tokenization

According to Cointelegraph, the market value of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on the Stellar blockchain is expected to grow by approximately 360% by 2026, rising from $868.8 million at the end of last year to nearly $4 billion. The Dune Analytics dashboard maintained by Stellar shows that as of August 29, the market value of RWA on the network reached $3.996 billion, covering asset classes such as U.S. Treasury bonds, private and public credit, and non-U.S. government debt.The concentration of issuers is relatively high, with Spiko leading at $1.55 billion, followed by Realiz ($559 million), Tradable ($548 million), Franklin Templeton ($546 million), and Ondo ($535 million). Stellar has also made breakthroughs in the non-U.S. government debt sector, with the Stellar Development Foundation citing data from RWA.xyz stating that as of August 20, the network held approximately $490 million in such assets, including tokenized Mexican CETES and Brazilian government bonds issued through Etherfuse.Institutional adoption continues to drive growth. In May, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced plans to integrate its tokenization services with Stellar, with DTC tokenized assets expected to go live in the first half of 2027, potentially supporting tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds, major index ETFs, and Russell 1000 constituents. In July, Tradable announced plans to bring up to $1 billion in private credit assets to Stellar.

Pablo Hernández de Cos, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), stated that stablecoins lack credibility in large-scale payment scenarios, making it difficult to use them as everyday currency. He believes that tokenized bank deposits are a better alternative, capable of achieving the advantages of tokenization while retaining the foundation of the monetary system. This statement comes against the backdrop of regulatory agencies in various countries establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins.Hernández de Cos also acknowledged that stablecoins could lower government borrowing costs but might also increase bank financing costs, which would then be passed on to household and business loan rates. He pointed out that the interoperability between stablecoin platforms is limited, anti-money laundering controls are inconsistently enforced, and the widespread use of dollar-pegged stablecoins overseas could undermine the monetary sovereignty of other countries and the effectiveness of domestic monetary policy.On the same day, the Financial Stability Institute (FSI) under BIS released a research report comparing the stablecoin regulatory rules of the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Singapore, finding significant differences in the qualifications of issuing entities and the scope of business they can conduct across jurisdictions. The United States and Singapore impose stricter restrictions on non-bank issuing entities, while Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the European Union allow certain additional businesses under separate authorization or licensing.

According to a report released by the oracle provider RedStone, the scale of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on the Stellar chain surpassed $3 billion in July, while the total value locked (TVL) in the network's DeFi was only $213 million, showing a significant gap between the two. The report pointed out that the issuance speed of RWA far exceeds the development of the lending market and collateral pools, which has become a bottleneck restricting the use of on-chain assets.RedStone attributed the growth mainly to four products: Amundi and Spiko's overnight fund ($713 million), Spiko's government bond fund ($536 million), Ondo's USDY (over $533 million), and VuMe Bond 2030 ($500 million). Data from DefiLlama shows that the TVL of the Stellar network is $232.72 million, of which the lending protocol Blend has locked $150.03 million, but the funding pool accepting RWA as collateral is only about $2 million.The report believes that the settlement times of traditional government bonds, credit funds, and money market funds do not match the instant settlement requirements of on-chain lending, while 24/7 price oracles are key to making RWA usable as collateral. Currently, Stellar has connected to 55 SEP-40 price sources from RedStone, covering government bonds, corporate credit, tokenized gold, and money market funds. In addition, the report mentioned that the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) plans to introduce custodial assets to Stellar by 2027, with a scale of custodial assets reaching $114 trillion.

Cryptocurrency platform Bullish announced a $100 million debt financing line to the stablecoin protocol USD.AI to support GPU-collateralized loan operations. This financing will help USD.AI provide liquidity for artificial intelligence infrastructure development, connecting on-chain capital with computing power financing needs through tokenization.USD.AI, developed by Permian Labs, currently has over $225 million in crypto assets locked within the protocol. Bullish Exchange also plans to launch the sUSDai token of USD.AI and open multiple trading pairs, providing investors with access to a secondary market channel for GPU-collateralized debt.David Choi, CEO of Permian Labs, stated that computing power is becoming an independent credit market, and this financing will help USD.AI fund more AI development while creating a more transparent and in-depth computing power credit market.

