Tokenization and the FMI Opportunity

Blockchain and digital assets represent the biggest disruption to traditional financial institutions in decades. But the most innovative Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) see things differently. Whether they are an exchange, a central counterparty (CCP), a payments system, or a central securities depository (CSD), FMIs recognize that they have a crucial role to play in coordinating the market and catalyzing the safe adoption of digital assets to support a more effective financial system.

And this role becomes increasingly more important as digital asset adoption continues. To date, we’ve seen these adoption trends happening in three distinct waves, each laying the groundwork for the next: 

• The adoption of crypto helped prove out the technology and improve the infrastructure and security. 
• The more recent swell in stablecoin usage has demonstrated the utility value of moving money in real time.
• This in turn has set the stage for the tokenization of financial and real world assets.

Forecasting a $5 Trillion Tokenized Asset Market by 2030

Around $300 billion worth of money and assets has already been tokenized, providing a clear foundation from which this market is set to expand. Based on our research with clients, industry participants and partners, we estimate that the total value of tokenized money, funds, bonds, alternatives and equities on blockchains will reach $5 trillion by 2030.

This new paradigm will not materialize overnight. It will build gradually, with different markets maturing at different speeds, reflecting the overall improvements on revenues and costs benefits that tokenization delivers, but also the market dynamics as those benefits affect different parts of the value chain. 

First will be the simplest and simplest and most liquid markets: money and funds. These are the instruments where tokenization is already taking hold, because they have the clearest business case with immediate returns and are supported by infrastructure that is ready to absorb them. By creating the foundation of liquidity and trust, they set the standards that will shape everything that follows.

As that foundation is established, tokenization will extend into less liquid markets. Bonds, commodities, and real estate are being explored and will add the next layer of scale. Equities are now also being tested in tokenized form, seeking to offer 24/7 trading and seamless settlement against tokenized money.As they mature, each market will build trust, improve standards and help reinforce the next, laying the groundwork for broader adoption and higher volumes. FMIs will be critical at each stage, ensuring interoperability, trust and systemic resilience as tokenization moves deeper into financial markets.

Tokenized Money: Stablecoins, Tokenized Deposits, and Tokenized Deposits, CBDCs, and the Future of Payments

Stablecoins are the clearest proof that tokenized money works at scale. Alongside tokenized deposits and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), they are already demonstrating how digital forms of money can underpin a new financial market infrastructure. Their appeal is simple: they move instantly, they enable programmable settlement, and they integrate directly into blockchain-based markets.

We expect tokenized money to account for around $1.7 trillion by 2030, or roughly a third of the market. This reflects both the velocity of money and the pace at which tokenized money is already being adopted.

The momentum is visible across regions. In Latin America, Bancolombia issued its Colombian peso-backed stablecoin COPW through Wenia, a digital asset platform powered end-to-end by Fireblocks. In Europe, Banking Circle launched EURI, the first MiCA-regulated euro stablecoin, also built on the Fireblocks tokenization engine. And most recently, the state of Wyoming issued its multi-chain stablecoin FRNT using Fireblocks infrastructure. 

Other global institutions are exploring similar models, with initiatives like JPMorgan’s Tokenized Deposit (JPMD) on a public blockchain showing how commercial bank money can also be extended into tokenized form. 

Central banks are moving too, as in Project Acacia, where the Reserve Bank of Australia, with the support of Fireblocks technology, is testing settlement using wholesale CBDC, alongside stablecoins and deposit tokens. 

Exchanges and Payment Systems will want to make use of tokenized money to enhance global payments and improve settlement efficiency. The Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMIs) set out guidance for the types of money that FMIs should use for settlement, so they will likely seek out the safest forms available and will have a significant bearing on the demand for tokenized money in the years ahead.

Tokenized Funds: Unlocking Efficiency in Money Market and ETF Infrastructure

Funds are proving to be one of the earliest institutional use cases for tokenization. The business case is straightforward: money market funds and ETFs are highly liquid, widely used, and benefit immediately from the efficiencies of blockchain infrastructure. Issuers can streamline distribution, settlement can occur in near real-time, and investors gain greater transparency into fund flows.

Compared to stablecoins, tokenized money market funds offer yield to their holders and have already gained traction in digital asset markets. The clearest example is BlackRock’s launch of BUIDL, its first tokenized money market fund, on Ethereum. Securitize acted as transfer agent, tokenization platform, and placement agent, relying on Fireblocks’ secure wallet infrastructure to issue and burn the tokens. This partnership between the world’s largest asset manager, a leading tokenization platform, and Fireblocks shows how mainstream funds can be digitized on public blockchains while meeting institutional standards for trust and security.

Other fund managers are following suit. Franklin Templeton’s on-chain government money fund was the first US-registered mutual fund to operate on a public blockchain, now available on both Stellar and Polygon. These examples demonstrate that fund tokenization has already moved from pilot projects into production.

