Analysts at investment bank Benchmark initiated coverage of Cantor Equity Partners II on Tuesday, assigning a Buy rating to the blank-check firm ahead of its planned merger with Miami-based tokenization company Securitize. The analysts described Securitize as a compelling pure-play investment in tokenization, arguing the firm is laying the groundwork for the next generation of capital markets. Their coverage comes amid a broader wave of crypto-related listings on public markets, even as tepid conditions have reportedly slowed similar moves by firms such as Kraken.
Benchmark set a price target of $16 for Securitize, a figure contingent on the company generating $178 million in sales by the end of next year. Analysts noted that reaching this milestone would require Securitize to deepen its competitive position through blue-chip partnerships. Shares of Cantor Equity Partners II, trading under the ticker CEPT, were changing hands at around $11 on Tuesday, according to Yahoo Finance.
Securitize signaled in October of last year that it intended to list on the Nasdaq through the merger with Cantor Equity Partners II, a deal that valued the company at $1.25 billion at the time. Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer expressed confidence in the firm’s ability to meet revenue projections, citing strong visibility into future income streams. These include origination fees from companies tokenizing assets and recurring revenue tied to servicing costs.
Palmer told Decrypt that he sees significant disruptive potential for traditional finance and the functioning of capital markets. He argued that Securitize’s platform offers improvements in efficiency and settlement times across the board. In his view, it is only a matter of time before the broader market begins to recognize those advantages.
Palmer drew a comparison to Circle‘s well-received Wall Street debut last year, which analysts interpreted as a sign of growing investor appetite for stablecoins. However, he argued the stakes are higher with Securitize because its platform effectively bypasses legacy clearing infrastructure such as the DTCC. Last week, Securitize and the New York Stock Exchange announced a collaboration on a platform for tokenized securities featuring around-the-clock trading, aligning with the SEC‘s vision under its so-called Project Crypto initiative.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has publicly championed tokenization as the next generation of markets since 2022, and the world’s largest asset manager later led a $47 million strategic funding round in Securitize. Benchmark analysts highlighted that Securitize’s platform already underpins BlackRock’s BUIDL, the largest tokenized money-market fund in the industry. Valued at $2.2 billion on Tuesday, the fund operates across eight networks, with the majority of assets issued on Ethereum and Solana.
Figure Technologies made its Nasdaq debut in September of last year, focusing on converting Home Equity Lines of Credit into tokenized assets. Palmer noted that Securitize, by contrast, is not concentrated on any single vertical or industry, which broadens its potential reach considerably. He estimated the firm’s total addressable market at $300 trillion in real-world assets, spanning origination through servicing across a wide range of industry sectors.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
