State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF

• A blockchain token designed to track the price of SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE Arca: SPY), an exchange-traded fund.

• It is not a fund unit. Holding the token does not make you a shareholder of the fund and confers no rights against the fund or its manager.

• It offers fractional, round-the-clock price exposure without a foreign brokerage account.

• Issuer: State Street

• Launched: January 1993

• Index: S&P 500

• Listed on: NYSE Arca (SPY)

• Category: Large-cap US equity fund

• SPY tracks the S&P 500 index, giving broad exposure to large-capitalisation US companies.

• It is one of the oldest and most heavily traded exchange-traded funds in the world.

• It is diversified across sectors, though index weighting has become concentrated in the largest technology names.

• The fund holds the roughly 500 companies in the S&P 500.

• It is weighted by market capitalisation.

• The largest technology companies make up a large share.

• You get price exposure to the underlying instrument.

• You do not get shareholder voting rights.

• Dividend or distribution treatment depends on the issuer's structure and is often not passed through.

• You take on issuer and custodian risk in addition to the price risk of the underlying.

Pros:

• It is the oldest US-listed ETF.

• It is among the most traded securities.

• It is diversified across sectors.

Cons:

• It has become top-heavy.

• It covers only US companies.

• Its unit investment trust structure limits some fund practices.

• Counterparty risk: if the issuer or custodian fails, the backing may not be recoverable.

• Tracking risk: the token price can diverge from the underlying, particularly outside US market hours when the underlying does not trade.

• Liquidity risk: on-chain liquidity is thinner than the underlying market, so spreads can widen sharply.

• Regulatory risk: India does not yet have a settled framework for tokenised equities, and tax treatment remains unclear.

• Price risk specific to the underlying instrument.