Former NYSE president says stock issuers hold the key to tokenization as Bullish builds its platform

Judgment

Stock issuers now hold the deciding vote: Cunningham’s Bullish push says tokenization success depends on winning them, so they must weigh new distribution and liquidity against the risk of ceding control over shareholder access and market plumbing.

Basis

Cunningham, who recently joined Bullish as President, frames the planned Equiniti acquisition and a focus on stock issuers as key to Bullish’s tokenization ambitions. The implied mechanism is that Bullish can build the platform, but adoption depends on issuers agreeing to have their shares represented or distributed through it; if issuers withhold participation, the venue lacks the assets tokenization needs. That shifts the binding constraint from crypto-native trader demand to issuer willingness, and makes issuer terms—access, control, economics—the real battleground.