The tokenization of traditional financial assets, but also real-world assets, is underway. Despite representing a still insignificant slice of the market, 2025 was a year of significant growth, and there are projections that indicate that the tokenization of assets will grow more than 80 times in the next 10 years. Stablecoins, a digital asset based on collateral quoted in the traditional financial market such as the dollar, have led this migration and represent around 90% of total amounts. However, there are two areas that could be of great relevance in this transition. Traditional assets that are already traded in international financial markets, and unconventional or real-world assets (RWA’s) that tend to be illiquid and concentrated, such as real estate, art and other collectibles, or some unconventional raw materials, including carbon credits.
The tokenization of real-world assets allows us to unlock new ways of monetizing illiquid assets, creates markets that did not exist that are efficient and are an effective transformation of the traditional view of asset management. In these digital markets, a collector can tokenize their rare collection and fractionalize ownership to global buyers, retaining part ownership and obtaining liquidity. This new form of digital securitization increases transparency, facilitates the validation of collateral and expands access to investment through the fractionation process (creating a digital type of participation units), attracting participants who, until now, were sidelined due to liquidity limitations or regulatory requirements.
At the same time, more conventional classes are also in the process of being tokenized for digital asset markets. The global stock and bond market currently exceeds 250 billion dollars. Although the current financial system is functional, it suffers from outdated infrastructure, multiple intermediaries, high costs and slow settlement processes. Blockchain offers a more efficient, shared infrastructure with instant settlement and access to new financial products. It is estimated that, by 2035, between 4 and 5 billion dollars will be represented in digital securities. Debt securities are expected to lead this adoption in the short term (the amount of tokenized securities rose 2.3X from 848 million in 2023 to 3 billion in 2024), while progress in equities will be gradual, due to the already high efficiency of developed markets, although there is relevant space in emerging markets.
This migration of financial markets to blockchain is inevitable and promises, by 2035, to profoundly transform interactions with investors. The ultimate goal is to achieve a fully digital financial infrastructure, globally accessible, around the clock (24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year), with tools such as smart contracts and blockchain enabling products that are impossible in traditional systems: daily coupons, built-in ESG criteria, personalized funds per investor, intelligent and automated distribution. The transition will be a gradual process, requiring regulatory and technological maturity – after all, the old system still needs to continue to function. But it is a process that is already underway, and which should gain greater momentum in 2026.