Industry leaders at New York’s TokenizeThis conference predict tokenized U.S. equities could exceed $1 trillion by 2030, fueled by BlackRock’s BUIDL fund and EU regulatory breakthroughs.
Major financial institutions are racing to tokenize U.S. equities as BlackRock’s blockchain-based BUIDL fund nears $500M AUM and JPMorgan processes $1B daily in tokenized collateral, while EU regulators finalize crypto asset custody rules.
Wall Street Meets Blockchain at TokenizeThis Summit
Executives from BlackRock, JPMorgan, and European regulators convened at Manhattan’s Pier 36 on 28-29 May to chart the future of tokenized securities. Conference organizer Michael Casey revealed that 73% of attendees now have live tokenization projects, up from 12% in 2023.
The BlackRock Benchmark Effect
BlackRock’s digital assets lead Robert Mitchnick disclosed that its Ethereum-based BUIDL money market fund attracted $462M by 28 May, with 82% coming from institutional investors. ‘This isn’t crypto speculation – it’s about atomic settlement and 24/7 liquidity,’ Mitchnick told Reuters during a panel discussion.
JPMorgan’s Blockchain Backbone
The banking giant’s Onyx platform now settles over $1B daily in tokenized collateral, per CFO Jeremy Barnum’s 29 May earnings call comments. This blockchain infrastructure enables instant tri-party repo transactions between Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and DBS Bank.
Regulatory Green Lights Flash
EU policymakers finalized MiCA’s tokenized asset rules on 24 May, requiring segregated wallets for security tokens. Simultaneously, the UK’s FCA approved a pilot allowing Lloyds Banking Group to test tokenized FTSE 100 stock trading with Polygon blockchain integration.
Market Projections and Pain Points
Bernstein analysts noted in their 27 May report that tokenized real-world assets could reach $5 trillion by 2030, with U.S. equities and Treasury bonds leading adoption. However, panelists highlighted persistent interoperability challenges between legacy settlement systems like DTCC and DeFi protocols.
Historical Precedents and Future Battlegrounds
The current tokenization wave mirrors the 2010s’ ETF revolution, when BlackRock’s iShares transformed passive investing. Just as early ETFs faced custody concerns, today’s tokenized securities must prove their resilience during market stress tests. Regulatory frameworks developed post-2008 crisis now face their blockchain stress test, with SEC Chair Gensler emphasizing on 28 May that ‘tokenization doesn’t nullify securities laws’. Market veterans recall how the 1990s’ electronic trading revolution eliminated settlement delays – a transformation now accelerating through blockchain’s programmability. As Citigroup’s 2023 prediction of $4T in tokenized assets by 2030 appears conservative, the race intensifies between compliant institutional models and permissionless DeFi alternatives.
