Written by: Bruce, Founder of Maiton MSX

To every user, partner, and fellow traveler:

Hello everyone!

Today marks the one-year anniversary of MSX's launch.

On April 15, 2025, MSX reached its earliest product launch milestone. Although the time was not long, we experienced and grew together during this year.

It's important to remember that a year ago, "on-chain US stocks" was just a distant concept for most people, or perhaps a narrative on social media. At that time, Nasdaq had not yet submitted its application for tokenized trading, the NYSE had not yet announced its on-chain settlement plan, and DTCC's pilot program was still in the internal discussion stage.

With the support of the community, we chose to go in first and make it happen.

That's why, a year later, I want to take this opportunity to have a frank exchange with all the friends who have been following and supporting MSX, to look back on the path we've taken, to talk about the pitfalls we've encountered, the judgments we've validated, and where we're headed for the next step.

I. What did we do in these 365 days?

All stories at Maiton MSX begin in the community.

In early 2025, we and our community partners started from a not-so-mainstream but firm belief and went through the first stage of "on-chain US stocks" from conception to implementation, from product prototype to phase verification.

Frankly speaking, when the platform first launched, the product was very rough. Every aspect, from the trading interface and asset types to the interactive details, had significant room for improvement. Even so, users chose to trust us, willing to try it out, and then provide us with their most genuine feedback. I deeply understand the weight of that trust, and the team shares this sentiment.

Looking back now, we should be grateful for the decision we made: instead of repeatedly refining it on paper, we got it running first, and then polished it round after round based on feedback from real users.

This year, from the initial product concept to the platform's launch, from refining the earliest version to continuous iteration and optimization, from explaining "what are US stock tokens" to the market to answering "why now and why it's worth participating seriously," there have been some significant moments on Maiton's journey:

• On April 15, 2025, the Beta version was launched, marking the beginning of the journey from 0 to 1. The first batch of users mostly came from word-of-mouth recommendations within the community.

• On May 10, 2025, the on-chain US stock token market was launched, allowing users to buy and sell US stock tokens on-chain using stablecoins;

• On July 16, 2025, the Chinese name "Maitong" was released after a global call for submissions. This name was also chosen after community co-creation.

• On August 11, 2025, the public beta test of US stock token perpetual contracts was launched, expanding the trading scenario from spot trading to derivatives;

• On September 23, 2025, the platform completed its brand upgrade and launched the global top-level domain msx.com;

• On November 5, 2025, the M&M's incentive mechanism and the S1 points season were launched, marking the beginning of building a user incentive and long-term value transfer mechanism for the platform.

• On December 3, 2025, the platform's 24-hour trading volume exceeded US$2 billion, setting a new historical record;

Even after entering 2026, our pace has not slowed down:

• February 11, 2026: The new official website msx.com was launched, and the product experience and visual language underwent a systematic upgrade;

• On March 2, 2026, the Pre-IPO section was launched, extending from US stock tokens in the secondary market to tokenization in the primary market;

• On April 15, 2026, which is today, the platform's total transaction volume officially exceeded 30 billion US dollars;

As I write this letter, there are already over 180,000 users trading on the platform. This number may not seem large in the overall market, but for a new platform that is just over a year old, it represents 180,000 real choices, trust, and participation.

Every early user voted for us with their own judgment and actions when this field was not yet widely recognized. We are grateful for every user's choice and are doing our best to create more opportunities and capture greater value for users in the context of diminishing on-chain wealth effects. In Q1 of this year, Maitong just delivered a stock selection report card with 39 new listings, 38 of which yielded positive returns, and an average increase of 39%.

Of course, the past year was also an extremely noisy one for the industry. We made mistakes, struggled against multiple pressures and difficulties from the market, and also struggled against ourselves. Although it was not easy, the community's response surprised and moved us. Users repeatedly chose to stand up, speak for us with their real experiences, and continue to move forward with us.

Our shared experiences will become the moat of MSX today, and will ultimately become MSX's most valuable asset.

If I were to summarize the most important gains of MSX over the past year, I think it wouldn't just be a certain milestone, a certain exposure, a certain version update, or even just the trading volume and user base itself, but rather that our understanding of "on-chain US stocks" has become more concrete.

