对话Bitget CEO：rToken上线一个月AUM破亿，下一阶段做什么？

After the U.S. stock token rToken's AUM exceeds $100 million, what's next to watch?

Gracy: The U.S. stock token rToken launched in early June and surpassed $100 million in AUM in about a month. As of July 6, AUM reached $114 million, with cumulative trading volume hitting $670 million. The growth rate exceeded our expectations and also validated the real demand among crypto users for traditional financial assets like U.S. stocks.

This demand is reflected not only in holdings but also in trading activity. During the weekend when Middle East tensions escalated and U.S. markets were closed, rToken's weekend trading volume surged to 10 times that of the previous week and was up approximately 2.2 times compared to the average weekend level in June. We see a growing number of users utilizing rToken as a tool for global asset allocation during market volatility, rather than just for long-term holding. While the absolute weekend trading volume for U.S. stock tokens is still in its early stages, market volatile moments have highlighted the importance of 7×24 trading.

However, surpassing $100 million in AUM at least validates that users are indeed willing to trade these assets. But for us, this is just the first step. More importantly, after the assets are listed, what practical uses can we offer users? Since we proposed the concept of the Universal Exchange (UEX) last September, we have successively covered U.S. stocks, forex, commodities, and Pre-IPO products. Now that most core asset classes are available, we believe that simply increasing the number of assets in the future will be difficult to create long-term differentiation.

The next phase's focus is to truly integrate different assets into a unified account to improve capital efficiency. For example, using rToken as unified margin, different assets share capital, supporting cross-asset strategies, lending, API, and quantitative trading. In terms of unified accounts and institutional products, Bitget is indeed one to two years behind some leading platforms. What needs to be made up now is not just a single account feature, but building a complete product capability around professional traders and institutional users. What institutions care about more is whether they can manage stocks and crypto assets in the same account, share margin, and efficiently allocate capital between different markets. In the next phase, what users need is not just a "unified account," but a "cross-asset unified account". This is also the direction we are focusing on. The metrics we will track later won't just be AUM and trading volume, but also trading friction, capital utilization, and cross-product experience.

Will there be plans to list Korean, Japanese, Hong Kong, and A-shares in the future?

Gracy: User demand does exist, but we are more cautious about stock markets outside the US at this stage, mainly due to regulatory and product feasibility. Currently, the platform covers 10 Hong Kong stock-related instruments through perpetual contracts, including AI concept stocks like Zhipu AI. However, this is not equivalent to having established a complete Hong Kong stock spot or tokenized stock product.

Except for the US, most regions still lack a sufficiently clear and mature regulatory framework for RWA and stock tokenization. Also, the global stock market capitalization and liquidity remain highly concentrated in the US market. This makes the US market more suitable for prioritization in terms of asset supply, institutional participation, and liquidity. Regulatory sensitivity is particularly high for A-shares and Hong Kong stocks. Regulators generally do not want local stocks to be re-packaged and traded on overseas or crypto platforms, detached from their original exchanges and securities regulatory systems, as this involves investor protection, market supervision, and cross-border capital flows.

Therefore, whether to list stocks from other countries and regions depends not only on user demand, but also on whether local regulations are clear and whether the platform can find a compliant product structure. For example, many users leave comments on my Twitter, hoping the platform will list a specific stock. But user 'ordering' doesn't mean the 'chef' can deliver immediately. We certainly consider these demands, but ultimately, we must balance regulatory, product feasibility, and market maturity.

The three main user types for the U.S. stock token rToken, and what they are trading

Mao Di: rToken's AUM has already exceeded $100 million. What types of users are primarily using it? How do the needs of different users differ?

Gracy: Currently, they can be broadly divided into three categories: crypto-native users, cross-asset traders, and institutional/professional traders.

The first category is crypto-native users. They already hold stablecoins like USDT and USDC, are accustomed to using crypto platforms, and want direct exposure to U.S. stock prices without needing to open new accounts, perform fiat on/off ramps, or make cross-platform transfers. This group cares most about trading hours, liquidity, slippage, and whether corporate actions are handled accurately. Whether the asset is 'on-chain' isn't paramount; what matters is if it is genuinely tradable.

The second category is cross-asset traders. They simultaneously hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, U.S. stocks, and ETFs, and want to reduce account switching and manage multiple assets within a single capital system. This group focuses more on the stability of the connection between tokenized assets and the real securities market, including whether quotes closely track the underlying stocks, whether order execution is close to that of traditional brokers, and whether prices deviate significantly during extreme market conditions.

The third category is institutions and professional traders. They are less concerned with manually buying and selling individual stocks. Instead, they focus on whether rToken can integrate with existing APIs, quantitative trading, and risk management systems, and be used for unified margin, lending, and cross-asset hedging. For instance, an institution might want to simultaneously hold rToken and crypto contracts, allowing different positions to share margin. Here, interface stability, trading latency, liquidation rules, and liquidity management are more important than the number of assets covered.

