Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo mentioned he believes tokenized equities and ETFs, not personal credit score or Treasury merchandise, would be the asset class that finally drives the real-world asset (RWA) market into the trillions.
Talking at a ETHConf panel in New York on Tuesday, Domingo argued that bringing shares and exchange-traded funds onchain may unlock a market far bigger than at the moment’s roughly $30 billion tokenized asset sector.
“The complete equities and ETF market worldwide might be like $150 trillion,” Domingo mentioned. “Provided that a small proportion of that, like 2% or 3%, strikes onchain, it will get you very near that $5 trillion.”
The feedback come as Securitize prepares to go public and seeks to increase its function as one of many largest tokenization suppliers for establishments, together with BlackRock.
Whereas tokenized U.S. Treasuries have emerged because the dominant RWA class over the previous two years, Domingo argued that tokenized shares may turn out to be the business’s subsequent main progress engine. Securitize has introduced partnerships with the New York Inventory Alternate and switch agent Computershare aimed toward enabling on-chain buying and selling and settlement of equities.
Domingo additionally drew a distinction between what he considers “actual” tokenized equities and the rising variety of blockchain-based inventory merchandise provided exterior the U.S.
“Lots of people that at the moment say that they tokenize equities, they don’t seem to be tokenizing fairness,” he mentioned, arguing that many choices depend on derivatives or artificial constructions somewhat than direct possession of the underlying shares.
In accordance with Domingo, the long-term objective is for blockchain-based securities to supply the identical investor rights as conventional shares whereas benefiting from immediate settlement, 24/7 transferability and deeper integration with decentralized finance.
Domingo maintained that public blockchains, notably Ethereum, stay the popular infrastructure for institutional tokenization regardless of considerations round transparency and compliance. Securitize makes use of good contracts to limit possession to authorized buyers whereas permitting belongings to maneuver on permissionless networks.
Trying forward, Domingo mentioned he expects blockchain-based markets to develop alongside current monetary infrastructure earlier than step by step absorbing a bigger share of exercise.
“The normal markets are going to remain,” he mentioned. “We will see a brand new market emerge in parallel that can run on blockchain rails and be rather more environment friendly.”
Learn extra: BlackRock-backed tokenization agency Securitize clears key hurdle to go public on NYSE
