What is Primary vs Secondary Market?
The primary market is where tokens are created and destroyed against the underlying — authorised parties mint on deposit and redeem for delivery, transacting at NAV under the issuer's terms. The secondary market is where everyone else trades existing tokens with each other at the venue's price. The gap between the two is the NAV premium.
Also called: primary market tokenized stock · secondary market · creation and redemption vs trading · authorized participant
Two different doors
Primary access is permissioned: an authorised participant, an eligibility check, an issuer window, minimum sizes and a settlement cycle. Secondary access is open to anyone the venue admits and clears in seconds on-chain. Most holders only ever touch the secondary market, which is why the issuer's redemption terms — not the venue's order book — determine what the token is ultimately worth.
Why the link can break
The primary market is the mechanism that drags the secondary price back to NAV. Widen its costs, narrow its windows, or gate it, and the arbitrage weakens: the secondary price is then free to drift into a persistent premium or discount. Reading a premium without asking whether the primary door is open is reading half the picture.
Frequently asked questions
Can a retail holder redeem a tokenized stock for the real share?
Usually not directly. Redemption is typically restricted to authorised parties under the issuer's terms; other holders exit on the secondary market at the prevailing price.
Which price is the real one?
Both are real and they answer different questions: NAV is what the underlying is worth, the secondary price is what someone will pay for the token right now.
Where this shows up live
On the desk
What our numbers do and do not measure
Every figure on those pages carries its source and as-of time. Nothing is shown when the upstream is unavailable.
Related terms
- Mint & Redeem — Mint and redeem is the primary-market mechanism that keeps a backed tokenized asset aligned with its underlying.
- Redemption Gate — A redemption gate is any limit on converting a token back into the underlying: a queue, a notice period, a daily cap, a minimum size, an eligibility restriction, or a full suspension.
- NAV Premium & Discount — NAV premium (or discount) is the gap between a tokenized asset's on-chain market price and its net asset value (NAV) — the value of the underlying share or fund.
More in Market Structure
24/5 vs 24/7 Trading · Custody vs Self-Custody · Market-Hours Gap
Informational only · not financial advice. See the live numbers on the data desk, the sourcing rules in the methodology, or the day's stories in the newsroom. · ← All glossary terms