Tokenized products already exist, but mainly for investing. The most popular category is tokenized money market funds, primarily backed by U.S. Treasuries. The largest, BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), debuted in March 2024.
This category now has over $15 billion in assets under management (AUM), with the broader market for on-chain real-world assets (excluding stablecoins) exceeding $31 billion in value. Expanding its network to include assets such as alternative investments and tokenized financial infrastructure, the global asset tokenization market is valued at approximately $2.1 trillion.
The industry is forecast to reach $24.5 trillion by 2033, according to Grand View Research, with some industry estimates suggesting that tokenized markets could reach as much as $88 trillion by 2035.
The main advantage they offer is 24-hour instant execution and fractional ownership, which allows traders to purchase small portions at any time, with all stages of the transaction – including buying, selling and final processing – completed immediately.
Faster, cheaper
This is not the focus of institutional investors, who are more interested in the properties of tokenized assets than in their ease of trading.
“Generally speaking, they don’t ask for tokens,” Lai said. “They are asking what tokens can do more over the existing wrappers they already have.”
