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Tokenization makes headlines,infrastructure decides who wins
NFT Gaming

Tokenization makes headlines,infrastructure decides who wins

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Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news’ editorial.

Interest in the tokenization of real-world assets has propelled the market to a $23 billion valuation in 2025. Yet, continued success hinges on robust infrastructure.

Summary

  • Tokenization is gaining traction — with Coinbase, JP Morgan, Citi, Franklin Templeton, and Goldman Sachs all launching pilots — but efforts remain siloed and fragmented.
  • Liquidity gaps and inconsistent infrastructure threaten the World Economic Forum’s $4T projection for tokenized assets by 2030.
  • Strategic alliances (e.g., Chainlink with DTCC, Securitize with Ethena) show progress, but risk creating dependency without true interoperability.
  • The real breakthrough will come from a unified, inclusive, end-to-end infrastructure that integrates custody, compliance, settlement, and liquidity at an institutional scale.

The shift to tokenization has recently gained momentum, with Coinbase filing with the SEC to offer tokenized equities and JP Morgan executing $500 million in tokenized Treasury trades. That momentum, however, won’t translate to scale unless infrastructure catches up, and that’s where the entire movement could stumble.

The World Economic Forum projects that tokenized assets could attract $4 trillion by 2030, but liquidity gaps and inconsistent standards threaten adoption.

Fragmentation stalls tokenization’s promise

The promise of tokenization is already visible. Major financial players have moved far beyond white papers and proof-of-concepts. Citigroup is tokenizing trade finance deposits. Franklin Templeton is running a money market fund on public blockchains. Goldman Sachs has issued digital bonds, while IBM has explored patent tokenization.

What is the common thread running between them? These efforts remain siloed.

The ecosystem is still a patchwork of niche solutions, lacking seamless interoperability. A Deloitte report notes 56% of institutional investors cite fragmented infrastructure as a barrier to blockchain adoption. This silos liquidity, limiting tokenized assets’ appeal for banks seeking efficient settlement.

In response, there has been a rise in strategic alliances. Chainlink and The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation are testing cross-chain interoperability. Securitize is working with Ethena to tokenize yield-bearing stablecoins. These partnerships are encouraging, but also reveal a deeper truth – so far, no one has built the infrastructure to operate independently. This vacuum opens the door to a wider problem: monopolization.

Balancing growth with infrastructure diversity

Centralized exchanges play a key role in project visibility through token listings. Their ability to provide liquidity, enable access, and foster market confidence is foundational to the digital asset ecosystem.

However, as tokenization advances, there’s a parallel need to ensure infrastructure remains diverse and accessible. At the heart of tokenization is the promise of expanding access to financial opportunity. To fully achieve this, the ecosystem must build towards an inclusive, interoperable infrastructure.

Strategic partnerships remain critical to early-stage projects, but without more diverse infrastructure, these partnerships could lead to reliance instead of long-term strength. Global regulatory initiatives such as the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, which enforces competition rules, are designed to maintain fairness. As the ecosystem matures, the industry must take active steps to ensure tokenization lives up to its core values of decentralization and inclusivity. By prioritizing openness, encouraging infrastructure diversity, and supporting fair competition, we can build a future where both large institutions and emerging players thrive.

The crypto industry often celebrates permissionlessness, yet it is controlled by a minority. While this may appeal to regulators or institutions in the short term, the real opportunity lies in building systems that avoid power imbalances.

Tokenization needs a full-stack infrastructure

Institutions don’t want multiple vendors. They want infrastructure that just works. That means integrated solutions for custody, compliance, issuance, settlement, privacy, and liquidity. Not a patchwork, but a unified platform.

Early versions of this are already taking shape. Platforms like Securitize offer lifecycle management tools for tokenized securities. Others, such as Provenance and RedSwan,  provide tokenization-as-a-service for real estate and private equity. These are meaningful steps, but they are not enough. The market needs more ambitious, end-to-end architecture.

To unlock tokenization’s full benefits, builders must stop working in silos. What’s needed are interoperable systems that can meet institutional-grade requirements at scale — reliably, securely, and compliantly.

Because tokenization isn’t just a blockchain feature, it’s the foundation for the next generation of financial infrastructure.

A unified path forward

Tokenization’s $4 trillion potential depends not on headlines or pilots. It depends on a cohesive infrastructure that unifies custody, compliance, privacy, and liquidity

We won’t reach that future through short-term alliances or hype cycles. The winners in this next phase of tokenization won’t be those who dominate headlines. It will be those who build durable, interoperable, and inclusive infrastructure.