All three user types care about price, liquidity, and trading experience, but their focus differs: crypto-native users value the convenience of stablecoins and crypto accounts; cross-asset traders value execution quality close to traditional brokers; institutions focus more on API, margin, lending, and risk control.

How should regular users understand the U.S. stock token rToken? How is it different from other stock tokenization products?

Gracy: rToken is a tokenized asset issued by Reality, a licensed RWA protocol launched by Bitget. It currently supports over 500 major U.S. stocks and ETFs and may extend to other asset types in the future. Compared to other stock tokenization products on the market, we have made improvements mainly in three areas: liquidity, dividend distribution, and capital efficiency.

Bitget started supporting U.S. stock tokens from other RWA issuers as early as late last year. We found that the most frequently reported issue by users was liquidity. Usually, orders of a few hundred dollars had controllable slippage, but larger orders could fail to fill or have excessive slippage. Therefore, from the outset, rToken planned to tap into the liquidity of the Nasdaq and NYSE. As far as we know, very few platforms can achieve this. We have done some internal comparisons, and in terms of order book depth for major U.S. stock tokens, rToken is 50 to 100 times ahead of similar products. After all, it's hard to find a market with more liquidity than the Nasdaq and NYSE.

Another frequently mentioned issue by users involves corporate actions like dividends, stock splits, etc. In this regard, rToken's presentation is closer to traditional brokers. If the underlying stock pays a cash dividend, users receive the net dividend settled in USDT. If it's a stock dividend or split, the number and cost basis of the rTokens held by the user are adjusted accordingly.

Some other tokenized stock products keep cash dividends within the underlying asset pool, reflecting them in the token's net asset value through reinvestment or buybacks. This model might not reduce the user's economic benefits, but it can cause the token price to gradually deviate from the stock price shown on conventional market data platforms. For example, if a stock is priced at $200 and generates a $2 cash dividend per share, rToken handles the stock position and cash income separately. The user continues to hold the corresponding asset while also receiving USDT equivalent to $2. Another type of product might reinvest the $2 into the asset pool, increasing the token's net value.

The economic outcomes of different models might be similar, but the user experience differs. rToken emphasizes keeping the price, holdings, and income structure as consistent as possible with traditional securities accounts, lowering the learning curve for regular users. So, we still aim to maintain consistency with traditional brokers. The difference between rToken and other products lies not only in whether the underlying real assets exist but also in how corporate actions like dividends, stock splits, and reverse stock splits are presented.

Furthermore, because Reality is deeply integrated with the Bitget platform, we can integrate rToken into various aspects of the Bitget ecosystem. For example, rToken can be used as margin in a cross-asset unified account. So, after buying NVIDIA stock tokens, users don't need to sell them; they can use them as margin to open a BTC contract. We've also seen some novel uses, like borrowing Apple stock tokens via Bitget's lending feature. If the dividend can cover the borrowing cost, it could theoretically create an arbitrage opportunity. Giving stock tokens the flexibility and utility of crypto assets opens up more possibilities for users' operations and significantly improves capital efficiency. These are things many other U.S. stock tokens find difficult to achieve currently.

Is using the U.S. stock token rToken as contract margin still primarily for institutions and professional traders?

Gracy: This question ties back to our cross-asset unified account. Simply put, it allows one rToken to do three jobs simultaneously: earn yield from holding, serve as margin, and be used as collateral for lending.

For most regular users, the simplest is the first: earn yield from holding. Buying and holding rToken gives exposure to the price and related rights of the corresponding U.S. stock, with an experience close to buying the stock itself.

The other two uses – serving as margin and using as collateral for lending – are more advanced applications, better suited for institutions and professional users with risk management capabilities.

For example, if you use rNVDA as margin to open a BTC contract. Ideally, if NVIDIA's price is stable and the BTC direction is correct, you improve capital efficiency without selling the stock and obtain additional returns. However, if NVIDIA's price falls while the contract is also losing money, collateral shrinkage and position losses occur simultaneously, potentially triggering liquidation faster.

Regarding collateralized lending, users can pledge rToken as collateral for stablecoin liquidity. Different assets have different borrowing limits and risk control requirements. For a large-cap stock like Apple, the lending limit for a single user might be around $1.2 million, whereas for a small-cap stock like SanDisk (SNDK), it might be only $80,000. Generally, the more niche, volatile, and illiquid the asset, the more cautious the lending limits tend to be.

How do U.S. stock orders ultimately flow into the real market?

Gracy: To achieve rToken's direct liquidity connection to the Nasdaq and NYSE, we have connected the technical pathways among the following three parties:

• Trading Platform: Bitget
• Issuer: Reality
• Partner Broker: Alpaca

For example, after a user submits a buy order for rToken, the order is sent to Alpaca, which then connects to the U.S. securities market to execute the trade. Subsequently, the underlying broker and clearing system complete the security settlement, and the stocks are held by the custodian. Simultaneously, the system generates the corresponding number of rTokens and credits them to the user's account. Therefore, in theory, each newly created rToken is backed by the corresponding quantity or value of the underlying securities. What the user sees is a token, but behind it, real securities trading relies on brokers, exchanges, clearing houses, and custodians.