By 2030, we expect tokenized funds to account for around $1 trillion. Exchanges and CSDs can play a central role in scaling this adoption by providing trusted custody and distribution infrastructure, ensuring compliance frameworks are met, and supporting interoperability between fund platforms and broader market infrastructure.

How Tokenization Is Reshaping the Bond and Loan Ecosystem

Fixed income markets may have the most to gain from tokenization. The global bond market is vast, and its settlement infrastructure is complex and costly. Tokenization can simplify this dramatically by enabling atomic delivery-versus-payment, streamlining processes, eliminating reconciliation errors, and reducing counterparty risk. For issuers, it offers efficiency. For investors, it can broaden access and create faster, safer settlement.

As an example, ABN AMRO has led the way in Europe by issuing a number of tokenized corporate bonds, exploring how companies can raise capital effectively on-chain. These examples showed that the technology can support the use case, but also revealed the challenges in attaining critical mass required to migrate such a well-established market to new infrastructure.  

Project Eden showed how FMIs can serve as a catalyst by convening 12 of the world’s largest banks to participate in the issuance of a digital government bond on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Bids were submitted through Bloomberg terminals, as in any traditional auction, but issuance, tokenization, and settlement all took place on-chain. Fireblocks provided the secure infrastructure for minting the tokens and enabling atomic delivery-versus-payment. The result was a proof point that tokenized bonds can integrate seamlessly with existing market practices while removing reconciliation costs, reducing settlement risk, and paving the way for future interoperability with CBDCs.

Given the speed and programmability of digital asset markets, we have seen increased demand for short-term lending, including repurchase agreements (repos). Broadridge’s tokenized repo market, for example, has reached impressive scale and we are starting to see increased appetite for intra-day repos—something largely unattainable by the traditional financial system, made possible by the programmability and instant settlement of digital assets.

By 2030, we expect tokenized bonds, loans, and repos to represent around $1.3 trillion. FMIs are uniquely placed to lead here, given their experience in coordinating large-scale change. Just as DTCC orchestrated the transition to T+1 settlement in the United States, FMIs can set the standards and provide the infrastructure needed to ensure that tokenized fixed income markets are resilient, interoperable, and trusted.

Bringing Private Markets On-Chain: The Tokenization of Alternatives

Alternative assets represent one of the largest opportunities for tokenization. This category of tokenized real-world assets includes real estate, private equity, venture capital, and commodities, with a combined market value of over $570 trillion. Yet access to these assets is typically limited to large institutions and ultra-high-net-worth investors, with distribution constrained by illiquidity and high minimum investment thresholds.

Tokenization offers a way to change that. By enabling fractional ownership, it can open up exposure to a broader range of investors while also improving liquidity and transparency. Tokenized real estate in Asia and on-chain venture funds in Europe are early signs of this shift. These initiatives remain small in scale, but they demonstrate how blockchain infrastructure can support new models of distribution for asset classes that have historically been locked away.

By 2030, we expect tokenized alternatives to account for around $400 billion and FMIs will have an especially important role to play as less liquid, harder-to-value assets require consistent standards, trusted custody, and strong governance frameworks to ensure investor protection. FMIs are well placed to provide the sandboxes, interoperability, and systemic trust that will allow alternative assets to move from niche pilots into mainstream adoption.

Tokenizing Public Equities: From Experiments to Institutional Adoption

Public equities are some of the most liquid and efficient instruments in the world, so there are arguably fewer gains to be made from tokenization. And yet we have seen a number of initiatives in recent months that demonstrate the demand for tokenized equities, particularly centred around 24/7 trading, faster settlement cycles, and seamless exchange against tokenized money or funds. 

The DTCC processes nearly all securities transactions in the United States and settled some $4 quadrillion worth of securities in 2024. Sitting at the core of the system, the DTCC holds $74 trillion of equities and has promised to bring all of those equities on-chain along with tokenized settlement services. At the other end of the spectrum the most innovative fintechs, such as Robinhood and Kraken, have also announced initiatives to bring equities on-chain. Innovation is converging, with fintechs opening up new distribution models and FMIs ensuring that the same standards of resilience and trust apply.

By 2030, we expect tokenized equities to represent around $600 billion. FMIs will be central to this transition, ensuring that tokenized equity markets operate with the same standards of data integrity, settlement finality, and investor protection that underpin today’s public markets.

Why FMIs Are Essential to the Future of Tokenized Financial Markets

FMIs bring the trust, governance, and systemic resilience that are essential for tokenization to scale. Fragmented standards and interoperability gaps remain major barriers, and FMIs have the credibility and convening power to resolve them. Their track record in coordinating large-scale change shows why they are indispensable in this era.

The tokenization wave is advancing quickly. FMIs can either adapt to it or lead it. Those that lead will embed their standards and resilience at the heart of tomorrow’s markets, ensuring tokenization develops into a safer, more efficient, and more inclusive financial system.