Building the future of tokenized finance: What will it take?

While real-world asset tokenization began as a fringe experiment in crypto, that reality is quickly changing now. Investors are actively piling into tokenized treasuries, real estate, and commodities.

With over $7 billion in U.S. Treasuries already on-chain and major players like Goldman Sachs pushing into this space, RWAs are shaping up as the most transformative force in digital finance since the early 2020s. The real question at this point is not if RWAs will change market infrastructure — it’s how.

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Value drivers vs. risks

For all the attention RWAs get these days, the biggest impact is happening behind the scenes. Tokenized assets settle nearly instantaneously, can operate 24/7, and cut out layers of intermediaries that have weighed down traditional markets for decades.

So from my perspective, the most important driver behind their growth has little to do with reinventing finance. In reality, it’s more about finally fixing long-standing back office headaches. Reduced settlement risk, faster reconciliation, and fewer intermediaries are not just technical wins; they increase market efficiency and directly affect profitability.

McKinsey projects that tokenized assets could potentially reach $2-4 trillion by 2030. The sheer scale of what’s at stake is staggering. Exchanges and asset managers that streamline these processes will see big competitive advantages long before the mass retail market catches on.

That said, there’s a glaring blind spot that could get in the way of continued RWA adoption. Specifically, I am talking about storage architecture and custody procedures. Because the truth is: we’re nowhere near enterprise-grade standards in this field. Key management, incident response, and sub-custody controls still remain immature, and a single mishandled key could erase years of progress and create staggering legal liabilities.

Regulators are making efforts to catch up, but so far, any possible legal frameworks are in their infancy. There is no global baseline standard to speak of for this field. And until we get it, every new tokenized treasury or property deal is going to be built on fragile foundations. Without proper infrastructure in place, there is a considerable risk that trust in RWAs may be undermined, and the industry will lose momentum just as it’s beginning to scale.

A hybrid future: TradFi meets tokenization

I don’t see tokenized markets just replacing traditional ones outright. The infrastructure and support behind legacy markets are too entrenched in global society for that. Instead, looking three to five years ahead, it’s far more likely that we’ll see a hybrid model where the two systems coexist and complement each other.

The key to building such a hybrid system will be interoperability. Without different systems, chains, and ledgers being able to talk to each other, tokenized assets risk staying trapped in silos. I’ve long believed that SWIFT could — and should — take center stage here. Given its global reach and existing trust with financial institutions across the world, it can act as a neutral switchboard for tokenized finance.

Its role wouldn’t be to hold or control assets in its custody, but rather to provide the messaging, routing, and compliance checks that let those assets flow across borders and networks seamlessly.

I envision it as a single connection that can move any asset across any ledger, while the assets themselves remain on their own native chains. If done right, this approach would give institutions the ability to “plug in” once and scale everywhere — trading across different systems and gaining easy access to global liquidity.

How to not get left behind

The unfortunate reality that I see often is that many banks, exchanges, and enterprises are approaching RWAs as if this were just another system upgrade. It is not. Developing in this space requires a ground-up rebuild. This is new technology, and that requires new processes, systems built for purpose, and, perhaps most importantly, a new mindset.

If your strategy assumes RWAs are simply an enhancement of your current stack, in two years or so, you will be at a strategic disadvantage and ripe for displacement. The real winners will be forward-thinking firms willing to commit to bold strategies and the discipline to follow through on them. And it would also be wise of those firms to bring in risk professionals who understand both the opportunities and pitfalls of financial innovation so they can lean on their guidance.

The rise of tokenized RWAs is not just a passing trend. Yes, there is still a lot of work to be done, but that wave is coming — no doubt about it. If firms stick with a “bolt-on” approach, they’ll quickly fall behind. But those who proactively prepare and innovate will shape industry rules, set benchmarks, and be the leaders of the next financial era.

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