On August 28, OKX Director Lennix was invited to attend the Bitcoin Asia 2026 roundtable forum "The Rise of Financial Super Applications," where he shared insights on the integration of traditional finance and the crypto market, the underlying infrastructure of financial super applications, and the development prospects of stock tokenization.Lennix stated that financial products are accelerating towards integration within the same account system. In the future, users will want to trade and manage different categories of financial assets under the same funds, the same account, and the same margin and risk control system, which will become an important direction for the continuous evolution of the industry. He pointed out that on the surface, financial super applications allow trading of crypto, traditional stock assets, foreign exchange, commodities, etc., within one application; however, the real challenge lies in the connectivity of the underlying infrastructure of various assets, including the banking system, wallets, trading accounts, shared margins, and the collaboration between risk control and compliance backends.At the same time, Lennix mentioned that stock tokenization and the tokenization of traditional financial assets are essentially an upgrade to the traditional market. By connecting relevant assets to the matching, margin, risk control, and compliance systems of cryptocurrency exchanges, the market can achieve longer trading and risk management periods, while continuously providing price signals during non-trading hours. When discussing institutional cooperation, Lennix stated that the strategic investment of the Intercontinental Exchange in the OKX Group reflects that the financial market is moving towards tokenization and around-the-clock trading. With the continuous growth of stock tokenization business, this field is expected to become an important development direction for future financial markets.

Virtu Financial, M1X Global, and Tradeweb have completed an on-chain repurchase transaction using the digital sovereign bond USDM1 issued by the Marshall Islands as collateral, with all settlements completed on the Canton Network within 10 minutes. The parties stated that this is the first case combining native-issued sovereign collateral with fully on-chain atomic settlement.USDM1 is a dollar-denominated sovereign bond issued on-chain by the Republic of the Marshall Islands, backed 1:1 by short-term U.S. Treasury securities, which continues to pay interest during the collateral period and is structured as a fully collateralized sovereign debt instrument under New York law. The bond is offered through the Tradeweb platform, with custodial services provided by Anchorage Digital, BitGo, and tZERO.Canton is a blockchain network designed for institutional finance, equipped with privacy and permission management features. Prior to this transaction, Tradeweb facilitated the real-time transfer of tokenized U.S. Treasury securities from Franklin Templeton to Virtu Financial on Canton in July. Since August, FalconX and Interstice have launched a cross-chain exchange engine connecting Canton with Ethereum, Solana, and Robinhood Chain, and World Liberty Financial has also natively issued the USD1 stablecoin on Canton.

Mirae Asset, a South Korean financial group, announced the establishment of a digital asset business with a scale of $109 billion. The group will rely on its cryptocurrency exchange Digital X (formerly Korbit) to focus on the layout of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and the tokenization of real assets.

Bitfinex Securities announced the completion of a $50 million tokenized financing and will launch a nickel token ALKN linked to the Luxembourg industrial metals platform Alkemya Metacore. The platform is based on a high-purity nickel wire inventory valued at $1.6 billion and approximately 7 million meters long, stored in Switzerland, and widely used in fields such as semiconductors, aerospace, and defense.The ALKN token will be open for subscription to qualified investors, with a deadline of October 15. This is the first tokenized commodity issuance under El Salvador's digital asset regulatory framework. The proceeds from the financing will be used to support Alkemya's operating subsidiary Green Transitional Metals in developing engineered nickel products, with application scenarios including electromagnetic interference shielding, aerospace, defense, semiconductors, power and industrial systems, green hydrogen, and rare precious metal recycling.Jesse Knutson, the Chief Operating Officer of Bitfinex Securities, stated that this blockchain structure will transform nickel, which was previously trapped in the industrial supply chain, into tradable financial products, unlocking collateral use cases and ongoing hedging opportunities for traders.