Marcos Viriato

Marcos Viriato is the co-founder and CEO of Parfin, a fintech company providing digital asset custody and blockchain solutions to financial institutions. Parfin is recognized and backed by industry leaders such as Accenture Ventures and Framework Ventures. Under his leadership, Parfin developed Rayls, a permissioned EVM-compatible blockchain currently being tested as the privacy layer for Brazil’s central bank digital currency, Drex. Previously, he was a partner at BTG Pactual, one of Latin America’s largest investment banks.



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Robots (Unsplash/Sumaid pal Singh Bakshi/Modified by CoinDesk)
Crypto Trends

Tokenization Could Revitalize Chile’s Struggling Pension System

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For four decades, Chile has been a laboratory for pension reform. Its 1980s overhaul, based on individual capitalization, transformed retirement saving across Latin America. Mandatory contributions, privately managed by pension administrators (AFPs), built one of the region’s deepest capital markets and turned Santiago, Chile’s capital city, into a regional financial hub. Sovereign bonds were sought after, IPOs plentiful, and foreign investors saw Chile as a model of modernity.

That prestige has since faded. Low self-financed replacement rates — a median of 17% between 2015 and 2022 — left workers dissatisfied. Distrust of AFPs, often accused of charging high fees for middling returns, has grown. Then came the pandemic, when Chile’s Congress authorised three extraordinary withdrawals. More than $50 billion drained out between 2020 and 2021 — representing over 20% of the individual pension funds accumulated by 2019 and sixteen percent of Chile’s 2022 GDP. For households, this was a lifeline; for capital markets, a rupture. Liquidity fell, issuance slowed, and a pool of long-term savings once considered sacrosanct shrank.

In March 2025, Congress approved a long-awaited pension reform, replacing the “multifund” model with generational funds. Multifunds let workers choose among portfolios of varying risk, but many affiliates were ill-equipped, often chasing short-term returns or stuck in mismatched defaults. The new generational funds apply “life-cycle investing.” Young savers are placed in equity-heavy portfolios, shifting gradually toward bonds as they age. Economists argue this reduces mistakes and produces more stable outcomes. Regulators see it as common sense: align portfolios with demographics rather than market timing.

The reform also adds employer contributions, boosts The Universal Guaranteed Pension, a state-financed benefit to guarantee minimum pension to older adults, regardless of whether they contributed consistently to the private AFP system. The reform also forces competition by auctioning affiliates to the lowest-fee providers every two years instead of four. These measures should lift replacement rates, put pressure on AFPs to cut costs and improve efficiency, and spread risk more fairly.

Yet the reform remains cautious. Generational funds make portfolios more rational but savers more passive. Transparency is limited, switching providers cumbersome, and engagement shallow. That conservatism risks leaving Chile’s pensions modern in form but analogue in spirit. Around the world, finance is changing rapidly. Digital wallets, open banking, and tokenization are reshaping how capital is raised and invested. Chile’s model, even with generational funds, may be solving yesterday’s problems with yesterday’s tools.

The most promising innovation lies in tokenization: representing bonds or shares on digital ledgers. This promises faster settlement, lower costs, and greater transparency without altering the underlying asset. Europe has launched its DLT Pilot Regime, and Switzerland’s SIX Digital Exchange already issues tokenized bonds. Chile isn’t sitting on its hands. In 2023 its Law for Financial Technology Innovation created a regulated framework for open finance and crypto firms. Officially launched in 2020, the Santiago Stock Exchange (BCS), the Central Securities Depository (DCV) and the telco GTD launched AUNA Blockchain, Latin America’s first corporate blockchain consortium, to test tokenised bonds and shares. If managed prudently, this shift could transform Chile into a regional hub for institutional crypto investment and make initiatives like ScaleX Santiago Venture, CORFO and Start-Up Chile more dynamic by channeling digital savings into startups. Tokenization would not only lower costs and speed up settlement but also increase transparency, improve liquidity through fractional ownership, and expand market access. These features could give pensions safer exposure to innovation while nudging Chile’s financial infrastructure toward greater efficiency and global integration.

More controversial is crypto. Could Chile’s pension savings eventually include Bitcoin? Perhaps, but not yet. For that to happen, the law must be amended to explicitly recognise digital assets as eligible instruments for investment of retirement savings. The country’s Central Bank must also approve them, and regulators must enforce standards for custody, valuation, and risk. Even then, exposure would require caution. Direct coin holdings would clash with prudential rules. At a minimum, exposure should be through regulated ETFs or exchange-traded notes (ETNs), with explicit legal recognition and strict caps. Other countries’ experimentations with crypto investments show the stakes. Germany lets certain pension vehicles invest up to 20 percent in crypto. New Zealand’s KiwiSaver has dabbled in crypto via ETFs. Some US public funds have bought bitcoin products. But Canada’s Ontario Teachers and Quebec’s CDPQ lost heavily in failed ventures like FTX and Celsius. The lesson: prudence must prevail.

