Welcome to the wrapper economy, where “ownership” is replaced by “exposure.”
The Trump administration is expected to start allowing digital versions of stocks that track prices but don’t carry the typical voting rights or dividends — and could be issued without the approval of the companies themselves. The new rules, which Bloomberg reports could be released this week, would create a new way to bet on corporate fortunes.
We already have a way to do that using prediction markets, which strike me as a cleaner and more transparent alternative to the stock market (see the argument above). My bigger concern is that the rise of shadow stock markets could crowd out the real thing: The stock markets exist to connect companies with capital, helping them grow faster.
Why would investors bother to buy shares when they can get a token, especially if it’s cheaper? Passive investors don’t care much about voting rights, anyway. And many companies have shifted from paying dividends toward stock buybacks, the benefit of which would likely be captured by tokens. Finance history is full of synthetic products that track economically useful ones, and it rarely ends well.