equities markets through tokenized stocks, known as dShares. These dShares are 1:1 backed by off-chain assets, ensuring they are fully collateralized and compliant with regulatory standards.
Unlike early synthetic equity tokens such as those offered through Mirror Protocol, Dinari’s approach emphasizes security and compliance. The company has invested significantly in automating processes with clearing partners and onchain record-keeping to ensure that each tokenized asset is fully backed by real-world equities, even as the tokens are accessible across multiple blockchains.
The decision to expand to Base chain — the Ethereum optimistic rollup — is part of Dinari’s broader vision to create a globalized marketplace for tokenized assets. Base has historically been cautious about real-world assets, according to Dinari co-founder Gabriel Otte.
Read more from our opinion section: We should be tokenizing assets with substance, not speculation
“For a long time, Base was very reticent in touching anything RWA — because, obviously, they’re Coinbase,” Otte told Blockworks. “I think that really started changing this year.”
Base has started to attract dapp developers interested in finding regulatory compliant paths to tokenization, which reflects a broader industry shift, Otte said.
It also had one of the more successful attempts at using its Coinbase exchange distribution channel to onboard new users, according to Dinari Chief Technology Officer Jake Timothy.
“There are a lot of chains out there but we definitely keep an eye out for people who are focused on closing what I see [as] the last mile of UX, where people can easily click on, fund their wallets, start trading right away and have it be a very seamless experience,” Timothy told Blockworks.
Read more: Coinbase wants to support ‘responsible DeFi development’ through Base
A previous expansion to Blast was not successful, but served as an opportunity to test the waters, Otte said.
“Blast was an example of trying to see…how we market a more stable asset, if you will, to the ultimate degens,” he said.
Blast is all about gamified incentives, and Dinari’s app never took off.
“There’s basically no activity on Blast because we didn’t sign up for all these rewards, the point system and things along those lines,” Otte said, adding, “we learned a lot about who our users are — at least initially — from that experience, and the people who were YOLOing into GameStop ended up doing that on Arbitrum anyway.”
Read more: Blast incentives aim to attract strong devs, as value leaks
Dinari’s infrastructure is designed to facilitate the minting and burning of tokenized stocks across different chains, using an off-chain centralized order book to track assets.
That allows it to be chain agnostic, and Dinari anticipates bringing dAssets to Solana in the near future as well.
“Because we are the issuer, we have mint [and] burn rights on all these fungible tokens,” Timothy explained. “But we will be attempting to settle these as fast as possible.”
Dinari’s product offering is particularly attractive to financial institutions and developers, who can integrate these tokenized stocks into their platforms via APIs. This white-labeled service allows neobanks, local trading platforms and wealth management firms to offer stock trading to their users without the complexities typically associated with blockchain technology.
Dinari’s dShares are available on certain secondary markets via DeFi DEXs such as Jupiter, although access by US users is prohibited. This reflects the company’s cautious approach to navigating the challenging regulatory landscape in the United States.
Dinari is a registered SEC transfer agent and is exploring further agency licenses, such as a FINRA broker-dealer license — even though they don’t technically need it, Otte explained.
“It’s an opportunity to explain what it is that you’re doing and what it is that you hope to do,” Otte said. “The name of the game with regulators is always make sure you don’t harm customers — that’s kind of the number one rule.”
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