We are increasingly convinced that the path to on-chain US stocks cannot be achieved simply by generating hype. Users will not stay long-term because of a grand narrative, but will gradually build trust in the platform through a smoother trading experience, more attractive asset selection, lower-friction participation methods, and a stable, clear, and predictable user experience time and time again.

This answer sheet was never written by us alone. It was written by the platform, the team, the market, and the community together.

II. A Bigger Picture: Where is the Tokenization of US Stocks Heading?

Before discussing the next steps for MSX, I'd like to take a step back and briefly share our observations on the entire sector.

Many people probably have a very intuitive feeling that a year ago, "tokenized US stocks" was a concept that needed to be explained repeatedly, but today, the situation is completely different.

After all, in the past year, the most influential names in the traditional financial world have begun to embrace this direction at an unprecedented pace:

• In June 2025, Nasdaq Calypso integrated blockchain technology.

• In September 2025, Nasdaq submitted an application to the SEC for a stock “tokenization” transaction;

• In November 2025, Nasdaq explicitly listed tokenized US stocks as a top strategic priority, stating that it would "promote it as quickly as possible";

• In December 2025, the SEC approved the DTCC to launch a stock tokenization pilot program;

• In December 2025, Nasdaq applied to extend trading hours to 5 days x 23 hours;

• In January 2026, the NYSE announced that it was developing a tokenized securities trading and on-chain settlement platform, which aims to support 24/7 trading of US stocks and ETFs;

• In March 2026, Nasdaq partnered with Kraken to accelerate the tokenization process, with plans to launch a stock token framework in 2027;

• In March 2026, the SEC officially approved Nasdaq to conduct a pilot program for tokenized securities trading;

The tide of history is vast and unstoppable.

A year ago, when we started doing this, many people asked, "Is it necessary to put US stocks on the blockchain?" A year later, when Nasdaq, NYSE, and DTCC all started to get involved, this question no longer needs to be answered by us; the market is giving its own judgment through its actions.

Fortunately, MSX was at the forefront of this epic innovation much earlier. Over the past year, we haven't been bystanders, but rather key participants, personally witnessing this direction move from the periphery to the mainstream.

This understanding of the product, perception of user needs, exploration of compliance paths, and construction of on-chain transaction infrastructure constitute our most important accumulation in the face of the next stage of competition, and are also the reason why we are able to seize opportunities.

Of course, we are not naive enough to believe that "first-mover advantage" is a moat in itself. The real first-mover advantage is not about "launching a year earlier than others", but about the product understanding, user relationships and operational capabilities accumulated during that time. The market will be more crowded and more mature in the future, which is a great benefit to the industry and a higher level of validation for MSX.

In my view, if you are the only one working on a particular track, it may indicate that the direction itself is still questionable; but when the world's most important trading infrastructures begin to move in this direction, it precisely shows that the long-term value of this is being confirmed.

Our assessment remains unchanged. Tokenization of US stocks is not a short-term trend, but a structural migration of financial infrastructure. This process will not happen overnight, but the direction is becoming increasingly clear.

MSX has chosen to continue its deep involvement in this sector because we believe it represents a more efficient, open, and inclusive form of financial infrastructure.

III. From "US Stock Token Trading Platform" to "Blockchain Brokerage Firm"

So, if MSX's main answer over the past year was "Can US stocks be put on the blockchain?", then the question we want to answer next is "How should it be done and how deep should it go?"

Here, I'd like to share a positioning judgment that our team has been thinking about for a long time and has become increasingly clear: MSX's next step is not just to be a "US stock token trading platform", but to strive to become a true "blockchain brokerage".

What's the difference?

The core operation of the "US stock token trading platform" is to "encapsulate" US stocks into tokens and put them on the blockchain for trading. This certainly has value, but if it stops at this level, it is more like giving existing financial products a new front-end interface. From the perspective of today's market stage, we believe that this is not the most core or the most urgent issue.

The logic of "blockchain brokerage" is completely different. It aims to solve not only "what form of trading" but also whether blockchain technology can be used to reconstruct the underlying processes behind brokerage business, including deposits and withdrawals, clearing and settlement, asset custody, global account system, and cross-border fund transfers.

