In today’s newsletter, Nick Ducoff, head of institutional growth at the Solana Foundation, draws a parallel between tokenization’s ability to democratize access to investments and how the Internet facilitated access to banking more than fifteen years ago.
Then, in Ask an Expert, CoinDesk’s research team answers questions about tokenization and stablecoin trends from its February 2026 Tokenization and Stablecoin Asset Report. Read the full report here.
– sara morton
Internet capital markets: from “without intermediation” to universal investment
Fifteen years ago, more than 60 million Americans were “unbanked,” excluded from basic financial services because traditional banks deemed them unprofitable. Then Chime, Revolut and other fintech pioneers brought banking to smartphones, removing legacy barriers like minimum balances and fines. Today, we face an even greater problem of exclusion: billions of people are effectively “intermediate,” without access to capital markets or investment opportunities to generate generational wealth.
Enter the Internet capital markets: global, always-on infrastructure where assets are born digital, traded mobile-first, and available to anyone with a smartphone 24/7. With blockchain technology, Internet capital markets are poised to do for investing what fintechs did for banking. And the opportunity is immense.
The scale of financial exclusion
“Non-brokers” encompass two distinct but overlapping populations: those who lack brokerage accounts entirely and international investors who cannot efficiently access high-quality US dollar-denominated assets. Consider Pakistan, where, according to Bilal Bin Saqib, chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (PVARA) and CEO of the Crypto Council of Pakistan, only 300,000 people have brokerage accounts, while 40 million have cryptocurrency wallets. The infrastructure exists, but financial products remain overwhelmingly inaccessible.
Even when access to US markets exists through local brokers, international investors often pay significant premiums, not to mention the high minimums and investor accreditation required by private markets. These are not products accessible to the global middle class: they are designed to serve the already wealthy.
Tokenization expands the playing field
Blockchain tokenization transforms these dynamics by enabling fractional ownership, eliminating intermediation costs, and operating 24/7 with instant settlement. The result: dramatically lower minimums and global accessibility. Consider Hamilton Lane, a leading alternative asset manager. Through Republic Crypto, investors can now access Hamilton Lane private market exposure for as little as $500. This represents a thousand-fold reduction in the barrier to entry compared to traditional private fund minimums, and a sign of how Internet-native market infrastructure may finally make fractional access more readily available.
BitGo’s recent IPO also shows the democratizing potential of tokenization. When BitGo went public on the New York Stock Exchange, the tokenized representation of BitGo shares could be traded simultaneously on Solana, allowing anyone worldwide with a Solana wallet to purchase BitGo shares immediately. This evolution toward real-time global accessibility is now being validated by the world’s largest asset managers: BlackRock and Franklin Templeton have launched tokenized money market funds on public blockchains, enabling 24/7 liquidity and transparency.
Why is this infrastructure important?
Tokenization expands access rather than competing with traditional markets. The blockchain works continuously, allowing investors in Jakarta, São Paulo or Lagos to buy assets when they are available, not when their local markets open. Settlement occurs instantly against stablecoins, eliminating multi-day clearing processes and currency conversion fees that hamper retail investors outside the US.
Speed and cost matter. High-performance blockchains like Solana, along with Layer 2 scaling solutions on Ethereum, can process thousands of transactions per second for fractions of a cent, making the economics of fractional ownership really work. This is the basis of “universal basic ownership,” under which anyone who owns a phone can now have a stake in the growth of the global economy, even in asset classes like pre-IPO stocks and private credit, which were once strictly restricted to institutions and the ultra-wealthy.
The Advisor Advantage: Strategy and Accessibility
For financial advisors, this transition represents a strategic exposure play. Accessibility is now optimized through regulated vehicles such as Solana spot ETFs (e.g. SOEZ, QSOL, BSOL) and European ETPs, along with easy-to-use digital custody tools such as Phantom or Ledger wallets. Now, advisors can use transaction costs of less than a cent to offer sophisticated, fractional portfolios to a much broader client base. This infrastructure reduces the “cost to serve,” making institutional-grade diversification available to middle-class “family” investors through their financial advisors.
From unintermediated to universally invested
The fintech wave of the 2010s demonstrated that financial exclusion is a problem by design. Tokenization represents the next chapter in this story. A software developer in South Korea should face no barriers to investing in US stocks or accessing private credit returns. A small business owner in Argentina should not have to pay high prices for the same stocks available at a low price to US investors. Sophisticated investment strategies should not be limited exclusively to wealth management channels that serve the top 1%.
The technology rails have been built and the regulatory paths are becoming clearer. What remains is to expand this infrastructure and ensure that it fulfills its primary purpose of expanding wealth creation opportunities to the billions of people who are currently excluded. While the work of banking the unbanked is far from over, it offers a blueprint for what we are about to see: transforming the unbanked into those with universal investments.
– Nick Ducoff, Head of Institutional Growth, Solana Foundation
ask an expert
Q: What are stablecoins and why are they important?
Stablecoins are a type of digital currency designed to maintain a stable worth. This is usually achieved by “pegging” the stablecoin to a traditional asset, such as the US dollar. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin or ether, which can experience large price fluctuations, stablecoins are designed to allow users to hold or trade digital assets without exposure to price swings. Other use cases for stablecoins include serving as primary trading pairs, cross-border payments, decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and borrowing, and inflation hedging. The GENIUS Act (Act Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins), enacted in July 2025, creates a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for US dollar-backed payment stablecoins.
Q: What is the current outlook for stablecoins?
After rising for twenty-five consecutive months, the growth of the total stablecoin market capitalization has slowed over the past four months, although it continues to hover near its all-time high of $310 billion. CoinDesk’s latest research report indicates that as digital asset prices generally trend lower, stablecoin market dominance has increased. In February, stablecoin market dominance increased to 13.3% (up from 11.2% in January), driven by the decline in the digital asset’s price action. Tether’s USDT continues to lead the sector with a 59.1% market share, while Circle’s USDC comes in second with 24.6%.
Q: What is the current traction for tokenized assets and how fast is the real-world tokenized asset market growing?
Real-world tokenized assets continue to gain significant traction in global financial markets, with the total tokenized market capitalization reaching a new all-time high of $23.4 billion at the end of February. This represents a 22.9% month-on-month increase from $19 billion in January, underscoring the accelerated pace of adoption across multiple asset classes. Much of this growth has been driven by tokenized Treasuries, which expanded 15.1% to $10.5 billion and now represent approximately 45% of the entire tokenized market. Meanwhile, tokenized commodities have become a major secondary growth driver, rising 27% to $6.6 billion and representing 28.4% of the market. Other segments are also constantly developing. The stocks and ETF sector reached $804.7 million at the end of February, up 3.1% month-on-month and maintaining a 3.4% share of the overall tokenized ecosystem.
– Jacob Joseph, Specialist, Research, CoinDesk