Chile could strike a balance with a dual path. Tokenised bonds and equities should be treated as equivalent to conventional ones if issued on regulated venues. In my opinion, crypto exposure, if allowed, should come only through ETFs or ETNs, capped initially at 1% percent to understand the market, but should be allowed to reach at least 25% percent of the equity allocation. Licensed custodianship, segregation of assets, and insurance would be mandatory. Full disclosure of volatility and downside risks should be required so savers know what is at stake. Such a roadmap would open pensions to innovation without jeopardizing stability. And by embedding tokenization into mainstream saving, it could accelerate the digitalization of Chile’s financial services ecosystem, setting standards banks, brokers, and insurers would need to follow.

But technical fixes alone cannot rebuild trust. Chile’s pension debate is about legitimacy as much as design. To address that, reforms could go further. Performance-based rebates could tie AFP fees to outcomes, rewarding long-term outperformance. “Open pensions” platforms could mirror open banking, offering affiliates real-time comparisons of fees and returns. Sandboxes could test tokenised fund shares and smart contracts. Allowing a sliver of savings to serve as mortgage collateral could ease tensions between younger workers, who feel locked out of housing markets, and retirees demanding higher pensions — softening intergenerational strains without undermining long-term funding, while keeping retirement goals intact. Affiliates should also share more directly in upside gains. One idea would link extraordinary profits to worker accounts: when returns beat a benchmark, the surplus would be credited back under supervisory oversight. This would make savers partners in success and keep AFPs accountable for performance, not just scale.

Chile deserves credit for moving where its neighbours mostly dawdle. Argentina has lurched between state and private control. Brazil’s system is vast but fragmented. Mexico’s reforms remain contested. Chile continues to adapt, however cautiously. But the stakes are high. Move too slowly, and capital markets risk stagnation, starved of long-term savings. Move too fast, and pensions could be caught in crypto storms. The balance between prudence and innovation is delicate.

Generational funds will make Chile’s pensions look sleek on paper, aligning portfolios with demographics and reducing costly mistakes. But without deeper innovation in technology, transparency, and citizen engagement, the system may remain analogue at heart. Pension design today is not only about adjusting contributions or tweaking commissions. It is about harnessing technology, safeguarding trust, and giving citizens an active role in shaping their financial futures. If Chile manages that balancing act, it could once again set the regional standard. Done right, pensions could catalyse the modernisation of the entire financial infrastructure. If not, Chile may find itself with a system modern in form but creaky underneath, destined for yet another reform and another crisis of confidence.



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Robinhood Ceo Calls Asset Tokenization An ‘Unstoppable Freight Train
Crypto Trends

Robinhood CEO Calls Asset Tokenization an ‘Unstoppable Freight Train’

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At the Token2049 conference in Singapore on October 1, 2025, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said he views asset tokenization as a long-term trend that could bring crypto and traditional finance closer together. 

He described the process as creating digital versions of assets, such as stocks, on a blockchain—a service Robinhood recently introduced for customers in the European Union.

Tokenized stocks for international investors

Tenev suggested that tokenized assets may become the default way for investors outside the U.S. to gain exposure to American stocks. 

According to him, this shift could address inefficiencies in current financial infrastructure and create closer links between digital and traditional systems. Robinhood’s introduction of tokenized U.S. stock trading in the EU reflects this view.

Robinhood’s expansion strategy

Tenev’s remarks also reflect Robinhood’s ongoing international expansion. Earlier this year, the company introduced tokenized U.S. stock trading for customers in the European Union, where the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation provides a clearer framework for such products. 

By starting in a jurisdiction with established oversight, Robinhood is testing tokenization in a regulated environment before considering broader adoption in other markets.

Broader implications and challenges

Tenev’s comments fit into a wider industry discussion about tokenization, where creating digital versions of assets such as stocks is seen as a way to make markets more accessible and efficient. 

Other financial firms have launched similar projects, but significant challenges remain, including regulatory uncertainty in the U.S., the scalability of blockchain infrastructure, and the security standards needed for large-scale adoption. Although, something notable is that this market is being explored with certain expectations. 

Tenev’s remarks highlight how a major U.S. brokerage views tokenization as part of its international strategy. The pace of adoption, however, will depend on regulatory clarity, technical scalability, and how both investors and institutions respond to these models.