The selling process is essentially the reverse. After a user sells rToken, the corresponding tokens are burned. The underlying service provider sells the corresponding shares, and after settlement, the proceeds are returned to the user's account in stablecoins or other settlement assets supported by the platform. Therefore, rToken does not operate independently of the traditional financial system. Instead, it uses crypto accounts and tokens on the front end to connect to the traditional securities market on the back end. The user experience can be close to crypto spot trading, but the underlying process still relies on real securities trading, clearing, and custody systems.

How does rToken maintain trading after U.S. market hours?

Mao Di: rToken aims to offer extended trading hours, but U.S. stocks themselves are not open 24/7. How does the platform maintain liquidity and price stability when the underlying market is closed?

Gracy: Extending trading hours means users don't have to be entirely bound by U.S. market opening hours, and the market can react to unexpected events sooner. However, when U.S. markets close, rToken's primary source of liquidity temporarily disappears. At this stage, trading during closed hours is primarily handled by market makers. Partner market makers pre-stock inventory of shares before the U.S. market closes. When users buy or sell rToken on weekends, these trades are primarily matched using this inventory.

However, this doesn't mean the market depth during closed hours is the same as during regular trading hours. During significant events, market makers need to assess risk without a primary market price. They typically reduce orders and widen bid-ask spreads. Although they can partially hedge using quotes from overnight trading venues like Blue Ocean, the liquidity in these markets is far lower than during regular sessions and cannot fully replace the NYSE and Nasdaq.

Therefore, prices during market closures reflect quotes formed by market makers based on their inventory and risk tolerance, rather than fully traded market prices. Users need to accept risks like lower liquidity, larger slippage, and the possibility that the executed price may deviate from the opening price of the next regular trading session. Extended trading hours solve the problem of "if you can trade," not "if you can always trade with normal market depth."

How is rToken priced and liquidated during suspensions, circuit breakers, or major events?

Gracy: First, we need to distinguish between two issues: how the stock token is valued and whether the unified account triggers liquidation. During U.S. market closures, if a user uses rToken as margin, the platform uses the index price from the close of the latest extended trading session for valuation. This prevents the margin value from being distorted by sporadic trade prices when the underlying market lacks continuous quotes. However, this is only a temporary freeze of the valuation benchmark and doesn't mean the risk has disappeared. If a major event occurs over the weekend, the stock could still gap significantly on the next trading day.

Meanwhile, other assets in the unified account will continue to fluctuate normally. For example, if a user holds crypto contracts using rToken as margin, even if rToken is temporarily valued at the previous day's closing price, a forced liquidation can still be triggered if other positions cause the account's overall risk rate to hit the liquidation line. The unified account always manages risk based on the entire account's collateral, liabilities, and unrealized P&L, not by evaluating a single margin item independently.

If the underlying stock is suspended, hits a circuit breaker, or experiences a major event making a reliable price unavailable, the platform will implement temporary risk control measures based on the nature of the event, suspension duration, and market liquidity. These could include adjusting collateral ratios, restricting new margin, limiting trading, or suspending the related product. It does not use fixed rules. For example, during a long-term suspension with clearly increased risk, the platform might reduce the collateral value in advance. If it's only a brief circuit breaker, the platform typically waits for the underlying market to resume trading before updating the price. Therefore, suspension or market closure does not mean risk is paused. So, when using rToken as margin, besides price volatility, users also need to be aware of risks like price gaps, suspensions, decreased liquidity, and potential adjustments to platform risk control parameters.

Why is the reserve ratio for stock assets exactly 100%? Can rToken be redeemed for the underlying stocks?

Mao Di: Reality discloses the stock asset reserve ratio, and it's basically maintained at 100%. Why isn't there an over-collateralization ratio like in some crypto systems?

Gracy: This part of the stock assets uses a 1:1 matching structure. For every rToken Reality issues, Alpaca holds the corresponding quantity or value of the underlying stock. Currently, there are no additional stock purchases exceeding the needs for token issuance. Therefore, as long as the token supply exactly matches the underlying holdings, the reserve ratio is naturally 100%. To make this ratio higher than 100%, Bitget, Reality, or other parties would need to inject extra capital to buy a batch of stocks that do not correspond to existing user holdings. In our view, this is not necessary at the current stage.

Additionally, rToken is currently the only RWA asset on the market that can provide daily third-party PoR audit results. Other RWA issuers also disclose reserves, but they often adopt a self-reported form, which carries the risk of "being both the player and the referee." Reality currently partners with the US audit firm The Network Firm to provide daily PoR data. The Network Firm is a familiar partner for crypto enterprises; compliant exchanges like Kraken and Gemini also collaborate with them for asset audits.

Mao Di: Stock investors sometimes plan to hold for decades or even longer. For users holding rToken long-term, what are the current exit methods? Can they redeem it for the underlying stocks, or transfer the assets to another broker?

Gracy: Currently, the primary way to exit rToken is by selling it on the market in exchange for USDT. As for whether users can directly redeem rToken