IBM

• A blockchain token designed to track the price of International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM).

• It is not a share. Holding the token does not confer ownership of the company, voting rights, or a direct claim against it.

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

• Founded: 1911

• Headquarters: Armonk, New York, United States

• CEO: Arvind Krishna

• Listed on: NYSE (IBM)

• Sector: Enterprise technology

• IBM sells enterprise software, consulting services and mainframe hardware.

• Red Hat, acquired in 2019, anchors its hybrid cloud strategy.

• It also runs one of the longer-running corporate quantum computing programmes.

• Software, led by Red Hat, automation and data and AI products, is the largest segment.

• Consulting provides IT services and implementation.

• Infrastructure sells mainframes and storage.

• A smaller Financing segment supports client purchases.

• 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:

• Software revenue is increasingly recurring.

• Mainframe upgrade cycles produce strong hardware years.

• It has a long dividend track record.

Cons:

• Consulting growth has been slow.

• It competes with hyperscalers for enterprise cloud budgets.

• Quantum computing remains a long-term bet.

• 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.