Also read: S&P 500 Adds AppLovin, Robinhood, Emcor, Excludes MicroStrategy



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Sen. Ron Wyden, who heads the Committee on Finance, speaks at Consensus 2024. (Shutterstock/CoinDesk)
GameFi Guides

‘Tokenization is Going to Eat the Entire Financial System’ Says Robinhood CEO

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SINGAPORE — The most important story in crypto right now is tokenization and it’s coming fast to disrupt traditional finance, according to Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev.

Tenev told the crowd at the Token2049 conference in Singapore that tokenization is a “freight train” barreling toward the heart of traditional finance.

“Crypto and traditional finance have been living in separate worlds, but they’ll fully merge. In the future, everything will be on-chain in some form, and the distinction will disappear,” he said.

With Robinhood now offering tokenized stocks in Europe as well as private shares in some of the hottest non-public startups like OpenAI, the firm is betting big on a future where assets trade 24/7, on-chain, and globally.

“In the same way that stablecoins have become the default way to get digital access to dollars, tokenized stocks will become the default way for people outside the U.S. to get exposure to American equities,” Tenev said on stage. “That’s why we launched our stock tokens in Europe first, it’s the future of how global investors will hold U.S. assets.”

Even though many in the crypto industry have praised the direction the U.S. is going on digital asset policy, Tenev said the country needs to play regulatory catch-up to Europe.

There’s no urgency to change things – such as creating regulations to facilitate 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks – because the current system works well enough already. Tenev compared it to the lack of high-speed trains in the U.S., something ubiquitous in Europe and Asia.

“The biggest challenge in the U.S. is that the financial system basically works. It’s why we don’t have bullet trains — medium-speed trains get you there well enough,” he said. “So the incremental effort to move to fully tokenized will just take longer.”

Tokenizing real estate

Next up for Robinhood is tokenizing real estate.

Tenev told the crowd that tokenizing property is “mechanically” no different from tokenizing a private company, such as SpaceX or OpenAI: you place the assets into a company structure and then issue tokens against it.

While OpenAI called the move to tokenize its private shares “unauthorized” and crypto lawyers that spoke to CoinDesk said the move walked a legal tightrope, Tenev dismissed the controversy as part of a broader regulatory lag, arguing that the main hurdles aren’t technical but legal.

Europe is already moving ahead, he said, while the U.S. will likely trail, but he framed real estate as the next logical step in Robinhood’s tokenization push — an asset class that could one day be traded as easily as a stock or stablecoin.

“Eventually, it’s going to eat the entire financial system,” Tenev said.



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Alpaca launches Instant Tokenization Network for US stocks
Crypto Trends

Alpaca launches Instant Tokenization Network for US stocks

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US broker-dealer Alpaca has launched an Instant Tokenization Network (ITN) that allows institutions to mint and redeem tokenized US stocks directly, a move that could help boost onchain liquidity in a segment of the tokenization market still constrained by structural barriers.

The ITN enables institutions to tokenize portfolios with a single API call and redeem tokens in-kind for the underlying shares without settlement delays, Alpaca disclosed Wednesday. The service operates beyond traditional market hours, offering 24/7 access. 

By allowing in-kind redemptions — directly exchanging tokens for their underlying assets rather than settling in cash first — the network aims to make tokenized stocks more liquid and efficient.

Alpaca said the feature builds on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent efforts to address similar inefficiencies in the crypto exchange-traded product (ETP) market, notably through its approval of in-kind creation and redemption for spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs.

The ITN is available to US-regulated financial institutions, Alpaca told Cointelegraph.

The tokenized stock market is currently valued at more than $700 million. Source: RWA.xyz

“ITN’s process is best understood as a single API that enables two functions,” Arush Sehgal, Alpaca’s head of crypto, told Cointelegraph. 

“The first is the journaling of securities to and from brokerage accounts. This applies to US-regulated financial institutions,” he said. “The second is delivery of tokens by the issuer to their Authorized Participant, which is typically a non-US entity affiliated with the US institution that initiated the journaling of shares in step one.”

Alpaca has provided underlying infrastructure for recent tokenization initiatives, including Ondo Finance’s platform for tokenizing stocks and ETFs and xStocks’ platform for tokenized equities.

Related: Solana Foundation, Bitget Wallet join Ondo Finance’s ‘market alliance’

Wall Street, SEC converge on tokenization

The tokenization of real-world assets has emerged as one of the most prominent blockchain investment trends of 2025, with more than $31 billion in assets now represented onchain, according to industry data. 

