Nasdaq’s venture capital arm is investing $100 million in Kraken parent Payward, partnering with the crypto firm to launch tokenized equities in 2027 and build a market infrastructure and surveillance technology to support them. 

I kinda get a laugh out of this because Kraken has teased an IPO for what seems to be forever now, and instead of actually following through with the IPO, they are partnering with Nasdaq to launch tokenized stocks lol

The deal expands on a previously announced partnership between Nasdaq and Payward to test Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs). In this new phase, the companies will develop an infrastructure to distribute and trade tokenized stocks, which is the issue of digital representations of publicly traded securities, other assets or form of value on a blockchain network, Nasdaq said Thursday morning.

The partners expect to launch their tokenized equities in the second quarter of 2027. Holders of tokenized assets don’t have outright ownership of the assets themselves.

This, I believe, differs from what Robinhood currently offers because I think Robinhood does grant you ownership. At least from what I understand. It's just that tokenized stockholders can't vote in stock matters like normal, but that seems more like a technology issue than a lack of standing to vote.