Tokenization

[Saluki]

No one is talking about NFTs anymore and Crypto is still mentioned, but not as much since the new thing to hype to retail investors is AI. I always remain skeptical of fads, whether it's cannabis stocks or offshore wind. 

 

Two of the areas of Crytpo that are still getting mentioned are perpetuals and Tokenization because the new SEC chairman and CFTC chairman seem a lot more friendly towards it than Gary Gensler. It's hard to tell what's real and what's hype because almost all of these companies are not listed and like OpenAI, you won't see the real numbers until they try to go public. 

 

I did notice that the largest tokenization company went public via a SPAC. So N=1 but it's the biggest player and the numbers were interesting to say the least. They lose money but are profitable on gross basis. They need more business to get to profitability on a net basis. What's even more interesting is that tokenization revenues were down 1% year over year. The less sexy, cookie-cutter back office operations grew 200% YOY though. So if the big dog is not growing, what are second bananas doing? 

 

BUIDL, by Blackrock was responsible for more than half of their AUM. If you take their other $2 billion in AUM and divide it by the 625 assets they claim to have tokenized, it's not a huge amount per customer. 

 

Does anyone know of stocks (not hedge funds or private equity) that tokenized their stocks? If so, why would anyone buy it that way? If you use your broker, you have $600k in SIPC in the US. if you buy a token and self custody it in your wallet, then you don't have SIPC protection and if you lose your password then: not your keys, not your cash.

 

Has anyone here ever bought or sold anything that is tokenized?  

[Fly]

1 hour ago, Saluki said:

No one is talking about NFTs anymore and Crypto is still mentioned, but not as much since the new thing to hype to retail investors is AI. I always remain skeptical of fads, whether it's cannabis stocks or offshore wind. 

 

Two of the areas of Crytpo that are still getting mentioned are perpetuals and Tokenization because the new SEC chairman and CFTC chairman seem a lot more friendly towards it than Gary Gensler. It's hard to tell what's real and what's hype because almost all of these companies are not listed and like OpenAI, you won't see the real numbers until they try to go public. 

 

I did notice that the largest tokenization company went public via a SPAC. So N=1 but it's the biggest player and the numbers were interesting to say the least. They lose money but are profitable on gross basis. They need more business to get to profitability on a net basis. What's even more interesting is that tokenization revenues were down 1% year over year. The less sexy, cookie-cutter back office operations grew 200% YOY though. So if the big dog is not growing, what are second bananas doing? 

 

BUIDL, by Blackrock was responsible for more than half of their AUM. If you take their other $2 billion in AUM and divide it by the 625 assets they claim to have tokenized, it's not a huge amount per customer. 

 

Does anyone know of stocks (not hedge funds or private equity) that tokenized their stocks? If so, why would anyone buy it that way? If you use your broker, you have $600k in SIPC in the US. if you buy a token and self custody it in your wallet, then you don't have SIPC protection and if you lose your password then: not your keys, not your cash.

 

Has anyone here ever bought or sold anything that is tokenized?  

 

As someone who has played in the crypto sandbox for several cycles now, tokenized assets have always been some pie in the sky snake oil idea that never makes sense. 

 

Promoters make the case that tokenized stocks allow 24/7 trading, which is true, but we dont need tokenization on a blockchain for that to happen. 

 

Additionally, the last time I looked into these more recent tokenized stock platforms you can't really self custody the stocks, and if you do then you address has to be whitelisted and transfers back into the platform can only come from that address as well. So no way to really do anything outside the initial platform with the tokenized stock (except lose the keys to your wallet). 

 

In a world where tokenized stocks really could exist in a way where self custody is allowed then sure you could send your AAPL stock to a buddy in China who then trades it to another friend in Russia who happens to be on an OFAC sanction list and eventually makes it's way back into a US account. Try selling that on a regulated exchange and watch the alarm bells go off. 

 

Short story long, I don't think tokenization makes any sense because there are real world rules that apply to these assets. 