Zhao Changpeng stated at the "Bitcoin Asia 2026" conference in Hong Kong that people often overestimate what can be done in a year but underestimate what can be done in ten years, and a large amount of infrastructure will be built in the next decade. In the past two years, the attitude of traditional finance towards Bitcoin has undergone a significant change, and in recent years, the growth of tokenized stocks has been rapid. Binance's bStocks has quickly grown in just about three months since its launch, and looking ahead to the next ten years, this will be a huge market. In addition, various sectors such as payments, AI, Agentic financial infrastructure, stablecoins, and tokenization will see significant development in the next decade; now is the moment with the most opportunities in history.He mentioned that the Bitcoin blockchain currently does not support tokenized businesses, and tokenization mainly occurs on other blockchains. However, the various sectors within the crypto industry promote each other; those who understand Bitcoin will eventually understand other blockchains and tokens, and those who enter through stock tokenization will also pay attention to Bitcoin. He gave an example that it is difficult for Asians to open U.S. stock brokerage accounts, and the trading hours of U.S. stocks are inconvenient. Once stock tokenization occurs, it will enable more people who were previously unable to trade U.S. stocks to participate through crypto platforms. After these individuals enter the crypto platform, they may also start to engage with Bitcoin exposure that they did not have before.

According to Cointelegraph, digital asset infrastructure provider Taurus has integrated its tokenization and custody platform with Swift's blockchain-based ledger. Taurus stated in the announcement that its clients can make payments on this ledger using bank-issued tokenized deposits through the existing digital asset infrastructure.The first batch of client integrations is expected to go live in a few days, with the first distributed ledger transactions completed through the Taurus platform anticipated to occur within weeks. Swift announced in July this year that the ledger is available for preliminary use, with 17 banks from six continents preparing to pilot real-time transactions using tokenized deposits.Previously, Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC completed the first real-time cross-border transaction through this ledger, connecting their respective independent tokenized deposit systems. Swift's ledger acts as a coordinating layer, supporting 24/7 cross-border payments for tokenized deposits on participating banks' balance sheets and coordinating inter-institutional transfers through existing mechanisms (including real-time gross settlement systems) before final settlement.

According to Cryptonomist, Animoca Brands and the RWA platform NUVA supported by Nuva Labs announced the adoption of Chainlink as its exclusive data infrastructure to provide tamper-proof valuation data for tokenized housing-related assets. The related asset base is approximately $19 billion, with the underlying sourced from Figure Technologies' Provenance Blockchain.The report states that NUVA will launch on Ethereum in May 2026, positioning itself as a cross-chain vault market, providing institutional-grade real estate credit exposure to retail users. Its products include nvYLDS (yield-bearing vault tokens linked to short-term U.S. Treasury yields) and nvPRIME (tokenized private credit vaults tracking the performance of real estate-backed credit such as Home Equity Lines of Credit - HELOC). Chainlink will initially provide pricing support for nvPRIME, used for collateral valuation, lending parameter setting, and liquidation threshold calculations.

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams stated that after nine years of DeFi practice, the path for AMM to become the core engine of the global financial market is becoming increasingly clear. He pointed out that tokenization is not only an infrastructure upgrade but also changes who provides liquidity and what is traded in the market. The SEC has approved Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange to trade tokenized stocks, and the DTCC also conducted live testing of tokenized trading in July.Adams believes that traditional market makers vertically integrate capital, strategy, execution, settlement, and distribution, which is costly; blockchain disassembles these components, making capital a scarce input. Liquidity providers who already hold relevant assets or are the issuers themselves can bear inventory exposure at zero cost, thereby weakening professional market makers with lower capital costs. An on-chain "related asset pair" model has naturally formed (such as the Ethereum ecosystem pairing with ETH and stablecoins), as correlation reduces inventory risk and deepens liquidity.He cited that there are already 10 tokenized stocks on the Robinhood Chain forming a Uniswap pool with SPY, which has traded approximately $33 million in 12 days, with some trades occurring directly between stocks without touching the dollar. Adams also stated that although Uniswap's cumulative trading volume has reached about $4.6 trillion, AMM is still in its early stages, and there is significant room for improvement in subsequent design and ecosystem.

