“ETFs were referred to as weapons of mass destruction,” Hoffman said, recalling the skepticism surrounding the structure before it became one of the dominant ways investors access the markets.
When he joined the ETF industry in the early 2000s, the market had about $200 billion in assets, he said. Today, it is a nearly $20 trillion global asset class, according to a PwC report.
He said tokenization is following a similar path, but much faster than ETFs.
“Every market that goes digital gets bigger,” he said. “And tokenization is actually the digitization of capital markets.”
Building for an agent-driven future
For Hoffman, tokenization will become the foundation for what comes next: AI-powered financial services.
He said he envisions a future in which autonomous agents continually monitor markets and allocate capital through professionally managed portfolios that update in real time as conditions change.
“Our end state will be portfolios that are professionally managed, real-time, and adjusted to market circumstances and data changes,” he said.
To get there, the industry first needs tokenized assets, on-chain prime brokerage infrastructure, and asset management strategies that can run natively on blockchain networks.
Ondo is moving toward that vision, he said. The company already offers tokenized US Treasury products and plans to expand into stocks, ETFs and perpetual futures through its tokenized marketplace.