In the United States, the movement is gaining traction with support from regulators: SEC Chair Paul Atkins described tokenization as an “innovation” in remarks delivered in July.

After US Treasury bonds and private credit led the early wave of tokenization, tokenized stocks appear to be the next frontier.

“There’s no doubt it has a big effect on TradFi,” said Rob Hadick, general partner at crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly, speaking with Cointelegraph at the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore. He noted that traditional finance is increasingly drawn to features such as 24/7 trading.

Rob Hadick speaking to Cointelegraph on the sidelines of the TOKEN 2049 conference. Source: Andrew Fenton/Cointelegraph

However, Hadick cautioned that institutional players are wary of sharing blockchain infrastructure with retail-focused projects.

“They want to be able to control things like privacy [and] who the validator set is, they want to be able to control what is happening in their execution environment,” he said.

The shift comes amid reports that the SEC is considering a framework that could allow traditional equities to trade on blockchain networks in a manner similar to cryptocurrencies.

Magazine: Robinhood’s tokenized stocks have stirred up a legal hornet’s nest



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Tokenization Coming for Animoca Brands Equity
NFT Gaming

Tokenization Coming for Animoca Brands Equity

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Investment platform Republic revealed plans on Tuesday to tokenize shares of crypto venture firm Animoca Brands on the Solana SOL$209.32 blockchain, a move aimed at opening investor access through blockchain rails.

Animoca Brands, known for backing over 600 blockchain startups and projects, remains privately held with shares only traded in limited over-the-counter deals. Republic said its plan will create digital tokens that represent ownership in the company, which can be held in crypto wallets and traded on Republic’s own marketplace.

“This tokenization aligns strongly with Animoca Brands’ position as a Web3 leader, providing novel options for investors to tokenize and trade their holdings as well as broaden investment accessibility for a wider market,” said Yat Siu, executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands.

The move could allow a wider, global set of investors to gain exposure to a private tech company without waiting for a traditional public listing. Tokenization, a red-hot trend to create blockchain-based tokens of traditional financial assets such as equity, is often touted as a tool for broadening investor access to assets previously limited to only a select few, proponents say. However, some private equity token offerings such as Robinhood’s drew concerns such as limited shareholder rights and fragmented regulations.

Republic said Animoca’s equity token will comply with existing regulatory requirements. Details on token pricing and launch timelines are expected later, the blog post said.

“This is a glimpse of the future, where retail investors worldwide can participate in opportunities once reserved for a few, and companies can tap into liquidity and distribution on a global scale,” Solana Foundation president Lily Liu said in a statement.

Read more: SEC Willing to Engage With Tokenized Asset Issuers, SEC’s Hester Peirce Says



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Cronos Partners With Aws On Tokenization And Developer Support
Crypto Trends

Cronos Partners with AWS on Tokenization and Developer Support

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Cronos, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain ecosystem, announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) on September 30, 2025. 

The partnership focuses on integrating Cronos into AWS’s cloud infrastructure with three priorities: making blockchain data accessible, offering credits to startups, and providing access to AI tools.

AWS Integration for Blockchain Data

A central element of the partnership is the inclusion of Cronos’s blockchain data in AWS Public Blockchain Data. The dataset is intended to provide a reliable source for developers, analysts, and institutions that require consistent reporting and compliance-ready information. By simplifying access, the integration lowers technical barriers for building applications on Cronos.

Support for Startups with Cloud Credits and AI

According to an announcement on X, startups working in the Cronos ecosystem may receive up to $100,000 each in AWS credits.

Cronos is collaborating with @awscloud Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate institutional adoption of tokenization & RWA.

The collaboration has 3 key pillars:

➡️ Cronos EVM Data on AWS (Beta) Public Blockchain Dataset
Making Cronos data easily accessible while building a… pic.twitter.com/A4sahiOevo

— Cronos (@cronos_chain) September 30, 2025

The goal is to reduce infrastructure costs and support early-stage development. In addition, developers will have access to AWS AI tools, including Amazon Bedrock, to build and deploy AI-enabled applications on the Cronos blockchain.

Context for Institutional Finance

The initiative reflects a trend of blockchain ecosystems working with established cloud providers to address institutional needs around security, scalability, and compliance. Cronos has outlined goals of reaching $10 billion in tokenized assets and 20 million users by 2026. 

The collaboration with AWS is intended to align its infrastructure with standards that may appeal to financial institutions exploring tokenization and real-world asset (RWA) projects. Which has become a growing focus across financial markets in 2025, with banks, fintechs, and asset managers piloting tokenized products. 

