I have not had time to read the article yet, but does anyone have an informed opinion about this? There was a time that I would have jumped (at least in a small way) but much of what is going on in the world makes me generally more skeptical. Is anyone lining up to buy this?
Well, they aren't shares. You're buying essentially a promise from Republic that they will pay you back what the shares are worth when any liquidity event happens (ie an IPO, or a new round of funding). You have a risk that Republic doesn't have enough money to cover this value (because they don't promise to actually have those shares).
So it's a purchase agreement (ie a forward/future.) It's not that weird, people trade equity futures all the time.
Not that I'm defending them, doing that with a company that hasn't IPO'd yet is kind of insane although maybe they're hedging with DXYZ or some kind of private equity.
Edit /Adding.
Another article from coindesk. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/06/25/tokenized-share...
That also says:
Permission from SpaceX or other firms isn’t necessary as the tokens represent securities sold by Republic itself, said Republic CEO Kendrick Nguyen.
Not that I'm defending them, doing that with a company that hasn't IPO'd yet is kind of insane although maybe they're hedging with DXYZ or some kind of private equity.