Who is the true winner of the "Tokenization" narrative?
Original Title: Who Actually Benefits from the Tokenization of RWAs And Why?
Original Author: Zeus, Crypto Analyst
Original Translation: Saoirse, Foresight News
Last week, I discussed this topic, and Andy from Rollup also raised related questions. Everyone has been asking: Who actually benefits from the tokenization of real-world assets?
The real answer is: almost everyone will benefit, but the reasons for benefiting, the timing, and the underlying logic are completely different.
Retail Perspective: From Observer to Participant
For decades, retail investors have been systematically excluded from high-yield assets. Not because the assets are too complex, but because the traditional financial system is designed for large funds, qualified investors, and inefficient clearing, making small investments unprofitable.
Tokenization not only lowers the barrier to entry but directly dismantles the entire system that creates barriers.
Think about the current situation for a retail investor wanting to invest in private credit:
· Minimum investment usually $250,000 to $1,000,000
· Must be an accredited investor
· Lockup period of 3–7 years
· Almost no secondary market
· Completely subject to fund managers
And once such a fund is tokenized:
· Fractionalized ownership: You can invest $100 instead of $1,000,000. Smart contracts solve the problem of high small-scale management costs.
· 24/7 trading: No opening or closing times, no clearing windows, no waiting for bank transfers.
· Global reach: Retail investors in Lagos, Jakarta, Sao Paulo, and Manhattan can buy the same tokenized sovereign debt fund.
· Composability: Tokenized assets are programmable capital. They can be used for lending collateral, treasury strategies, cross-platform circulation without needing a broker.
Digging Deeper: Retail investors are getting not just "cheaper access to the same thing," but a whole new set of financial behaviors.
Within an afternoon, holding tokenized US Treasuries, using them to borrow stablecoins, and then engaging in yield strategies, all self-custodied, without having to make a single phone call to a financial advisor.
Prior to tokenization, retail investors were mere spectators in the global capital markets. After tokenization, they become participants. The difference is enormous.
Issuer Perspective: Faster Fundraising, Broader Reach, Lower Costs
For issuers, the logic is simple: tokenization enables faster fundraising, lower costs, and an exponentially expanded investor base. All global issuers care about these three points, and tokenization can achieve them all simultaneously.
The shift from traditional issuance to tokenized issuance:
· Traditional settlement takes weeks to months, while tokenization is completed in minutes to hours.
· Traditional processes require custody, transfer agents, brokers, clearinghouses; tokenization utilizes smart contracts for distribution, compliance, and settlement.
· Traditional methods are constrained by geography, regulations, and thresholds; tokenization is global, 24/7, and allows for small investments.
· Traditional manual reconciliation, quarterly reporting, and shareholder registry management costs are extremely high; tokenization offers automated reporting, on-chain transparency, and real-time data.
· Traditional product structures are rigid; tokenization supports layered design, flexible redemption, and dynamic reward mechanisms.
Traditional private credit funds typically serve only 50–200 institutions and take months for each fundraising round. Meanwhile, tokenized funds can serve thousands of investors: with automated compliance procedures, digital onboarding, very low thresholds, retail investors, small family offices, and crypto-native institutions can all participate.
Tokenization also brings a whole new capability for product design:
· Layered products within a single smart contract with varying risk/reward profiles
· Flexible redemptions on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, executed automatically via code
· Dynamic reward mechanisms based on on-chain data
· Hybrid products combining fixed income with DeFi yields
These are prohibitively costly in traditional finance but straightforward in a tokenized ecosystem.
Institutional Perspective: Settlement, Transparency, Systemic Risk Reduction
Institutions do not care about the concept of crypto, nor do they care about decentralization. What they are truly obsessed with are: settlement risk, operational costs, reporting accuracy, regulatory compliance.
And tokenization has a quantifiable improvement in each of these areas. That's why all top global financial institutions are getting involved.
The current financial system operates on at least a T+2 settlement basis. This means that within two days of a trade:
· Counterparty default risk remains
· Funds are tied up and cannot be reused
· Reconciliation, margin, collateral management is extremely complex
Tokenization transforms settlement to near real-time (T+0), just this alone can:
· Release a significant amount of capital tied up during the settlement period
· Eliminate settlement period counterparty risk
· Substantially reduce reliance on post-trade systems such as clearinghouses and central counterparties
This transformation brings a potential global annual efficiency gain of around $24 trillion. By 2030, the conservative short-term annualized benefit is estimated to be between $31 billion to $130 billion.
Industry Giants Already in Action:
· BlackRock launched the BUIDL tokenized money market fund, exceeding $1 billion
· Franklin Templeton tokenized fund shares using BENJI
· JPMorgan Chase developed the Onyx platform for tokenized repo and collateral management
· Goldman Sachs, HSBC, UBS, Citigroup are all piloting or building tokenization infrastructure
They are not doing this because blockchain is trendy, but because it's: cheaper, faster, and lower risk.
