The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) has published research finding that traditional equity markets remain the main source of price discovery for tokenised equities issued by third parties, despite tokens trading around the clock. The study examines 61 matched pairs of tokens and underlying securities from July 2025 to May 2026, the first 11 months of the tokenised equity market. Its findings indicate that tokenisation extended access to prices formed on established exchanges rather than shifting where those prices were determined during the period studied. Around 80% of the pairs showed cointegration, with a long-run price relationship almost exactly one-for-one. When prices diverged, the token generally made most of the adjustment back toward the underlying equity price. For the median pair, the underlying equity accounted for more than 80% of the permanent component of the common price. Under the Hasbrouck information-share measure, tokens did not lead price discovery in any of the pairs analysed.
World Federation of Exchanges finds underlying equity markets dominate price discovery for equity tokens issued by third parties
World Federation of Exchanges research covering 61 matched token and underlying equity pairs found that traditional exchanges remained the dominant source of price discovery despite tokens trading around the clock. Around 80% of pairs showed cointegration, and tokens generally adjusted toward underlying equity prices when the two diverged. The underlying equity accounted for more than 80% of the permanent component of the common price for the median pair.