Startups require fast access to capital, clear investor alignment, and scalable growth strategies. Digital assets and real world assets (RWA) are accelerating startup innovation by enabling tokenized fundraising, transparent cap tables, and decentralized governance models that give founders greater control and flexibility.
Tokenization of real-world assets: It’s quite a mouthful, but what does it mean? The short answer is that it’s digital proof of ownership of an asset, represented by a token (or tokens) on a blockchain. Asset tokenization has the potential to not only replace or enhance current ownership validation methods (such as deeds, titles, or copyrights), but could also allow for easier division of ownership interest.
One of the major financial discussion themes at 2024’s Annual Meeting was how physical and financial assets can be ‘tokenized’, meaning that a digital representation of the asset is created on the blockchain to allow them to be exchanged securely in real time.\r\n\r\nNow after years of investment, proof of concept and testing, the planets are aligning and tokenization of financial assets is finally happening at an institutional and governmental level.
Freelancers and gig workers represent a growing segment of the global workforce, yet they often face challenges related to payment delays, lack of benefits, and limited access to financial services. Digital assets and real world assets (RWA) are addressing these issues by enabling instant settlements, decentralized work platforms, and tokenized incentive structures that empower independent professionals.
Looking into a tokenized future Various financial services providers are projecting that tokenization in financial services could generate trillions of dollars in new value this decade. And while these estimates may elicit skepticism among some, they would likely represent just a tiny fraction of the global market of assets that has the potential of being tokenized. Think of the many sectors with assets that have that possibility:
The Tokenization Roundtable is the fourth roundtable in the series Spring Sprint Toward Crypto Clarity. The roundtables reflect the Staff’s continued interest in understanding how crypto asset technologies interact with existing securities laws and signal growing momentum toward formal rulemaking and interpretive guidance in this area. The panelists broadly agreed that tokenization has the potential to transform capital markets
Finance is no longer binary—it's not just about crypto or fiat, digital or physical. The future belongs to hybrid finance, where digital assets and real world assets (RWA) coexist seamlessly, offering investors the best of both worlds: speed, transparency, and programmability from the digital realm combined with the stability and tangibility of real-world value.
What's driving the need for asset tokenization Traditionally, investing in assets like real estate and art required significant capital, making them inaccessible to many. Asset tokenization can shift this balance, potentially opening these asset classes to more investors. At its core, asset tokenization creates a digital representation of the ownership of a real asset stored on a blockchain: This digital asset is known as a token.
Tokenization – A complex, but future-oriented technology By means of tokenization based on the blockchain technology, real estate can be fragmented and then represented by digital tokens. The individual "tokens" represent the underlying property on asset level with all its rights and obligations. Contractual details are defined in so-called "smart contracts".
A wave of tokenization is sweeping across industries—and businesses that fail to adapt risk being left behind. Digital assets and real world assets (RWA) are no longer futuristic experiments; they’re becoming essential components of modern finance, operations, and customer engagement strategies.
For tokenized securities, the developer creates on-chain tokens that each represent a share of equity in a company or other security, or another asset that offers the right to cashflows. This tokenization can open up possibilities — such as instantaneous settlement, share fractionalization and daily dividend payments — that make the product more efficient or functionally diverse than its TradFi counterpart.
Tokenization can unlock accessibility to alternative asset types and more composable assets and structures, enabling a significant change in how investors manage portfolios. With greater automation and rules-based investment allocations, entirely new strategies could also become economically viable. Integrating existing platforms with next-generation digital systems will enable the industry to modernize in stages, ultimately allowing for the adoption of new asset types at scale.
Many industries sit on vast amounts of undervalued or underutilized assets—from vacant commercial properties to dormant mineral rights. Digital assets and real world assets (RWA) are unlocking this hidden potential by enabling transparent valuation, fractional ownership, and efficient capital allocation.
According to an EY-Parthenon survey, 37% of institutional investors and 61% of high-net-worth investors are planning on investing in the next wave of tokenized assets in either 2023 or 2024.1 Furthermore, high-net-worth investors are intending to allocate 6.3% of their portfolios to tokenized assets in 2024. High-net-worth investors are also seeking better access to alternatives and are willing to pay higher fees for direct real estate equity.
Tokenization, or the process of creating digital representations of real-world assets on a blockchain, has become one of this year’s buzzwords in both conventional and crypto finance circles. The excitement is reminiscent of the hype of a few years ago surrounding the use of blockchains for everything from tracking lettuce at Walmart Inc. to digitizing stocks that proved to be premature.
Tokens not only carry information about the asset they represent but also embed rules governing their operation that specify what can and cannot be done with them. This functionality, combined with their integration into programmable platforms, simplifies transaction processes that traditionally would require complex message chains and operations across multiple systems. Additionally, the use of smart contracts
We're witnessing a new kind of gold rush—not for precious metals, but for tokenized assets. Digital assets and real world assets (RWA) are fueling the rise of the token economy, where everything from real estate and commodities to music royalties and intellectual property can be represented, traded, and monetized on blockchain networks.
Asset tokenization is the act of digitizing the ownership of an asset. At a very high level, it is not that different from the way your bank manages your checking account. Your bank doesn't have a vault stuffed with your cash in it. Instead, it has a computer with a series of 1s and 0s representing your cash balance. Banks essentially digitize our money. Digital asset tokens represent real-world assets, just as the banks' 1s and 0s represent your cash.
Tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) is revolutionizing the way we perceive and manage assets. “Tokenized RWAs,” or more simply the digital representation of physical or intangible assets using a token recorded on a blockchain, allows for the efficient recording, trading, transferring, and managing of tangible assets in a digital format. Real estate, commodities, art, and intellectual property are just some of the wide range of RWAs
Asset storage has traditionally relied on banks, vaults, and custodians—but digital assets and real world assets (RWA) are changing how we safeguard and manage value. From decentralized wallets to blockchain-backed vaults, this transformation is enhancing security, accessibility, and control over personal and institutional wealth.
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