Welcome back to Talking Tokens.
Was this forwarded to you? subscribe here.
Tokenization isn’t just about liquidity, but what you can do with the assets, says Securitize COO
Tokenization today feels like it has gotten a cross-industry stamp of approval given how purposefully traditional issuers have entered the onchain sector over the past couple of years. But there were a lot of hurdles to cross before we got to this level of legitimacy.
“Back in the early days, issuers would come to us and want to tokenize the most illiquid assets,” Billy Miller, COO of Securitize told me on the Talking Tokens podcast. “They assumed that tokenization meant the second they tokenized, everything is instantly accessible and a secondary market magically emerges.”
But illiquid assets don’t simply become liquid just because they’re onchain — you only unlock a new way to trade them.
“A lot of the attempted early adopters were trying to tokenize for the wrong reasons,” Miller said, whether it was for press, or tapping into a new market they couldn’t access.
Today, there’s been a shift: that era of speculative, headline-chasing has given way to tangible tokenization that benefits investors and consumers. “That’s where we saw the BlackRocks of the world come in and create an entirely new fund,” Miller said. “The result is a token issued to your wallet, and the connectivity that we bring to that allows consumers to use it effectively.”
The market for tokenized assets has grown substantially from just a few years ago. Tokenized assets under management increased from about $100 million to $200 million a few years ago to $30 billion to $40 billion today across a handful of “marquee asset classes,” Miller noted.
But for tokenization to continue scaling, crypto-native platforms – and issuers – must invest for the right reason: actually tapping the potential of what tokenizing an asset lets one do.
“The benefit of having a token is what you can then do with that token,” Miller explained. “That’s what’s missing in the traditional market today: I either hold shares in a transfer agent, or I hold shares through my broker. You’re pretty limited with how you can transfer those and who you can sell them to.”
Onchain assets also bring utility on the DeFi front. For example, you can use an asset as collateral to raise loans, or borrow stablecoins to buy bitcoin.
As it stands, institutions and large investors are paying attention, especially as big names like Morgan Stanley, VanEck, Apollo and KKR, are getting their feet wet.
“Institutions have gotten wise to the inevitability of this market coming,” Miller said. “They do not want to be too late to it. They want to participate, and I think we’ve seen that significantly more over the past year.”
Looking forward, Miller expects the momentum to ramp up as more products, integrations and activities come to market alongside asset classes like stocks, bonds, ETFs and funds – both private and public.
“The more we do onchain, the better,” Miller said. “The bigger the ecosystem grows, the more partners come to connect, and the more blockchains get exposed to these types of assets. It’s a really nice snowball effect.”
Check out the next section for more details and the full episode.
The latest Talking Tokens podcast 🎙️
For today’s episode, I interviewed Billy Miller, COO of Securitize, about how transfer agents evolved from background infrastructure to critical onchain infrastructure and why blockchain technology gave this traditionally overlooked sector a chance to reemerge. Billy explains what transfer agents do, how Securitize acquired Pacific Stock Transfer in 2022, and why its Exodus tokenization was a pivotal moment proving regulated tokenization could work at scale.
He walks through why early tokenization efforts focused on the wrong assets, how the market shifted from speculative ICOs to institutional- grade products like BlackRock's BUIDL fund, and why issuers underestimate how easy tokenization can be. The conversation covers institutional adoption timelines, why intermediaries are threatened by onchain infrastructure, FG Nexus tokenization challenges, global investor access, and why within five to ten years tokenization will simply be how capital markets operate.
This episode is sponsored by Securitize, the proven leader in tokenized funds, equities, and private markets. Discover more at securitize.io.
Talking Tokens episodes are released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 6AM EST or YouTube at 8AM EST every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen in!
Make sure to subscribe to keep up with the latest episodes. Feel free to leave a review and tell us your thoughts.
Money and people moves
Bleap, co-founded by former Revolut product employees, raised $6 million in a seed round to scale its onchain finance app
Crypto PAC Fairshake touts $193 million war chest as regulatory bill faces first vote (CNBC)
Sony Innovation Fund invests $13 million in Soneium co-developer Startale Group, kicking off its Series A fundraising (The Block)
Tether is buying up to $1 billion of gold per month and storing it in a 'James Bond' bunker (CoinDesk)
Get involved and share the newsletter. The more you refer, the more perks you could get. If you do (or don’t) like what you see, let me know by sending feedback to [email protected] or leaving a review on your preferred podcast platform.
This product was built by Token Relations.
Please note this content is for informational and educational purposes only. Any views shared should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research. We may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this newsletter.