Tokenized transactions surge to $5.3 billion but generate just $14M as costs soar by 56%

Securitize, a platform that issues and services tokenized securities, expanded the activity flowing through its system in the second quarter, but Securitize's revenue did not reflect that scale.

Average tokenized assets under management reached $4.3 billion, up 16% from a year earlier, while aggregate transaction volume climbed 147% to $5.3 billion, according to the company's second-quarter results. Securitize's revenue nevertheless fell 5% to $14.4 million, and the company reported a $21.7 million net loss.

Securitize defines transaction volume as investments, redemptions, dividends and cross-chain asset movements. The increase was driven mainly by subscription and redemption activity in BlackRock's BUIDL and BUIDL-I funds, along with a $250 million subscription to the Securitize Tokenized AAA CLO Fund, according to the company's management discussion. The measure captures platform activity, a broader category than recognized revenue.

Tokenization revenue fell 12% to $7.8 million, which management attributed primarily to fewer completed on-chain integrations. Asset-servicing revenue rose 3% to $6.6 million, but the roughly $200,000 increase was not enough to offset the decline in tokenization revenue.

A sequential comparison also shows that higher platform activity did not ensure higher quarterly sales. In the first quarter, Securitize generated $19.5 million of revenue and positive adjusted EBITDA of $800,000 on lower average AUM of $3.2 billion and lower transaction volume of $1.9 billion.

Operating costs and expenses then jumped 56% year over year to $24.1 million. Selling, general and administrative expenses rose by $4.7 million, reflecting higher professional, consulting, accounting and public-company readiness costs. Compensation and benefits increased by $2.5 million as Securitize added staff, including employees connected to its MG Stover fund-administration acquisition. The expected credit-loss provision rose by another $1.2 million after a specific customer receivable was written off.

Those costs pushed the operating loss to $9.7 million from about $200,000 a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA, a company-defined non-GAAP measure, swung from a $1.8 million profit to a $5.5 million loss. The reversal shows that the deterioration extended beyond the liability remeasurements that affected the headline net loss.

The $21.7 million GAAP loss included a net $11.7 million adverse fair-value movement, according to the company's reconciliation. A $29.3 million option-liability loss and a $4.3 million loss on simple agreements for future equity were partly offset by a $21.8 million derivative-liability gain. These non-cash remeasurements were excluded from adjusted EBITDA.

The balance sheet changed materially after the quarter ended. Securitize had $33.6 million in cash on June 30, one day before completing its business combination with Cantor Equity Partners II. An unaudited pro forma balance sheet, which illustrates the transaction as if it had closed on June 30 rather than reporting a separately measured July cash balance, showed $352.6 million of combined cash and no borrowings after convertible notes and related instruments converted into equity. The same pro forma statement still showed $118.5 million of total liabilities, including earnout liabilities and interest payable.

The next test is whether Securitize can convert rising platform use into more integration and asset-servicing revenue while keeping its expanded public-company cost base from outpacing sales.

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