Tokenized products already exist, although mainly for investment. The most popular category is tokenized money market funds, primarily backed by US 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), and the broader on-chain real-world asset market (excluding stablecoins) exceeds $31 billion in value. Casting a wider net to include assets such as alternative investments and tokenized financial infrastructures, the global asset tokenization market is valued at approximately $2.1 trillion.
According to Grand View Research forecasts, the sector is expected to reach $24.5 trillion by 2033, and some industry estimates suggest that tokenized markets could reach up to $88 trillion by 2035.
The key advantage they offer is 24-hour instant execution and fractional ownership, allowing traders to purchase small portions at any time, with all stages of the transaction, including buying, selling and final processing, completed immediately.
Faster, cheaper
That is not the central point for institutional investors, who are more interested in the properties of tokenized assets than their ease of trading.
“Generally speaking, they don’t ask for tokens,” Lai said. “They are asking which tokens can do the most compared to the existing wrappers they already have.”