Digital asset management company Bitwise announced the launch of a Tokenized Stock Automated Portfolio (ATP), allowing eligible investors to hold and automatically rebalance a basket of U.S. stocks directly in their crypto wallets. These products utilize tokenized U.S. stocks recently launched by Coinbase, with rebalancing executed by portfolio technology provider Glider based on a model designed by Bitwise, currently available only to qualified investors outside the U.S.The first portfolios cover configurations focused on AI, robotics, and an expanded version of the "Big Seven" U.S. stocks, which includes weighted allocations to Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla, along with SpaceX. Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that for over a century, accessing professional models meant handing assets over to funds, whereas ATP allows investors to keep their assets in their own wallets while the model actively seeks them out.The announcement came a day after Coinbase launched tokenized stocks for Apple, Nvidia, Meta, and Alphabet on the Base network. Bitwise is an asset management company managing approximately $9 billion in assets and has recently ventured into on-chain asset management businesses such as DeFi treasury curation. Glider is a specialized firm in automated portfolios and earlier this year collaborated with Ondo Finance to provide personalized portfolios using its tokenized stock products.

The DEX Arcus, built by the dYdX team, has launched a new protocol on the Robinhood Chain that converts perpetual contract positions into transferable ERC-20 tokens and allows users to use tokenized stocks as collateral for leveraged trading.The products launched by the protocol include pBTC3x and pHOOD3x, which provide 3x exposure to Bitcoin and the Robinhood stock token HOOD, respectively. Its multi-collateral feature initially supports SPY, QQQ, and MAG7 stock tokens, with a loan-to-value ratio of 50%, allowing users to use tokenized stocks as collateral for perpetual contract positions.Arcus CEO Eddie Zhang stated that traditional markets have taken decades to make complex investment strategies accessible through products like leveraged ETFs, and the next step is to integrate these strategies natively into blockchain infrastructure. Since its launch on the Robinhood Chain, Arcus has accumulated a trading volume of over $250 million, with an average daily trading volume exceeding $33 million; since its launch on July 1, the Robinhood Chain has reached a TVL of $596 million, ranking among the top 15 in DeFi TVL.

Bankless cites Fundstrat's view that its ten-year vision for BitMNR is to bet on Ethereum becoming the dominant chain for tokenization and AI. Fundstrat states that it has bet on Ethereum becoming the place where a large number of related activities occur, and believes its legacy lies in helping Ethereum maintain its status as the most important public chain in the future.When discussing ETH performance, Fundstrat argues that it is a very reasonable point that ETH could flip Bitcoin's native narrative; if ETH reaches $50,000, $100,000, or $200,000, the returns for shareholders will be extremely substantial.

Factblock CEO and Korea Blockchain Week organizer Andrew Park stated that the South Korean crypto market is shifting from retail-driven trading to institutional digital finance. The focus of global financial institutions and enterprises has shifted from tokens, exchanges, and prices to custody, tokenization, stablecoins, payment settlement infrastructure, and regulatory compliance.The South Korean Financial Services Commission has proposed a framework to open corporate virtual asset accounts to approximately 3,500 listed companies and registered professional investors. The South Korean National Assembly has officially passed amendments to the Electronic Securities Act and the Capital Markets Act, incorporating tokenized real-world assets and security tokens into a unified legal framework.The Bank of Korea has completed the preliminary trial of the Project Hangang real-world deposit token project and plans to conduct the second phase of institutional testing by the end of 2026. Related technical experiments have utilized wholesale deposit tokens to allow AI agents to execute automated conditional trading.