The Cronos and AWS collaboration links blockchain data availability, startup support through cloud credits, and access to AI tools. Set against the wider growth of RWA initiatives, it shows how cloud and blockchain infrastructure are being combined to support new development and potential institutional use cases.

Also read: Mirae Asset Taps Avalanche for RWA Tokenization in TradFi Push





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NFT Gaming

Chainlink, UBS Advance $100T Fund Industry Tokenization via Swift Workflow

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Chainlink said it developed a technical process allowing banks to interact with tokenized investment funds through Swift, the interbank messaging system that underpins much of traditional finance.

In a pilot with UBS, Chainlink’s Runtime Environment (CRE) processed subscriptions and redemptions for a tokenized fund using ISO 20022 messages, the international standard for financial messaging used by Swift.

The blockchain workflows were triggered directly from UBS’s existing systems after CRE received the Swift messages. It then triggered the subscriptions or redemptions in the Chainlink Digital Transfer Agent, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk.

The setup lets banks access blockchain infrastructure using tools they already use, like Swift, while Chainlink’s infrastructure handles the rest.

The pilot builds on previous work from Project Guardian, a tokenization initiative led by Singapore’s central bank. The latest development adds in interoperability that enables institutions to use Swift to trigger on-chain events.

The launch comes after Chainlink announced a separate pilot with 24 global banks and financial infrastructure providers like DTCC and Euroclear. That project used Chainlink’s tools and AI to extract and standardize data from corporate action announcements, a process that currently costs the industry an estimated $58 billion annually.

Read more: SWIFT to Develop Blockchain-Based Ledger for 24/7 Cross-Border Payments



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Ava Labs' Morgan Krupetsky talks Avalanche, tokenization
Crypto Trends

Ava Labs’ Morgan Krupetsky talks Avalanche, tokenization

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Tokenization is not new, says Morgan Krupetsky of Ava Labs, but this time, it’s here to stay.

Summary

  • Tokenization isn’t new, says Morgan Krupetsky of Ava Labs, and Avalanche was a first adopter
  • Stablecoins are the real, proven use case for tokenization, with over $280 billion market cap
  • The future is in DeFi integration into the background of almost all digital

Tokenization has emerged as one of the most influential narratives in crypto, with promises of greater efficiency, liquidity, and accessibility. Still, while major institutions are increasingly jumping into the field, the reality remains mixed.

Crypto.news spoke with Krupetsky of Ava Labs, who discussed Avalanche’s early role in tokenization and how to separate hype from reality.

Crypto.news: In your piece on “Tokenization 101,” you wrote that tokenization is still mostly hype. Which parts do you think are hype, and which are not?

Morgan Krupetsky: Tokenization isn’t new: people have been experimenting with it since 2017. We’ve seen all sorts of headlines about tokenizing everything from uranium to the Burj Khalifa. There’s been no shortage of announcements, but a lot of them are announcements of announcements—not live products.

That’s why I like to look at metrics, such as the dashboard on RWA.xyz, to see what’s actually deployed and reflected on-chain versus what’s just marketing.

The clearest success story so far is stablecoins, which are the quintessential tokenized asset with over $280 billion in market cap. Stablecoins have, in turn, spurred interest in tokenized money market funds. That segment is still small, but it’s growing.

We’re also seeing stablecoin and synthetic dollar issuers expand into private credit. There are ongoing efforts to tokenize equities, and people are experimenting with tokenizing collectibles, commodities, and more. But again, the key is separating what’s real and in production from what’s just hype.

Aside from stablecoins, which segments of tokenization look the most promising to you? Where do you see the biggest opportunities, whether for regulatory or technical reasons?

MK: I’m very excited about the private credit space. A big reason is that these products are yield-bearing. If you can automate things like interest payments and waterfall distributions using stablecoins, the benefits of tokenization become very tangible.

Take private equity, for example. It doesn’t generate disbursements in the same way, and NAV doesn’t change as frequently. The on-chain benefits are there, but not nearly as obvious. In contrast, with credit products, you immediately see how programmability adds value.

Specifically in asset-backed finance (ABF), we’re using stablecoins and programmatic facilities to streamline and upgrade the process. After the global financial crisis, banks pulled back from certain lending activities. Fintech originators stepped in, and private credit firms followed — but today the ABF space is dominated by the largest alternative asset managers. They can underwrite well, and they have huge middle and back-office teams to process loans.

By using programmable facilities and stablecoins, we can make those processes more efficient. That opens the door for smaller funds, emerging managers, and family offices to participate in ABF lending, a segment set to grow significantly in the coming years.

