On a morning in mid-June—the 12th, to be precise—something unusual was happening on Solana's blockchain. Backpack Exchange, better known in crypto circles for its derivatives desk and venture-backed pedigree, was offering tokenized shares of SpaceX, the private aerospace company, in the form of a wrapped asset. Call it SPCX. Trade it around the clock. Move it between wallets like you would a stablecoin.
It was a neat trick, and perhaps more than the crypto exchange expected, it worked. Within a week, community channels were buzzing with claims of $80 million to $108 million in 24-hour on-chain volume for the tokenized SpaceX shares—figures that haven't been independently verified but signal something resembling genuine interest. Whether that enthusiasm translates into a sustainable business model is another question entirely.
Backpack's stocks platform, which quietly exited private beta and opened to the public in early June 2025, is attempting something ambitious: a brokerage account that straddles two worlds. On one side, traditional securities custody governed by New York law, complete with ACATS transfers and DTCC rails. On the other, blockchain-based tokenization that lets users convert those same holdings into Solana assets tradable 24/7, compatible with decentralized finance protocols and self-custody wallets.
"All liquidity is natively integrated into traditional venues," the company notes on its product page, as if to reassure skeptics that these are, in fact, real shares. "These are real security entitlements, governed by New York law."
The pitch raises as many questions as it answers.
The Dual-Custody Gambit
At its core, Backpack Securities offers roughly 1,000 U.S. equities and ETFs during its current beta phase. Trading hours stretch 24 hours a day, five days a week—extended sessions that blow past the traditional market's 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. window, though fractional shares are confined to core hours. Outside those windows, you'll need to trade in full-share increments.
What distinguishes the platform from, say, Robinhood or Fidelity is the custody architecture. Users can hold positions as conventional security entitlements under Article 8 of New York's Uniform Commercial Code—the same legal scaffolding that underpins most U.S. brokerage accounts. These holdings qualify for cash dividends, corporate actions, and standard investor protections.
Or they can tokenize them.
Through a partnership with Sunrise, an asset gateway built by Wormhole Labs, users convert brokerage-held securities into Solana tokens. Once transformed, the assets unlock 24/7 trading and become interoperable with DeFi protocols. Backpack emphasizes that users can toggle between these two forms "at any time," creating what amounts to an on-ramp and off-ramp between traditional custody and blockchain-based self-custody.
It's an intriguing hybrid model. Whether regulators see it the same way remains to be seen.
The company hasn't disclosed which U.S. broker-dealer or custodian provides the underlying infrastructure, referring only to "established U.S. brokerage and custody" in press materials. A disclosure tucked into the product page notes that in certain regions, services flow through Trek Brokerage Services Limited—licensed by the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority and acting as an intermediary broker. That detail may raise eyebrows among compliance watchers familiar with offshore licensing regimes.
SpaceX as Proof of Concept
The SPCX launch offered an immediate test of demand. KuCoin's news service separately reported the token surpassing $35 million in volume within a day, while unofficial community posts on Reddit claimed total tokenized equity volume on Solana hit a $150 million all-time high on June 16. Those figures, unaudited and sourced from enthusiast channels rather than independently verified data, should be taken with appropriate caution.
Still, the timing was deliberate. By launching a tokenized version of SpaceX equity—shares in the private aerospace company that have long traded on secondary markets—Backpack handed Solana users something resembling bragging rights: instant access to SpaceX exposure without navigating traditional brokerage gatekeepers.
The move also appeared to lift sentiment around BP, Backpack's native token, which reportedly rose 27% in a 24-hour stretch around the SPCX announcement. Attributing crypto price movements to any single catalyst is a fool's errand, but the correlation was hard to miss.
A Crowded Solana Landscape
Backpack isn't operating in a vacuum. Kraken partnered with Backed Finance in May 2025 to roll out xStocks—tokenized U.S. equities and ETFs for non-U.S. users, also with 24/7 trading. Ondo Global Markets expanded to Solana in January 2026, bringing over 200 tokenized securities to the chain. Dinari launched its own tokenized SpaceX product, dShares SPCX, on June 12 for international investors.
What Backpack claims as its differentiator is the integration of traditional brokerage infrastructure alongside tokenization within a single account. While competitors typically offer tokenized wrappers or synthetic exposure, Backpack leans on its ACATS and DTCC support—features that matter if you want to transfer positions using standard industry channels or care about the legal underpinnings of what you're holding.
It's positioning that acknowledges a reality: most retail investors still want their holdings to look and feel like real stocks, even if they also want the optionality that blockchain rails provide.
What's Missing (For Now)
The beta is web-only. Mobile access sits on the roadmap under "coming next," alongside profit-and-loss tracking, stock screeners, and candlestick charts—table stakes features for any modern brokerage. The platform launched with around 1,000 tickers and promises expansion to "every stock available in the USA" once the beta wraps.
Backpack's fee structure for stocks hasn't been publicly detailed, though early June community posts mentioned waived trading fees throughout that month. That promotional language had vanished from the official product page by mid-June, leaving pricing something of an open question.
The platform accepts both fiat and stablecoin funding, according to coverage from The Block, letting users seed accounts with traditional currency or crypto assets. That flexibility aligns with Backpack's broader positioning: a unified account where equities, crypto spot markets, perpetual futures, and yield products coexist.
The Regulatory Wild Card
Whether this middle-ground approach gains traction depends on factors well beyond technology. Regulatory clarity around tokenized securities remains murky at best. The SEC has historically taken a dim view of offerings that blur the line between traditional securities and blockchain assets, and offshore licensing arrangements often invite scrutiny rather than reassure it.
User appetite for hybrid custody models is similarly untested at scale. The crypto-native crowd may appreciate the flexibility, but mainstream investors conditioned by decades of traditional brokerage standards may find the tokenization layer more complexity than value-add.
And then there's execution. Backpack has staked out an ambitious vision—not quite a traditional brokerage, not quite a pure DeFi protocol, but something attempting to bridge both worlds. Delivering on that vision will require not just technical chops but also the ability to navigate a regulatory landscape that hasn't always been kind to innovators pushing boundaries.
For now, the platform exists. Users are trading. SpaceX tokens are changing hands at odd hours. Whether that activity signals the beginning of a genuine shift in how retail investors access equities—or just another crypto experiment that finds its limits—will take time to determine.
What's clear is that Backpack has opened a door. Where it leads is anybody's guess.