 

Perps are a different beast though, and I could see that having real demand. Settled with stablecoins or BTC most likely. I haven't followed them that closely but know hyperliquid has been getting a lot of attention

 

EDIT: https://www.tzero.com These guys have been trying for years to get the tokenized asset theme into mainstream, but the platform has almost no volume. Just another data point to watch

Edited Friday at 01:38 AM by Fly

[TB]

One can buy fractional shares today in Fidelity and other platforms from the US. Don't see a reason to hold tokenized stocks.

 

HOOD has some that trade as debt

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/319564/20260702/robinhood-chain-goes-live-tokenized-stocks-key-ownership-caveat.htm

 

COIN has also launched it

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/coinbase-coin-launches-tokenized-stocks-211625465.html

 

USD tied stablecoins (~98.5% of all stablecoin transactions) are a thing though:

 

From google:

• Adjusted Economic Volume: In the first half of 2026 alone, adjusted transaction volume hit $8.82 trillion. This is just $2 trillion shy of the $10.8 trillion recorded during the entire full year of 2025. 
• Raw Settlement Volumes: Unadjusted on-chain settlement crossed $33 trillion in 2025. In Q1 2026 alone, raw transfer volume surged to a record $4.5 trillion. 
• Monthly Peak Comparison: June 2026 set a historical record of $1.79 trillion in adjusted monthly volume. This marks an explosive 125% increase compared to the $795 billion settled in June 2025

 

PYUSD is now available in 70 countries

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-paypal-expands-stablecoin-access-110000435.html

Edited Friday at 02:36 PM by TB

[nsx5200]

A bit out of scope, but isn't one of Hyperliquid's end goal is to get everything financial onto their platform, implying that "everything financial" will be tokenized on their platform?

 

I'm new to tokenization and Hyperliquid, so feel free to spank me.  I can use an education.  @thowed's article was very eye-opening, but unfortunately half of it was Greek to me.

[james22]

 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a remarkably important speech on June 23 at the Economic Club of New York. Yet neither Wall Street nor most of the economic profession seems to have paid it enough attention.

 

https://archive.ph/oKBdw#selection-4137.0-4141.145

[james22]

 

[wabuffo]

"If you've wondered how committed Washington is to making crypto succeed in the US, that tells you something."

 

I thought the bitcoin maxis were libertarians who espoused a monetary medium free from big government involvement.  

 

I guess their new mantra is that "we are all chartalists now!" 

 

lolz.

 

Bill

Edited yesterday at 02:50 PM by wabuffo

[SharperDingaan]

Tokenization, at present, is little more than Tech Bro's trying to find a market for the tech, and doing it badly.

We built it, now use it ... no idea for what though 

 

The best application is around property; secure blockchain record, tokenize to separate the land from the dwelling(s) on it. Already done manually in legal offices throughout the world, it is just not the common practice in the US; an application that is all about reducing cost, not creating something new. Strong agency disincentive.

 

The whole idea of affordability by splitting the price of an expensive asset over many units ... is really about stranding the asset. Sell it at a high price to the token holders, make a spread .... market making the illiquid tokens, consolidate the tokens back later at illiquid (low) prices, take back the asset. A scam.  

 

Different PoV.

 

SD

Edited 7 hours ago by SharperDingaan

[Saluki]

5 hours ago, SharperDingaan said:

 

The best application is around property; secure blockchain record, tokenize to separate the land from the dwelling(s) on it. Already done manually in legal offices throughout the world, it is just not the common practice in the US; an application that is all about reducing cost, not creating something new. Strong agency disincentive.

 

 

I don't know if real estate is a great use case. In my city there is a 1.5% transfer tax on real estate, and agents get their 6%, so the title stuff is the labor intensive side, but the other costs aren't going anywhere. 

 

I think restricted funds (hedge funds, private equity) where the wallet is approved and bypasses the bespoke human stuff is where it makes sense, kind of.  But giving me a token for part of a Picasso starts to remind me of NFT nonsense.