Tokenization is updating the concept of 'ownership' for digital assets

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Tokenization, the act of digitally assigning ownership to an asset, is no longer a crypto experiment. Stablecoins have already proven the model. A $270-billion market and support from the GENIUS Act show that tokenized assets can be real, regulated and trusted.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicts trillions of dollars of demand for U.S. Treasuries through stablecoins. The reason is simple: Value wants to move at the speed of the internet and tokenization is how we can finally catch up.

This will not stop at digital dollars. Equities, bonds and real estate are next. Tokenization is the natural evolution of how assets move in a digital economy.

Today, if you own Apple stock, you can't send a few shares to your nephew on his birthday, you can't swap them for Google stock and you can't use them as collateral for a loan. That is absurd in a world where value should move as easily as an email. With tokenization, you can.

But only if we get it right.

The promise of tokenization is true ownership and freedom. Assets should move across platforms, wallets, and borders without friction or artificial barriers. If an asset is locked inside one brokerage, that isn't ownership and it isn't innovation.

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If tokenization is built as a walled garden — where assets are tokenized but can't move beyond the platform where they originated — we lose what makes it transformative. The principle must be clear. Maximize freedom, self-sovereignty, and utility while maintaining legitimacy and managing risk. Anything less is a step backward.

The test for investors is already clear. Can I move it? Can I hold it outside the issuing platform? Can I use it as collateral? None of these are a matter of if, but only of when. Markets will adopt tokenization. People will adopt tokenization. Technology and logic will prevail.

The world's financial giants see this coming. BlackRock has already tokenized more than two billion dollars in Treasuries. Nasdaq is looking to introduce tokenized securities on its exchange. Amazon, PayPal and others are weaving tokenization into their strategies. And the U.S government has also taken notice: Recently, I participated in a historic joint regulatory roundtable where Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins and Commodity Futures Trading Commission acting Chair Caroline Pham recognized the critical role of technologies like tokenization and committed to create a regulatory environment that allows innovation to flourish. The tide is rising.

The opportunity is historic. Done right, tokenization creates a financial system that moves at the speed of the internet. Consumers gain freedom, institutions gain efficiency and markets gain legitimacy. Everybody has a place in this future, and everybody can win.

Tokenization isn't just the next frontier. It is the test of whether we build a financial system that is transparent and modern, or whether we simply digitize the inefficiencies of the old one. The future is unfolding. The choice is ours.