Right now, we’re running a few pilots with fintech originators, with the goal of scaling. For us, it’s about upgrading the ABF industry not just with “better tech,” but with better, programmable money.

And just to add: this isn’t about simply tokenizing loans for secondary market trading. A lot of initiatives are trying to create liquidity that way, but before that, the real impact comes from using the underlying tech stack to improve how the process works today.

When it comes to automating lending decisions, some companies have tried before, like Carvana in used cars or Zillow in housing, often with mixed results.

MK: I do not think the goal is to replace human decision-making. It is more about equipping institutions and individuals with better tools.

That is how a lot of AI is being used today: not to replace expertise, but to help people make more informed decisions. Blockchain allows data to be standardized and verified more quickly. That means decisions can be made faster and with fresher information, rather than working off an Excel spreadsheet that is 30 days out of date.

In this context, the technology acts as an enabler, not a replacement for underwriting capabilities. Human judgment still matters.

The same misconception comes up with tokenization. Just because you tokenize an asset does not mean people will automatically want to buy it, or that liquidity will appear. Tokenization does not create secondary markets on its own. What it does is provide the tooling that makes those markets possible if there is real demand.

You mentioned the financial crisis and lessons from subprime mortgages. Some industry voices have warned that tokenization can also carry risks, especially when funds are not transparent about what they are packaging. Do tokenized asset issuers actually use blockchain’s potential for transparency and compliance?

MK: Just as tokenization does not guarantee liquidity or secondary market demand, it also does not guarantee compliance. The technology is a tool. It can reflect laws, rules, and regulations, and it can help manage compliance more proactively. But it does not create the rules or set the governance framework. That still has to come from regulators and financial institutions.

In the work we are doing with private credit, for example, blockchain is being used to create better risk-adjusted returns for us and for our capital partners. Certain things are more transparent and can be programmed, which allows fintech originators to manage compliance and risk more effectively. From an investor’s perspective, that visibility makes them more comfortable deploying capital.

Ultimately, it is up to each issuer to ensure that their tokens or funds are launched in a compliant way, depending on the underlying asset and jurisdiction. There is a wide spectrum of approaches across different markets. The technology helps, but it does not replace the responsibility of humans to ensure compliance.

What is your view of the current regulatory environment in the U.S. when it comes to tokenized assets?

MK: In general, I think the regulatory environment has shifted a lot since the election. The change has provided strong tailwinds for the industry across the board. Institutions, banks, and asset managers are now much more open to exploring public blockchain infrastructure. You can feel the difference in conversations.

When it comes to comparing tokenized assets with their off-chain equivalents, the full benefits really come when more of the asset life cycle is issued and managed directly on-chain. Tokenizing something that was issued off-chain and then trying to administer it in two different systems creates friction. Over time, I think we will see more issuance happen natively on chain, but we are still in a transition period.

The long-term vision is to have stablecoins accepted in day-to-day use, tokenized assets issued from the start, and administration handled entirely on-chain. That is when the benefits of composability and programmability really show through. For example, idle assets could earn interest while being held in escrow. But we are not there yet.

I also sympathize with large incumbents like banks. Some of them have been operating for hundreds of years. Overhauling systems is expensive and disruptive, so they need a clear business case or threat to their revenue before making big moves. In the meantime, neobanks and fintechs have more flexibility and are often quicker to experiment.

Established firms like Nasdaq filed for tokenized equities. Mastercard file for stablecoins. Do you think DeFi can compete with traditional players in these markets? What advantages does decentralization bring?

MK: I think there will always be a place for public, permissionless DeFi as it exists today. But what is really happening is a convergence of DeFi, CeFi, and tokenization. When I started at Ava Labs three years ago, these were seen as separate worlds. Now they are coming together, and I expect that to continue.

Institutions are not likely to jump directly into DeFi platforms, but DeFi primitives can absolutely power the back end of fintechs, neobanks, and even traditional platforms. We are already seeing that with exchanges launching earn programs that rely on DeFi integrations behind the scenes.

From a tokenization perspective, the best path to adoption is through integration with the platforms people already use. That could be Nasdaq, a wealth tech platform like Robinhood, or private bank wealth management systems. For end users, the blockchain layer should be invisible. They do not need to know or care which chain is being used. What matters is that they get new or better financial products.

For example, imagine being able to spend directly from a tokenized money market fund using a debit card. That is the type of experience that will drive mass adoption, and in the back end, it can be powered by Web3 infrastructure, including DeFi.

Can you provide an overview of what Ava Labs has been doing in this space?

