In 1993, the first granted fund on the stock market was launched. At the time, most of Wall Street shrugged. The common investment funds dominated, the brokers reigned supreme and the idea that investors would flock to new packaging for exposure to the index seemed eccentric. Three decades later, the FNB reshaped the way the world is investing. 15,000 ETF hold more than 17 billions of dollars of assets worldwide, electricity of countless retirement portfolios and are at the very heart of the financial markets. What started as an experience is now the default.
Today, we are at the dawn of another revolution of a larger magnitude probably greater. The tokenization of active active world (RWA) on blockchain rails is not a futuristic thought experience. This happens right now. The main idea is simple: take traditional financial instruments – bonds, actions, credit portfolios – and represent them digitally on public blockchains. This makes them programmable, portable and instantly transferable. In other words, it allows investors to move an US treasure bond as easily as sending an email.
In Janus Henderson, we did not wait on the sidelines. Last year, we joined the centrifugal infrastructure provider to launch a liquid cash flow fund issued directly on Onchain. In just a few months, he reached more than $ 400 million in management assets, investors have sought solutions to provide traditional chain investments. Based on this success, we have developed with our Jaaa flagship strategy, which has already changed to $ 750 million. It is no longer a theory: it is the capital of live investors that flows through new rails.
Of course, skepticism remains in large traditional finance bands where arguments focus on regulations, rooted inherited systems or the lack of comfort for investors. But we have heard similar doubts about ETFs even as recently as the last ten years when the trend was already fully visible. And while the arguments change, skepticism is the main response to almost all revolutionary innovations in finance. The truth is that adoption does not occur linearly by rooted players who change in a way. This happens slowly, then suddenly, because the pillars of the industry are disturbed to a point that they can no longer ignore. The world changes around us, and what seemed to be niche becomes normal.
The tokenization is different from past attempts to modernize finances, because it is not only a new packaging or a new distribution mechanism. It is a new foundation. The world capital market infrastructure is slowly evolving and has been left behind. The colonies take days when they could take a few seconds. The costs are integrated into intermediary layers. Access is limited via a small club of institutions. Investors and transmitters are frustrated. The tokenization deals directly with these friction. By moving assets on the waves, investors obtain an instant settlement, radical transparency and the capacity of investment products to integrate into decentralized finance. In the same way that mobile has led to new businesses and transformed consumer behavior, blockchain will generate new funding models.
The implications go beyond efficiency. The tokenization opens the door to a more inclusive financial system. Imagine a teacher in Jakarta holding the S&P 500 in her digital portfolio and using this to ensure a loan for a new business idea, or a worker in London by sending uninteresting micro-paids to a family member in São Paulo. Tokenization allows institutions to serve customers who have historically been excluded from the traditional financial system. It also allows institutions that already use these investments to completely modernize the way they engage with their assets. It makes these assets more accessible, portable and usable in a new programmable financing era.
By providing the rails from emitting, managing and distributing token funds, centrifuge technology allowed us to market these products quickly and safely. The partnership has enabled a global asset manager of $ 450 billion $ 90 billion to operate with speed, transparency, security and interoperability that only blockchain can offer. The result is a point of evidence for the upcoming replacement of the global financial system.
The question is not now whether the tokenization works. This is clearly the case. The real question is whether the asset managers and the regulators will move fairly quickly to seize the opportunity, or rather watch the new entrants build a parallel system that better meets the needs of global investors.
The traditional financial industry cannot wait for permission to innovate. The revolution of generational technology for finance is not AI is blockchain. The technology is mature, the advantages are undeniable and the momentum is here now. Traditional financial companies are faced with a choice: adopting tokenization and shaping the next chapter in global finance, or looking at the transformation occurs without us.
