Launching Two Major U.S. Stock Products Within a Month—What Strategy Is Bitget U.S. Stocks 2.0 Pursuing?

Author: Martin Talk

Discussions about “U.S. equities” have heated up again in the crypto market this June. Following recent intensive adjustments or launches of U.S. equity–related products by leading platforms such as Binance and Coinbase, Bitget has also made consecutive moves this month: first launching U.S. equity tokens (rTokens) issued by Reality at the beginning of June, then rolling out Bitget’s U.S. Equity Direct Connect service this week.

Introducing two fundamentally distinct U.S. equity solutions within just one month, Bitget’s “dual-track” strategy has drawn industry attention. Is this merely a stopgap measure responding to regulatory pressure—or a deep probe into the integration path between traditional finance and the crypto world?

U.S. Equity Direct Connect: Striking a Balance Between Traditional and Crypto

Launched this week, Bitget’s U.S. Equity Direct Connect—Bitget U.S. Equity—emphasizes a “broker-like” experience. By partnering with U.S.-licensed brokers including RQD Clearing and Atomic Vaults Securities (AVS), the platform grants trading access to over 10,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs, supporting fractional share trading starting from 0.0001 shares. Notably, the service allows free account transfers from traditional brokers such as Futu, Tiger Brokers, and Longbridge, and offers 5×24-hour trading hours.

Within crypto exchanges, “Direct Connect” is no longer a novel concept—many claim direct connectivity to Nasdaq and the NYSE, the world’s most active capital markets. Direct Connect primarily addresses three issues: liquidity, asset authenticity, and synchronization of corporate actions such as dividends and stock splits. If platforms like Binance, Bitget, and Gate all achieve U.S. equity Direct Connect, it ceases to be a differentiating advantage.

Compared to Binance’s earlier U.S. equity offering, Bitget’s Direct Connect service stands out for its full preservation of traditional trading conventions: users hold real shares, enjoy dividend rights and voting rights, can transfer accounts from other brokers, and benefit from interface interactions, real-time market data, and market news closely aligned with traditional broker standards. However, this model faces challenges similar to those confronting traditional brokers—including stringent KYC requirements and centralized custody risks. For users accustomed to licensed traditional brokers, whether purchasing stocks via a crypto exchange delivers sufficient appeal remains to be validated by the market.

U.S. Equity Tokens: Boundary Experimentation Within the RWA Framework

In contrast to the “conservative” Direct Connect approach, Reality’s U.S. equity tokens (rTokens), launched by Bitget at the start of June, carry stronger crypto-native characteristics. As part of the RWA (Real World Assets) sector, rTokens aim to achieve on-chain mapping of U.S. equity assets via blockchain technology. Partnering with U.S. broker Alpaca, rTokens promise to faithfully replicate U.S. equity liquidity. Some users have even tested that placing an rToken order on Bitget results in that order appearing on Robinhood’s order book—demonstrating how mapping and interconnection have effectively resolved the long-standing liquidity fragmentation problem plaguing early RWA issuers such as Ondo and xStocks.

Once leaders in the U.S. equity token market, Ondo and xStocks faced criticism for unclear dividend distribution and sluggish responses to corporate actions like stock splits—causing certain token prices to deviate significantly from underlying stock values for extended periods and intensifying user concerns about de-pegging. By contrast, Reality’s U.S. equity tokens maintain 1:1 synchronization with underlying assets regarding dividends, stock splits, and other rights.

If liquidity and dividend mechanisms place “U.S. equity tokens” at best on par with “U.S. equity Direct Connect,” then the true core advantage of rTokens—backed by a major exchange like Bitget—lies in their deep integration with the exchange ecosystem. For instance, rTokens can be used directly as margin for derivatives trading, thereby enhancing capital efficiency. Additionally, rTokens will gradually support more advanced functionalities including lending, dollar-cost averaging, and copy trading. Compared to early RWA projects like Ondo and xStocks, Reality indeed strives to solve the pain point of fragmented liquidity. Yet it remains undeniable that the RWA sector continues to confront multiple challenges—including regulatory uncertainty, oracle dependency, and cross-chain security risks. Currently tightly integrated with Bitget, the critical test of rToken’s long-term value will be whether it can independently expand into broader on-chain and off-chain use cases beyond the exchange’s endorsement.

Dual-Track Parallelism: A Pragmatic Choice for the Transition Period

Why has Bitget opted to advance two distinct routes simultaneously, launching two U.S. equity products in rapid succession over one month? Bitget CEO Gracy Chen offered an intuitive explanation in a recent post: Traditional investors and crypto users differ dramatically in behavioral habits, and forcing convergence often compromises the experience for both sides.

Objectively speaking, Bitget’s “dual-track” strategy reflects the current market’s fragmented perception of U.S. equity tokenization. On one hand, traditional investors remain skeptical about private key management and smart contract risks, preferring regulated, centralized custody. On the other hand, crypto users prioritize 7×24-hour trading, high capital efficiency, and decentralization principles. During this transitional phase—before full convergence—the needs of both groups cannot be satisfied by a single product.

Bitget’s strategy may appear to be a compromise, but it is in fact a pragmatic market positioning. By attracting traditional capital through Direct Connect services while exploring Web3-native scenarios via rTokens, Bitget seeks the greatest common denominator between compliance and innovation. Yet this model imposes higher operational demands on the platform: How can compliance independence be ensured across both systems? How can internal resource competition be avoided?

In the long term, U.S. equity tokenization may be inevitable—but its pace of evolution could prove slower than anticipated. Bitget’s “dual-track” experiment may provide the industry with a valuable case study on how traditional finance and the crypto world can coexist. Still, until regulatory clarity emerges, this experiment in bringing U.S. equities on-chain will continue progressing amid debate and exploration.