To put it more bluntly, many of the pain points of traditional brokerages, such as high account opening thresholds, slow cross-border remittances, and excessively long settlement chains and cycles, are not simply because "stocks are not tokens," but because the underlying infrastructure is too old. The T+1 or even T+2 settlement cycle, the nested intermediary institutions, and the segmented account systems of different countries are the real structural obstacles that restrict global investors from participating in US stocks.

What blockchain can do is to redo these processes using a more efficient infrastructure.

Just like the rise of online brokerages back then, it didn't change the stocks themselves, but it completely changed the way people accessed stocks: from offline business halls to online apps, lowering the threshold, improving efficiency, and expanding the coverage radius.

The logic of "blockchain brokerage" is exactly the same. By leveraging tokenization and blockchain infrastructure, it enables the world's highest quality asset pool, US stocks, to reach global users in a less frictional way. Users can use stablecoins to complete instant deposits and withdrawals, use on-chain clearing and settlement to replace multiple intermediary links, use smart contracts to improve the transparency of custody and settlement, and use a globally unified on-chain account system to replace the brokerage accounts that are divided in different countries.

Therefore, this is not a simple story of "turning stocks into tokens", but a story of "rebuilding global brokerages with next-generation infrastructure".

MSX's next step is to delve deeper into this direction.

Specifically, there are a few things we will focus on advancing.

First and foremost, product development will remain our core focus . As the team's "product manager," my colleagues at MSX and I will continue to optimize the transaction experience, page efficiency, feature completeness, ease of use, and overall smoothness, refining details that impact user experience to make the product even better.

Secondly, asset supply will continue to be a key focus . We will continue to expand the range of assets, including popular stocks, thematic assets, and pre-IPO shares. We are making some major preparations and will soon be able to clearly show users that on-chain US stocks are not a single product, but a complete set of asset participation methods that are taking shape.

Third, liquidity and trading depth remain key areas of continued focus . Whether on-chain US stocks can truly gain wider market acceptance depends on more mature trading capabilities. We will continue to invest resources in order flow optimization and liquidity integration to make the trading experience increasingly similar to, and even superior to, traditional brokerages in some aspects.

Fourth, content, research, and user communication will not decrease; on the contrary, they will become more systematic. A new track that is still in its early stages needs not only a trading entry point but also an entry point for knowledge. Over the past year, MSX Research Institute has continued to output content, and the stock selection team has also delivered a remarkable performance. Community content such as "US Stock Learning" has established a good reputation among new users.

This work isn't about creating noise, but about helping more users understand sooner why on-chain US stocks are worth paying attention to, what it's changing, and how it differs from the singular trading logic of the past. In the future, this work will become more systematic because we believe that a truly viable platform not only provides trading scenarios but also helps users build a judgment framework.

The market often likes to examine new things on a very short time scale, but the truly important changes often do not happen when things are at their most exciting, but rather after the hype has died down, when people are still willing to continue refining the product, building the infrastructure, and improving the user experience.

MSX aspires to be such a platform.

In conclusion

A year is not a long time in any industry, but in Crypto's timescale, a lot can happen.

Over the past 365 days, MSX has evolved from a judgment into a product, from a concept into an entry point that creates value for users every day. We have verified the real demand for US stock tokens, established a basic compliance framework, and assembled a team that has gone through the entire process from 0 to 1.

This is our report card for this stage—it may not be perfect, but it's very real.

Finally, I would like to sincerely thank the Maitong community and every friend who has accompanied MSX through its first year. Throughout this year, users have been brainstorming with us in the community almost every day, from feature suggestions and UI critiques to stock selection discussions and strategy sharing. Every bit of growth for Maitong is inseparable from your contributions.

MSX originated from the community; this is not just a fancy phrase, but a code etched into the MSX DNA.

Thank you to all users who have used, experienced, and provided feedback on the platform. Every click, suggestion, and comment from you is the basis for our continuous improvement and progress.

Thank you to all our partners, ecosystem colleagues, and industry friends. The ability to move things forward in their early stages is inseparable from our mutual trust, support, and consensus.

I also want to thank every member of the team. Over the past year, we have worked together to find certainty amidst uncertainty, put in hard work on new things, and truly brought many of the "directions" that others saw to fruition into products and execution.

Let's continue in the new year.