Stabledash Live · · 28 min
tx's Chief Legal and Operating Officer on Who Really Holds Your Tokenized Stock
With 
Ashley Ebersole
Key takeaways
Ebersole says estimates of crypto account holders without traditional brokerage accounts run from 20 to 40 percent, and he names that group as the users tokenized assets serve first.
He says the GENIUS Act was enacted but agencies have not yet issued all proposed rules, so compliance claims today mean a design built around its broad mandates.
tx describes itself as an operating system linking regulated entities and users, with compliance rules programmed into the tokens themselves.
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0:00GENIUS Act remains in implementation without final agency rules1 of 8
Summary
Ashley Ebersole describes tokenized stocks as a way to reach crypto users without brokerage accounts, while the GENIUS Act still waits on agency rules.
Ashley Ebersole, co-founder and Chief Legal and Operating Officer of tx, says estimates go anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of people who hold crypto accounts but have no traditional brokerage account. He presents that group as the opening for tokenized stocks on tx, the Layer-1 blockchain and tokenization marketplace that went live across US and global markets in March 2026.
Who adopts first
Ebersole expects adoption, but says the first users will probably be people who are "natively comfortable" with crypto, and older cohorts will need interfaces that hide the on-chain complexity. He argues that the back end is not unusual: every user who clicks buy in a traditional brokerage account does not necessarily understand how the trade is processed and settled either.
“Make your voice heard because these agencies, SEC, CFTC, and others, you know, want to engage with industry. That's how learning happens. That's how good law is made”
Ashley EbersoleAn operating system, not a broker
tx was formed by merging Sologenic and Coreum into one network and one token. Ebersole says it connects regulated entities worldwide with the user base and on purpose performs no regulated functions itself. Tokens on TX Chain are smart tokens, he says, so restrictions, such as a ban on being held in blacklisted wallets, are enforced at the token level.
He says tx is a platform where users find a regulated entity to transact through, and it will also roll out an API for more traditional institutions. tx is partnered with Kraken, and Ebersole says having the relationship is the important thing for now.
Rules still unwritten
On the GENIUS Act, Ebersole says that a year after enactment, not all agencies have issued proposed rules, let alone final ones. When firms call a system GENIUS compliant, he takes it to mean the system was designed around the law's broad mandates and will probably be acceptable once regulations come out.
He says tokenization is advancing regardless of the Clarity Act, which he says does not do a ton for asset tokenization. He cites new initiatives from DTCC, NASDAQ, major banks and asset managers, and calls a tokenization strategy increasingly a table stakes thing in finance.
Ebersole describes the current SEC and CFTC leadership as technologically savvy and willing to work with the industry, which he calls diametrically different from some past SECs. His advice to builders is to engage with those agencies while rules are being written, because, as he puts it, that is how good law is made.
tx, Kraken, SEC, and CFTC come up most.
- People
- Ashley Ebersole
- Drew Rogers
- Zach Fowler
- Companies
- tx
- Kraken
- SEC
- CFTC
- Charles Schwab
- DTCC
- NASDAQ
- Robinhood
- Coreum
- Sologenic
- 0x Labs
- Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
- Dfns
