Tipping the tokenisation scales: From intent to impetus, Asia weighs in
Tokenisation is one of the most talked about trends in finance, hailed as the key to faster settlement, transparent ownership, and programmable finance. Yet for all the hype, reality paints a different picture. Today, only around US$30 billion worth of real-world assets (RWAs) are on-chain, a mere drop in the bucket compared to the US$18.9 trillion expected by 2033.
So why the hesitation?
At the intangible level, perception remains a powerful brake. Blockchain still carries a lot of baggage from its past in crypto, a stigma that continues to colour institutional attitudes. Traditional financial market infrastructures (FMIs) and custodians also move cautiously, prioritising security, and regulatory compliance over bold experimentation.
The tangible barriers are just as significant. Regulatory clarity remains patchy and liquidity is fragmented. In many jurisdictions, laws still require securities to be held in traditional central securities depositories (CSDs), preventing native on-chain issuance. Assets and investors are scattered across siloed private blockchains and permissioned networks, limiting scale and constraining the development of secondary markets.
These hurdles have kept tokenisation in the realm of theory, not practice. But Asia Pacific (APAC) is poised to change that equation — where intent becomes impetus, and the scales finally start to tip toward meaningful market integration.
APAC, poised to lead
With 4.8 billion people, 60% of the world’s youth, and the highest on-chain growth rate globally, APAC is too large and too dynamic to remain a follower. The opportunity here isn’t about testing new ideas in a vacuum, it’s about serving the vast and vibrant economy that already exists. APAC’s leadership will be shaped by three pillars: the region’s strong foundations in financial inclusion, its frontier of young, digital-native private wealth, and the accelerating policy momentum that is fuelling innovation.
The first pillar is the foundation APAC has already built around financial inclusion. The region has consistently rewritten the playbook on digital finance, nowhere else has technology scaled so quickly and so broadly to bring essential financial services to billions. China and India alone process roughly 1.3 billion digital payments every day, proving that infrastructure innovation can expand access and participation at unprecedented scale. The natural next step is to build for financial wellbeing, ensuring investment, savings, and advisory products are within reach for all — a feat only a tokenisation-anchored stack is capable of achieving.
“The story of the last 25 years has been financial inclusion. Now, the next phase is financial wellbeing. We must deliver wealth products at the same scale as payments. Digital assets are the only stack capable of achieving that.” — Rajeev Tummala, Head of Digital & Data (Asia & MENA) at HSBC Securities Services
Layered on top of that foundation is the frontier of wealth transformation taking shape across the region. Asia is now the global centre of private wealth and is experiencing one of the largest intergenerational wealth transfers in history. A digitally native cohort of investors is rising — younger, more connected, and more demanding of immediacy, accessibility, and transparency. Their expectations are reshaping the design of financial services and creating fertile ground for tokenised products that meet them where they are.
“Wealth is being created in Asia, and a new wave of digitally native investors is emerging from this region, creating demand for tokenised products.” — Tawfique Hamid, Regional Head of Data & Analytics, APAC at BNY
Lastly, regulators across the region are advancing initiatives that will enable tokenisation to evolve from proof-of-concept to production. Hong Kong and Japan are actively licensing stablecoin issuers, Singapore and Australia are drafting new frameworks to unlock tokenised asset classes, and policymakers are becoming more receptive to sandbox programmes and pilot projects. Together, these regulatory developments are laying the groundwork for the next stage of growth, creating an environment in which real-world assets can move on-chain at scale.
Building blocks for institutional adoption
For tokenisation to move from theory to mainstream reality, three foundational elements must align: clear legal frameworks, interoperable infrastructure, and liquid secondary markets.
The first requirement is legal and regulatory clarity. Recognition of native digital securities is a prerequisite for their widespread issuance, distribution, and trading. But regulation must also balance consistency with flexibility, it’s not about achieving complete uniformity. What we need are shared principles: common enough to enable interoperability, but flexible enough to cater to local market realities and deeply entrenched financial mandates. When jurisdictions align around baseline standards, the industry will be allowed to scale without stifling local innovation.