MK: Our mission from the beginning has been to digitize and tokenize the world’s assets. Many of us at Ava Labs were already working on tokenization before it was called “RWAs”. We have always believed this would be a core use case for blockchain.

One of our early milestones was working with Securitize and KKR to tokenize a portion of their healthcare growth fund in 2021. That was before tokenization was a mainstream narrative, but it showed the potential of bringing high-quality assets on-chain.

Since then, we have focused on two things. First, cultivating a high-quality supply of tokenized assets from top-tier managers such as Apollo, BlackRock, Wellington, and others. Second, building out distribution and demand by working with platforms that are built on Avalanche. We are doing a lot of outreach to potential distribution partners so that tokenized assets can reach investors through the channels they already use.

The reality is that most liquidity is still off-chain. The path to adoption is connecting that liquidity with tokenized assets through traditional distribution systems. That is what will drive the step change in adoption.

What about the Avalanche treasury initiative?

MK: I see it as another vehicle for a broader set of investors to access the Avalanche ecosystem. Not everyone is comfortable holding tokens directly, setting up a Web3 wallet, or going through that user experience. To be honest, the industry still has work to do on usability.

Products like this are similar to ETFs or ETPs in that they provide a more familiar structure for investors. That can include both institutions and individuals who want exposure but prefer a traditional wrapper. It ultimately opens access to Avalanche for people who might not otherwise get involved.

What work still remains to realize that vision?

MK: From the start, we have been focused on institutions and on-chain finance, and that remains our priority. We are doubling down on areas like DeFi, payments, treasury tokenization, and wholesale finance. I am proud of the progress we have made, but there is still a lot of work ahead.

The truth is that we do not have mass adoption yet. Institutional liquidity is not flowing into on-chain assets at scale. A lot of the puzzle pieces are in place now—custodians, on- and off-ramps, compliance frameworks, tokenization platforms—but we are not at the point where the industry can say, “We made it.”

I compare it to the early internet. Back then, people still talked about “internet companies.” Today, every company uses the internet, and you do not make that distinction. We will have reached the same milestone when blockchain is used as a core piece of infrastructure across enterprises, governments, and financial institutions. At that point, there will be no such thing as a “blockchain company”. It will just be part of how the world operates.



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Ripple’s Stablecoin Debuts on BlackRock-Backed Tokenization Platform

by admin



In brief

  • Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin was integrated in Securitize’s platform.
  • Two tokenized money market funds can now be exchanged for the stablecoin.
  • BlackRock’s BUIDL is worth $2 billion, per RWA.xyz.

Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin has been integrated into Securitize’s platform, allowing users to exchange shares in tokenized money market funds for the dollar-pegged asset.

The feature was enabled through a smart contract, which now serves as another off-ramp for products offered by asset managers BlackRock and VanEck, according to a press release. It functions 24/7, allowing users to access instant liquidity, Ripple added.

Ripple’s stablecoin debuted in December. And although it’s much smaller than alternatives offered by Tether and Circle, RLUSD has grown to a market capitalization of $740 million within the past year, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. 



In a statement, Jack McDonald, senior vice president of stablecoins at Ripple, described the move as a “natural next step as we continue to bridge traditional finance and crypto,” noting that RLUSD was designed specifically for institutional use.

Securitize made a similar announcement nearly a year ago, saying that Circle’s USDC had been integrated into its platform as a way to reduce investment costs and streamline the subscription process for investing in BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL).

BlackRock’s BUDIL is worth $2 billion, according to data from RWA.xyz. Around 90 qualified investors hold shares in the fund, which is tokenized on several blockchains, including Solana, Avalanche, Ethereum, Polygon, and layer-2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism.

The VanEck Treasury Fund (VBILL), which can also be exchanged for RLUSD on Securitize’s platform, is worth $74 million, while only having 14 different holders. 

Shares in BUIDL and VBILL are represented by tokens that change hands at $1, but unlike most stablecoins, they offer investors a yield.

Products issued through Securitize’s platform do not yet exist on XRP Ledger, but Tuesday’s announcement notes that “additional use cases and assets [are] planned,” while Securitize will “expand access and bring new utility to the XRPL ecosystem” through its own moves.

On Monday, Ripple unveiled an updated roadmap for XRPL, highlighting new compliance features like the ability for token issuers to “deep freeze” wallet addresses and a method for being able to “dry run” transactions. 

“Partnering with Ripple to integrate RLUSD into our tokenization infrastructure is a major step forward in automating liquidity for tokenized assets,” Securitize CEO and co-founder Carlos Domingo said in a statement. “Together, we’re delivering real-time settlement and programmable liquidity across a new class of compliant, on-chain investment products.”

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