Infrastructure Builder Perspective: The "Water Seller" of Trillion-Dollar Markets
In every major transformation, the winners are those who build the infrastructure. The pickaxes of the gold rush, the servers of the internet, AWS of cloud computing.
Asset tokenization in the real world is constructing an entirely new financial infrastructure. Companies that do this well will become the underlying pipes of a market exceeding $11 trillion.
This Set of Essential Ecosystem Modules:
· Custodian: Ensures the legal correspondence between on-chain tokens and real-world assets, playing a key role in the ecosystem.
· Compliance Layer: KYC/AML, investor accreditation, geographic restrictions, cross-border compliance, all programmatic.
· Issuance Platform: Allows anyone to legally and easily tokenize assets.
· Clearing & Settlement Infrastructure: Achieves instant settlement, connecting on-chain and traditional banking systems.
· Oracle & Data: Links on-chain to net asset value, interest rates, defaults, house prices, and commodity prices, forming the basis of token pricing.
· Legal & Structural Services: SPVs, trusts, fund structures; without legal groundwork, tokens are just a string of numbers.
Emerging Markets Perspective: The Overlooked True Revolution
The Western financial world rarely discusses it, but this may be the most important part: for billions in emerging markets, tokenization is not about "better finance" but the first financial system that truly serves them.
The Financial Plight in Many Emerging Markets:
· High inflation, rapid depreciation of the local currency;
· Large populations without bank accounts or insufficient financial services;
· Capital controls, inability to allocate foreign currency and overseas assets;
· Cross-border remittance fees of 5%–10%, taking days to process;
· Extremely low local asset returns, unable to outpace inflation.
Tokenization + Stablecoins Completely Transform This:
· Earn USD returns without a U.S. bank account. An Argentine can hold tokenized U.S. bonds, earning USD returns with stablecoins. No need for qualified investors, no need for wire transfers. In a country where the local currency depreciates by 40% in a year, this is not an improvement, it's a lifesaver.
· Stablecoins become a savings tool. In high inflation countries, USDC, USDT have become de facto means of savings for preserving value. Tokenized assets can then provide additional returns on this basis.
· Ordinary people can also invest in top global assets. People in Southeast Asia, Africa, who could hardly access before: U.S. bonds, investment-grade bonds, private credit, global real estate. Tokenization makes these assets divisible and available for investment 24/7.
· Instant, Low-Cost Cross-Border Transfers. Cross-border remittances are a lifeline for many countries, with traditional fees high and processing times slow. Stablecoins and tokenized assets can settle in minutes at an extremely low cost.
· Real-Time Payroll Settlement. Wages can be instantly distributed on-chain, allowing employees to access their earnings in real time rather than waiting for a designated payday.
Around 1.4 billion adults globally are unbanked, with billions more underbanked. Tokenization + stablecoins represent the first path to large-scale inclusive finance that does not rely on traditional banks.
For these individuals, tokenization is not just about "making finance a little better," but about making finance accessible for the first time.
Complete Benefits Map
· Retail: Access and composability, low barriers, global reach, programmable capital.
· Issuer: Faster funding, lower costs, broader investor base, more flexible products.
· Institution: Real-time settlement, risk reduction, lower operational costs, increased transparency.
· Regulator: On-chain traceability, embedded compliance, shifting from passive to real-time precise regulation.
· Infrastructure Provider: Becoming the underlying conduit for a trillion-dollar market, with significant long-term returns.
· Emerging Markets: Truly achieving financial inclusion, addressing structural issues like inflation, control, and service gaps.
Crucial Risk Reminder
Tokenization is not a cure-all:
· It cannot fix poor-quality assets.
· It does not guarantee liquidity.
· It will not make risks disappear magically.
Tokenized bonds can still default, and tokenized real estate can still depreciate. If the legal structure is weak, custody is unreliable, oracles are manipulated, or the issuer does not operate the asset correctly, the token is worthless.
All the benefits are real, logical, and based on reality, but they will only materialize when all aspects of legality, custody, compliance, and operations are done correctly.
The token is just the final piece; everything at the foundational level is what truly matters.
Tokenization is not magic; it's infrastructure. And infrastructure, only when built correctly, can function.
So, Who Benefits the Most?
Frankly speaking: It depends on the time frame.
· Short Term: Institutions and Issuers Win First
Immediately save real money on settlement, compliance, and operations, with no need for retail investors, no need for the secondary market, just better infrastructure.
· Medium Term: Infrastructure and Technology Providers Win
The market is expected to reach $11 trillion by 2030, and companies that provide custody, compliance, issuance, and settlement will become industry standards.
· Long Term: Retail Investors and Emerging Market Populations Ultimately Benefit the Most
When the infrastructure is mature, compliance is stable, and the secondary market deepens, anyone in the world can use their mobile phones to invest in any asset 24/7.
Therefore, the answer to "Who Benefits the Most" is not a specific group of people, but rather: everyone will benefit, just at different times, for different reasons, and in different ways
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