StartEngine To Tokenize $3B In Real-World Assets Using ERC-1450 Smart Contract Standard

The milestone coincides with a crypto-friendly SEC championing compliant, on-chain ownership

BURBANK, CA, NOVEMBER 18, 2025 — StartEngine, a renowned alternative investment platform with a community of over 2.1 million investors¹ and over $90 million in revenue year-to-date,² announced that it is in the process of tokenizing over 400 companies and funds, which would potentially represent more than $3 billion in digital securities.

All tokens will represent real-world assets (RWA) using the ERC-1450 blockchain standard first introduced by StartEngine Co-Founder and CEO Howard Marks in 2017.

ERC-1450 enables companies to issue, track, and trade digital RWA on the blockchain, preserving investor protections while modernizing how ownership is recorded.³ The milestone comes as the SEC, under Chairman Paul Atkins, launches “Project Crypto,” a new initiative recognizing tokenized securities as part of U.S. capital-market infrastructure.⁴

“ERC-1450 was our vision for how ownership could evolve, giving investors real, compliant equity on-chain and future liquidity,“ said Howard Marks, Co-Founder and CEO of StartEngine. “After years of development, collaboration, and regulatory progress, it’s rewarding to see the SEC finally embracing this vision.”

Recent regulatory progress, including the proposed CLARITY Act, is helping establish clear definitions for digital commodities and mature blockchains, paving the way for compliant tokenization at scale.⁵

“Tokenization for securities is now the hottest thing in crypto,” said Kevin O’Leary (aka “Mr. Wonderful”), Strategic Advisor to StartEngine.⁶ “The ability to raise and trade real, regulated ownership on-chain is a complete game-changer for investors and founders alike.”

Since 2014, StartEngine has helped over 2.1 million users invest more than $1.5 billion across a wide array of private investment opportunities,¹ ranging from emerging startups to offerings for exposure to pre-IPO companies like Kraken and Ripple.⁷

Through the first nine months of 2025, StartEngine generated over $92.7 million in revenue and was profitable in every quarter, further continuing momentum by doubling revenue year-over-year for the last three years.² The company has also raised over $80 million for its own equity fundraises from more than 50,000 individual shareholders.

Subsequent annual results may not reflect the same growth rate. Past performance may not be indicative of future performance. There’s no guarantee that revenue or funding will continue to grow for the Company, or that the Company will remain profitable.

About StartEngine

StartEngine is one of the largest alternative investing platforms in the U.S. Led by Activision Co-Founder Howard Marks and advised by Kevin O’Leary,⁶ StartEngine launched in 2014 with the mission to help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams, while providing everyday investors with access to private investment opportunities. To date, over $1.5 billion has been invested on StartEngine’s platform from a community of more than 2.1 million users.¹ In November 2023, the company launched StartEngine Private, an offering for accredited investors to gain exposure to prominent pre-IPO companies like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Databricks.⁷ In November 2025, StartEngine announced plans to tokenize more than $3 billion in real-world assets using ERC-1450, a blockchain standard first introduced by StartEngine Co-Founder and CEO Howard Marks in 2017.³

StartEngine Crowdfunding Inc. is not a broker-dealer, funding portal or investment adviser. StartEngine Primary LLC is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and FINRA/SIPC. StartEngine Secondary is an alternative trading system regulated by the SEC and operated by StartEngine Primary. To raise funds, invest or trade on the StartEngine platform, visit www.startengine.com.

Media Contact

Scott Murphy

Director of Content

StartEngine

scott.murphy@startengine.com

1. Count determined as number of unique email addresses in StartEngine’s database as of 04-03-2025. One individual may have more than one email address. In May 2023, StartEngine acquired assets of SeedInvest, including email lists for SeedInvest’s users, investors and founders. Click here for more details.‍‍ Amount invested includes $470M in funds raised previously through offerings conducted on www.seedinvest.com outside of the StartEngine platform.

2. Based on our Q3 2025 Form 10-Q/A. This revenue growth has been driven by StartEngine Private, a new product line that offers funds in late stage companies. This product line has driven over $75.9 million of the $92.7million in revenue from the first 9 months of 2025. To understand the impact on margins, see financials. Past performance may not be indicative of future performance.

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) calculated in accordance with GAAP adjusted to exclude interest expense, interest income, income taxes, depreciation, and amortization, and stock based compensation. We present Adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management team to evaluate our operating performance, generate future operating plans and make strategic decisions. We believe Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors regarding our operational performance and our ability to generate cash flows. Non-GAAP information should be considered as supplemental in nature and is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the related financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, our non-GAAP financial measures may not be the same as or comparable to similar non-GAAP financial measures presented by other companies.

Please see the table on page 36 of our Q2 2025 Form 10-Q/A. This reconciles net income (loss), the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP measure, to Adjusted EBITDA for the periods presented.

3. Source: Howard Marks, “Introducing a New Standard for Digital Stock Certificates: ERC-1450,” Medium, November 8, 2018

4. Source: Susan Gault-Brown, et al., “SEC Chairman Atkins Announces “Project Crypto”—a New Era for Digital Asset Regulation in the United States,” A&O Shearman, August 13, 2025

5. Source: Miles Jennings & Aiden Slavin, “The CLARITY Act – Why It Matters, What To Know, and What To Do,” a16z crypto, July 18, 2025

6. Kevin O’Leary is not only a strategic advisor, but also an investor and paid spokesman for StartEngine. Please see his 17(b) disclosure for more information.

7. The underlying companies held by StartEngine Private Funds LLC, and StartEngine Private LLC (together, “StartEngine Private”) are not participating or involved in the offering. The availability of company information does not indicate that the company has endorsed, supports or otherwise participates with StartEngine Private or any of its affiliates. StartEngine Crowdfunding LLC purchases shares from current and former employees, early investors, and advisors of the companies and sells the shares to StartEngine Private for each offering. When you make an investment in a company on StartEngine Private, you are purchasing an interest in a series of StartEngine Private Funds LLC or StartEngine Private LLC, each a Delaware limited liability company (together the “Series LLCs”), which were created to hold shares of privately held companies. An investor will not directly own or hold shares of the private company but instead will own member interests in a series of the Series LLCs, which either directly or indirectly, will hold shares in the company. There may not be a one-to-one economic parity on the value of the Series LLCs interests and the underlying shares. This is offered only to accredited investors per regulation D rules.