Institutional momentum accelerates towards tokenising securities on blockchains, amid varied long-term forecasts

From trading floors to boardrooms, momentum behind moving traditional securities and real-world assets onto blockchains is rising fast, and financial institutions are scrambling to reconcile opportunity with risk.

Market momentum and differing forecasts
Industry trackers show the on-chain real-world asset market has expanded rapidly from near-zero a few years ago to tens of billions of dollars. According to CoinDesk, tokenized real-world assets reached about $24 billion by June 2025, reflecting several years of steep growth. Market.us recorded a similar figure, reporting more than $21 billion of tokenized value by April 2025 and noting heavy institutional participation in 2024.

Projections for where tokenization could head diverge widely. Analysts from RedStone, Gauntlet and RWA.xyz have argued the market might scale to as much as $30 trillion by 2034 if tokenised instruments capture a material share of global securities and alternative assets. CoinDesk has reported the same $30 trillion projection as a plausible long-term outcome. Other consultancies offer more moderate paths: Roland Berger and Standard Chartered have published highly optimistic scenario estimates for the coming decade, while McKinsey’s analysis remains cautious, proposing a lower but still meaningful multi‑trillion-dollar potential by 2030. Grand View Research and other market reports produce yet different growth curves, underscoring the range of assumptions about adoption, regulation and interoperability that drive these forecasts.

Why institutions are accelerating
Large banks, asset managers, exchanges and fintech firms are building tokenization strategies to tap benefits that on‑chain models can deliver: round‑the‑clock markets, fractionalisation, faster settlement and potentially broader liquidity across borders. A State Street survey cited by CoinDesk found that a majority of institutional investors expect to increase digital‑asset exposure over the coming years, with many forecasting that 10–24% of portfolios could be tokenized by 2030.

That institutional interest is already shaping product development: stablecoin rails, tokenized bonds and digital custody solutions have moved from experimental proofs of concept toward commercially focused deployments, and some exchanges and custodians are piloting smart contract‑based offerings aimed at traditional investors.

The operational and security challenge
The shift onto public ledgers changes the operational risk profile. Industry commentary at events such as Halborn’s Access Summit has emphasised that whereas legacy cyber‑security often focuses on detection and remediation, on‑chain incidents can immediately result in irreversible asset loss. That reality is prompting many firms to prioritise preventative security: exhaustive smart contract audits, hardened custody arrangements, formalised risk frameworks and closer alignment between innovation teams and compliance, legal and security functions.

The tension between speed and caution is central. Digital‑asset teams press for rapid feature delivery to capture market share, while compliance and security units insist on rigorous controls. How firms reconcile those pressures will shape which incumbents succeed in moving traditional markets on‑chain.

Sectoral snapshots and early winners
Tokenized real estate and private‑market instruments are widely viewed as the first practical waves of institutional adoption. TokenREITs and DeFi‑linked platforms point to accelerating TVL (total value locked) in property‑backed tokens, and some industry estimates foresee tokenized real estate reaching into the low‑trillions under favourable scenarios. Meanwhile, liquidity providers, custody specialists and blockchain infrastructure firms are being positioned as natural beneficiaries of broader tokenization.

Investment implications
For investors, tokenization opens new avenues of exposure: infrastructure vendors, custodial services, enterprise blockchain adopters and crypto‑focused exchange‑traded funds are commonly cited plays. The lead commentary on the industry also points retail investors toward trading platforms offering access to US stocks and ETFs; one such platform, moomoo, is mentioned as a channel for investors to explore tokenization‑related ETF exposure. Editorially, corporate claims and promotional suggestions should be treated with care and evaluated against due diligence and regulatory guidance.

The regulatory and market outlook
Regulation remains a pivotal factor. Several industry participants argue that greater legal clarity, particularly in the United States, has been a prerequisite for the recent increase in institutional activity. Yet future policy decisions, cross‑jurisdictional standards and market infrastructure build‑outs will determine the pace at which tokenized markets scale. The wide spread of third‑party forecasts underlines that the eventual size of the market is conditional on technology maturation, regulatory choices and whether incumbents can integrate on‑chain primitives without undermining investor protections.

Conclusion
Tokenization is evolving from pilot projects into commercially oriented programmes that could materially reshape how securities and alternative assets are issued, traded and settled. While bullish scenarios point to multi‑trillion dollar outcomes over the next decade, experts and data providers alike stress a spectrum of possible futures. The firms that combine early market entry with stringent security, robust compliance and interoperable infrastructure are likely to be best placed to benefit if the promise of tokenized finance is realised.