the state of tokenization

This edition explores how tokenization is moving real-world assets onto distributed ledgers, from funds and bonds to private credit and gold, making them borderless, composable and always-on.

what tokenization changes

Almost nothing in finance is physical. A share, a bond or a fund unit is an entry in someone's database, and value moves only as fast as those databases reconcile.

Tokenization changes where that entry lives. The asset stays the same: a Treasury fund is still a Treasury fund, a bond is still a bond. What moves onchain is the record of who owns it, how it transfers and which rules travel with it.

That plumbing is where the cost sits. A record on a shared, programmable ledger can move between eligible holders at any hour, settle against stablecoins and plug into other onchain products.

putting an asset onchain

Every tokenized asset starts with one question: what does the token actually hold? Answer that, and the structure follows.

Most often, the token is the fund share itself. The fund keeps its manager, custodian and daily NAV, and only the share register changes form. Investors subscribe in stablecoins, shares mint straight to a whitelisted wallet and burn on redemption. BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin Templeton's BENJI run this way.

Some assets are best left where they are. A feeder fund or custodian holds the original and issues tokens against it, so the underlying never moves. Apollo's ACRED holds Apollo's credit fund, and PAXG holds allocated gold.

The cleanest path is to be born onchain. The EIB's €100 million Ethereum bond in 2021 and Hong Kong's digital green bonds in 2024 ran issuance, coupons and redemption off one onchain record.

distribution without borders

Onchain, distribution stops being a local deal. A fund no longer needs a distributor in every market. It needs a token that any wallet, exchange or app can plug into.

Access works like this. The investor onboards once, KYC is tied to their wallet, and that wallet becomes their account everywhere the token lives. The legal wrapper keeps the product recognised under local rules, so one token can serve investors across many markets.

Compliance is coded into the token itself. Permissioned standards such as ERC-3643 check eligibility on every transfer, so issuer controls travel wherever the token goes. Settlement runs in stablecoins or tokenized cash, 24/7, and every new integration opens another storefront.

plug and play

A token that follows a standard interface can be used inside other products without being redeemed. The same position can earn yield and secure a trade at the same time.

Onchain, assets stop sitting idle. A tokenized fund can be posted as collateral to borrow or trade against, without selling it, and it keeps earning while it works.

Trading venues already accept them. Binance, for one, takes BlackRock's BUIDL as collateral, so a trader's margin keeps earning Treasury yield.

They also become building blocks. The same tokenized Treasury fund can back a stablecoin, sit inside another fund or power a lending strategy in DeFi.

Every new integration adds a use, and every use draws in more issuers. The asset stays the same. What it can do keeps growing.

sizing the market

Tokenized real-world assets, excluding stablecoins, reached $39.2 billion on 31 October 2026, held across about 5.5 million onchain addresses. US Treasury funds led the way, growing from about $100 million in January 2023 to $14.3 billion today.

Treasury funds make up the largest share, followed by private credit, gold and stocks. The names are familiar: BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan, Apollo, Hamilton Lane, Ondo and Circle, with Securitize tokenizing many of their funds.

This is still early. McKinsey sees around $2 trillion by 2030, and BCG and ADDX see $16.1 trillion. Either way, the curve has a long way to run.

India, the next market onchain

Much of that runway sits in markets that are only now coming onchain, and India is among the largest. Its financial markets are worth more than $7 trillion, and very little of that has been tokenized so far.

Change has begun at home. In September 2026, REC, L&T and IIFL Finance issued about ₹1,025 crore of tokenized corporate bonds under SEBI's regulatory sandbox, settled in wholesale CBDC. For investors abroad, GIFT City offers a way in, with its own regulator and business done in foreign currency.

> in practice

Indian private credit pays yields that global investors look for, but getting in has meant registrations, several intermediaries and days of settlement.

aarnâ's India Yield Platform in GIFT City is being built to shorten that path. Eligible investors will be able to get exposure to Indian performing credit from an onchain wallet, through a regulated route, with every holder verified onchain. More at aarna.ai

where this leaves us

Tokenization is live. The world's largest managers run funds onchain, governments issue bonds natively and exchanges accept tokens as collateral.

The early pitch was owning exotic assets. The bigger story is everyday assets becoming programmable, portable and productive, earning and moving at any hour. Every venue that accepts them makes each tokenized asset more useful to whoever holds it.