The second element is interoperable infrastructure. Today, the landscape remains a patchwork of siloed systems and “walled gardens”, with different token formats, incompatible KYC / AML requirements, and disparate custody standards. Breaking down these barriers is essential to building the seamless rails required for liquidity, scale, and institutional confidence. Ultimately, end users should not need to know what constitutes the underlying infrastructure just that it’s safe and seamless for everyday use.
“We are operating in a multichain world and while tribalism still exists in the ecosystem, at the end of the day we need to deliver on the interoperability that the end user expects — across chains, and on and off chain.” — Qin En Looi, Managing Partner at Onigiri Capital
Finally, the third pillar is the ease of liquidity flow across the ecosystem. Today, most tokenised assets exist only at the point of primary issuance. But secondary markets flourish as institutional liquidity providers to enable the bridging of fragmented liquidity pools and the building of credible utilities that support trading, settlement, and valuation. Achieving this will require coordinated efforts from FMIs, custodians, and fintech innovators to ensure the digital financial system actively complements the broader economy, at velocity.
“On the aspect of assets, it is still primarily a primary issuance market, which has limited liquidity and growth.” — Alvin Chia, Head of Digital Assets Innovation (APAC) at Northern Trust
“We’re just scratching the surface. Cheap and fast is already being delivered, but liquidity that’s seamless and institution-grade is what will help the market to achieve scale.” — Raja Chakravorti, Chief Business Officer at Stellar Development Foundation
Achieving this will require coordinated efforts from FMIs, custodians, and fintech innovators to ensure the digital financial system actively complements the broader economy, at velocity.
Strategic levers: What industry must do next
While systemic challenges remain, there are practical, actionable steps industry players can take to accelerate adoption and prepare for a tokenised future.
The first imperative is to start small, but start now. Waiting for perfect regulatory clarity or universally accepted standards risks leaving institutions behind as the market matures. The organisations that will lead the next chapter are those willing to experiment early and iterate quickly. Small-scale pilots not only build institutional capability but also generate valuable insights that shape future regulatory frameworks and inform industry best practices.
“If you wait for the standards to be finalised before you start, you’ll spend years playing catch-up.” — Andrew Scott, Head of Digital Assets at Marketnode
The second strategic lever is to prioritise digital money rails as the ‘killer’ use case. Stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and central bank digital currencies represent near-term opportunities that can catalyse broader adoption. They are typically less complex from a regulatory perspective than securities and can serve as a bridge for institutions to become familiar with tokenised infrastructure.
“Digital money rails — stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and eventually CBDCs — are likely to gain adoption first because they offer immediate and tangible improvements in payment efficiency and programmability. These foundational innovations in digital finance can establish the necessary infrastructure, trust, and regulatory clarity that, in turn, pave the way for broader RWA tokenisation.” — Kah Kit Yip, Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets, Innovation Group at UOB
“Institutional investors should focus on the low-hanging fruit first such as stablecoins. Once institutions are comfortable there, broader tokenisation becomes a much more natural progression.” — Jerry Xu, Investment Lead at Stellar Development Foundation
Lastly, the industry must think beyond technology for innovation’s sake. Its immediate and tangible value lies in democratising access and improving user experience, such as enabling financial services to function even when traditional infrastructure fails. In one case, when a typhoon shut down banking operations in the Philippines, people were unable to send money home when they needed it most. A well-designed blockchain solution could have provided a resilient alternative. By focusing on user-centric products that address real-world pain points, the industry not only demonstrates practical value but also creates a stronger impetus for regulators to engage, laying the groundwork for mainstream adoption.
“Tokenisation should be less about experimenting for something new and more about serving the economy that’s already there.” — Aaron Collett, Strategic Finance at Stellar Development Foundation
A call to build now, build together
The RWA opportunity in APAC is enormous, but realising it will require getting one’s hands dirty. It demands collaboration across regulators, financial institutions, and infrastructure providers to lay the rails for a new era of capital markets, one built on shared standards, inclusive design, and seamless connectivity.
“Interoperability obstacles can’t be an excuse not to start. The industry must do a better job championing tokenised assets and building the infrastructure that can deliver the innovation securely and at scale.” — Aaron Seabrook, COO at Marketnode
Together, we can build a more efficient and inclusive financial system that serves economies as they are today, while building the infrastructure for what they will become tomorrow.
For more information: www.marketnode.com
For more information: www.stellar.org