Securitize Public Listing
Level 3 - Virgin DeFi Analyst
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Earlier this year we covered that tokenization platform Securitize was going public through a SPAC transaction. The SPAC merger closed on July 1, 2026 and Securitize began trading on the NYSE under the ticker SECZ on July 2nd. While we’re sure the ticker was meant to sound out as “sexy”, its trading performance has been anything but. The stock is down 26% today and 35% from the debut close.
Here’s why we’re still taking a look at it and sharing it with you.
a) It’s the cleanest proxy we have right now in public equity markets for a trade around RWA tokenization
b) Despite this lackluster performance we like to stay on top of crypto public companies for what they often reveal about future opportunities both onchain and in equities.
The company expects ~$400 million of gross proceeds from the transactions with 71.5% of CEPT’s trust retained. The crux of the issue is that the growth story presented in the deal deck and the growth rate visible in the most recent audited quarter are two very different numbers.
The Business
Securitize is the transfer agent and tokenization platform behind BlackRock’s BUIDL, plus Apollo, KKR, Hamilton Lane, VanEck, and a fund administration arm servicing ~$25 billion.
It was founded in 2017 by Carlos Domingo (ex-Telefónica executive) and Jamie Finn (who left in December 2024) and it is headquartered in Miami.
Securitize operates an end-to-end platform for issuing, managing, and trading tokenized securities. It is the regulatory friendly play in RWAs which likely made it an interesting candidate for going public.
It owns a SEC registered transfer agent which is an entity gives it more compliance credibility. It also owns a registered broker-dealer and an alternative trading system (“ATS”) for compliant distribution and trading. There’s also the tokenization platform which handles issuance, KYC, investor onboarding, wallet management, etc.
Its revenue model is a mix of recurring Saas-like fees (transfer agent fees, per-issuer tokenization fees, one-time blockchain integration fees plus recurring maintenance), AUM driven fees on tokenized funds, fund administration fees and transaction revenue. Despite management’s recurring/contracted framing on its revenue the reality is that a meaningful chunk of the economics is driven by AUM and therefore levered to crypto market conditions and a handful of anchor funds.
BlackRock is the key anchor relationship since Securitize is the platform and transfer agent for BUIDL, the largest tokenized treasury fund. BlackRock also led a $47 million strategic investment into Securitize in May 2024 and sits on the cap table.
The Deal Structure
Normally we move past deal structures quickly but it’s more important in this case than the usual.
Organizational: CEPT (a Cayman blank-check company sponsored by an affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald, chaired by Brandon Lutnick) merged into a new holding company, Securitize Holdings, Inc., in a double-merger closing July 1, 2026. Trading began July 2 under SECZ. Deal announced October 28, 2025. SEC declared the registration effective June 5, 2026 and shareholder vote June 29.
Money: 225 million PIPE at $10.00/share (22.5 million shares), described as oversubscribed & placed by Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and Citi. The SPAC trust held ~$248.8 million, fewer than 30% of public shares redeemed, so roughly $400 million of gross proceeds came in versus the ~$469 million max with no redemptions.
Ownership: legacy Securitize holders ~69.2% (~$1.18 billion of stock at $10.00 between common and preferred), PIPE investors ~13%, SPAC public shareholders ~14%, sponsor ~3.8%.
Sponsor economics
The sponsor paid $25,000 for 6 million founder shares (~$0.004/share) plus $5.8 million for private placement shares. The aggregate consideration to the sponsor and its affiliates at closing total $99 million and include: founder shares at $10 + Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.’s fees ($8.4 million marketing fee, ~$4.3 million PIPE placement fee, up to $18.75 million M&A advisory fee equal to 1.5% of Securitize’s equity value). The filing says outright that the sponsor “could earn a positive rate of return on its investment even if Public Shareholders experience a negative rate of return.”
Securitize insiders signed lockups. The sponsor’s lockup is 180 days with early release of one-third tranches if VWAP exceeds $12.50, $15.00, and $17.50 for 20 of 30 trading days starting 90 days after closing.
There are 6.25 million Securitize earnout shares tied to share price targets, up to 30% of sponsor shares subject to a separate earnout, ~10 million assumed options (many at very low strikes), a new incentive plan reserving 10% of shares outstanding, and a resale S-1 coming to register insider stock. By now you should all be familiar with the low float high future supply maneuver. Crypto markets prepare you for the worst!
Key Financial Highlights
The basic story here is that financial performance was substantially weaker than the story presented in the marketing materials.
1) Revenue growth was +39% YoY but tokenization revenue was $11.1 million versus $11.3 million a year earlier which is basically flat. The core tokenization business (the driver of the entire thesis) did not grow at all YoY in the most recent reported quarter.
Growth came almost entirely from asset servicing, which is substantially the acquired fund admin business plus BUIDL/ACRED servicing integrations. Not the end of the world but the market pays a much lower multiple for fund administration compared to high growth tech.
The main benefit of how Securitize is growing right now is that in the future it would have a natural path to upsell its tokenization products given its existing foothold with institutions.
2) Profitability took a beating going into the listing. Adj. EBITDA fell from $4.1 million to $0.8 million YoY in Q1 2026. Operating cash outflow more than doubled to $9.1 million. The company printed a ~4% EBITDA margin in the latest quarter.
3) AUM is concentrated in a handful of funds plus tethered to crypto market performance. Tokenized AUM of $3.4 billion of which the majority is BUIDL. Other funds include Apollo’s ACRED, VanEck and Hamilton Lane which are much smaller than BlackRock’s BUIDL.
While we doubt BlackRock will simply drop Securitize any time soon, it could find that it is better off building its own proprietary software in house one day. Current demand for tokenized cash funds is also driven by high global interest rates. If rates drift lower the yield on these funds drops and institutional capital may lose interest. Even if they can diversify into yield products with higher yields, there’s little evidence today that this will convert into public company scale. Public float and overhang with lockups earnouts and typical SPAC dynamics are going to remain problematic. The company would have to show a much stronger tokenization pipeline to revive the growth story.
What we want to see
For us to get more constructive Securitize has to prove that this is not just the first company to get institutional involvement in a hot category. The economics are not yet good enough for us to justify it as an investment even if it is the only real RWA public equity proxy we have today. They have the hard job of proving if the category as a whole can produce economics that fit a public company.
We would also like to greater expansion of other yield products like ACRED. Products other than BUIDL have to scale for Securitize to truly validate its model beyond what is seemingly a single successful program with BlackRock.
It’s 2026. Crypto has evolved beyond simply being associated with “big brands” in finance. We need to see real growth and development that is competitive with non-crypto companies to gain confidence.
As the post-SPAC overhang clears up and SECZ produces a few more quarters of public reporting we’ll revisit this for paid readers if the public filings start showing a real investment case.
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Until next time..
Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. These are opinions from an anonymous group of cartoon animals with Wall Street and Software backgrounds.
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