Stock perps vs tokenized stocks: which does what
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Stock perps and tokenized stocks are two different ways to get equity exposure on a blockchain. A tokenized stock is a spot token backed by a real share an issuer holds. A stock perp is a perpetual futures contract settled in stablecoins, with leverage, funding payments and the risk of liquidation. Neither makes you a shareholder.
The distinction is not cosmetic. It changes what you are exposed to, what it costs to hold, who can be wiped out and how easily a venue can list a new market. Once you see the difference in what each product needs to exist, the rest follows.
The short version
| Tokenized stock (spot) | Stock perp | |
|---|---|---|
| What you hold | A token backed by a share in custody | A contract with a profit and loss |
| Issuer involved | Yes, holds the real security | No |
| Leverage | None by default | Yes, up to 50x on Arcus, varying by market |
| Can be liquidated | No | Yes |
| Recurring cost | None beyond the spread | Funding, every period you stay open |
| Dividends | Depends on the issuer | None |
| Voting rights | No | No |
| What the venue needs | Custodian, issuer, legal wrapper | Price feed and liquidity |
| Settlement asset | The token itself | A stablecoin, USDG on Arcus |
What a tokenized stock needs to exist
A great deal. Someone has to buy the real share, deposit it with a regulated custodian, draft the legal terms under which the token represents that share, pick a jurisdiction, and keep issuance and redemption running. Backed’s xStocks documentation describes segregated custody accounts under a bankruptcy-remote structure. Arcus does not do any of this itself: its Stock Tokens are issued by Bitstamp Global Ltd, which holds the underlying securities, according to the Arcus help centre.
All of that machinery is why spot tokenization is slow to expand. Each new ticker is a legal and operational project. It is also why the SEC staff statement of January 2026 treated custodial tokens as a different risk category from synthetic ones: there is something real behind them, and an identifiable party holding it.
What a stock perp needs to exist
A reliable price feed and two sides willing to trade. That is close to the whole list.
Nobody buys the share. No custodian is appointed. No prospectus is written.
The contract references an index price derived from an oracle, and traders post stablecoin collateral against positions. If the oracle quotes it and a market maker will quote both sides, the market can go live.
This is why perp venues move faster than issuers. Arcus listed 35 real-world-asset perps alongside 95 Stock Tokens at launch, including indices such as SPY, QQQ and SOXX, and commodity perps based on ETFs rather than futures contracts. Our page on Arcus perps covers the market list and the margin modes in full.
Funding rates: the cost you forget
Spot tokens cost you the spread when you enter and the spread when you leave. A perp charges you for every period you stay open.
The funding rate is a periodic payment between longs and shorts that keeps the contract price tethered to the index price. When the perp trades above the index, longs pay shorts. When it trades below, shorts pay longs. On equity perps the rate also has to absorb the cost of carry that a real futures market would price in, and equity order flow skews long, so a long position often pays funding continuously.
Over a day that is noise. Over three months it can dominate your result. If your thesis is “Apple will be higher in a year”, a perp is an expensive way to express it. If your thesis is “Nvidia gaps on Monday’s open and I want to be positioned on Sunday”, the perp is the instrument that exists for that.
Leverage and liquidation
Tokenized stocks, held plainly, cannot be liquidated. You can lose money if the share falls, and you can lose money if the token diverges from the share, but no mechanism closes your position for you.
Perps can be liquidated, and this is the single most important practical difference. Arcus offers leverage up to 50x depending on the market. At 50x, a 2% adverse move wipes out the margin behind the position.
The venue closes it, you keep the loss, and in extreme conditions the protocol reaches for its insurance fund, then auto-deleveraging, then socialised losses. Our Arcus liquidations page walks that sequence through, and the perp fee and liquidation calculator will estimate where a given position gets closed.
Say it plainly: leveraged positions can be liquidated, most leveraged traders lose money, and nothing on this site is financial advice. Stock Tokens are not shares either, so the comparison is between two risky instruments rather than between a risky one and a safe one.
Margin modes change the picture
With cross margin, every position draws on one pool of collateral, so a loss on one market can liquidate another. With isolated margin, each position has its own collateral and the damage stops at that position. Arcus shipped isolated positions on 9 September 2026.
If you are holding a spot token and also running a perp against it, isolated margin keeps the two from infecting each other. The flip side is that an isolated position is liquidated sooner, because it cannot borrow strength from the rest of your balance.
Where the two products meet
Three things link them in practice.
The first is hedging. Hold a tokenized stock, short the matching perp, and you have neutralised price risk while keeping whatever the token’s issuer passes through. You are then exposed to funding and to the token diverging from the index the perp references.
The second is collateral. Arcus says Stock Tokens can be used as perps collateral alongside USDG. That is efficient and it is also stacked risk: the asset backing your margin can move against you at the same time as your position does.
The third is access. On Arcus the two sit behind different gates. Spot is open to anyone in an eligible country.
Perps need an invite code, minted at one per $1 million of qualifying perps volume from you or your direct referrals, never expiring and not transferable. The invite code page explains how that actually works and why codes offered for sale are a problem.
Arcus is unusual in offering both sides in one venue. Most places pick a lane: issuers like Backed produce tokens, Ostium and Hyperliquid run perps, exchanges list one or the other.
Which one should you use
If you want long-term equity exposure, neither is a clean substitute for a share in a regulated brokerage account. A spot tokenized stock is the closer fit, and it is the only one of the two that leaves anything behind if you stop paying attention.
If you want to trade around events, express a short view, or get exposure to something no issuer has tokenized, the perp is the tool built for that. The price is funding, liquidation risk, and the need for an invite code on some venues.
And if you are in the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada, Arcus is closed to you regardless of which product you prefer. Start with Arcus alternatives and the country eligibility page instead of working out the mechanics of something you cannot open.
Further reading: what Arcus is, how its fees break down, and the tokenized stock glossary for anything above that needs defining.
Questions people ask
Do I own anything when I trade a stock perp?
No. A perpetual future is a contract between traders settled in a stablecoin. There is no share, no issuer holding one and nothing to redeem. You own a position with a profit and loss, and you can be liquidated out of it.
Which is cheaper, a stock perp or a tokenized stock?
It depends on how long you hold. Perps charge a taker or maker fee plus funding for every period you stay open, so the cost compounds. Spot tokens charge once at entry and once at exit, with the spread doing the work.
What is the funding rate on a stock perp?
A recurring payment between longs and shorts that pulls the contract price toward the index price. If the perp trades above the index, longs pay shorts. For equity perps it also absorbs the cost of carry, so a persistent long bias means a persistent cost.
Can a tokenized stock be used as collateral for a perp?
On some venues, yes. Arcus says Stock Tokens can be used as perps collateral alongside USDG. That stacks two risks: the token can diverge from the share price while the position it is backing can be liquidated.
Why can a perp list a stock that no issuer has tokenized?
A perp needs a price feed and traders willing to take both sides. No custodian buys the share and no legal wrapper is drafted. That is why perp venues can list pre-IPO names and indices that spot tokenization has not reached.
Does Arcus offer both?
Yes, which is unusual. Arcus runs request-for-quote spot markets for Stock Tokens and a central limit order book for perpetuals in one venue. Spot is open to eligible countries; perps need an invite code earned through trading volume.