For 400 years, business has followed the same model.
You launch a company. Incorporate it. Hire lawyers. Raise money from a small circle of insiders. Maybe, years later, you go public in an IPO, if the bankers say you’re worthy.
But that’s all changing. Fast.
A quiet revolution is underway on Wall Street. And it’s being driven by a once-nerdy idea from the crypto world: tokenization.
Let me show you why the biggest players in finance — from BlackRock to JPMorgan — are sprinting into this new world… and how smart investors can ride their coattails to profits.
What is tokenization?
Tokenization means turning real-world assets — like real estate, fine art, or company shares — into digital tokens that live on a blockchain.
Think of it like this:
You own an apartment building in Manhattan. In the “old world,” proof of ownership is buried in a mountain of paperwork. Selling a portion of it? That means hiring lawyers, calling brokers, and months of delays.
With tokenization, you could split that building into one million digital tokens. Each token represents a fractional share — like owning one brick of the building.
Anyone can buy or sell those tokens instantly. All ownership records, transaction history, and rights are stored securely on the blockchain forever.
Tokenization is the grand prize for Wall Street
There are three key reasons the biggest names in finance are betting on tokenization:
1. Liquidity and access
Most of the world’s $250 trillion in assets is illiquid. You can’t easily trade it. It’s locked in real estate, private equity, art, and debt instruments that aren’t available to everyday investors.
Tokenization unlocks that value.
Instead of needing $50 million to invest in an office tower, now you can start with $100. Investors in Tokyo can buy a slice of a skyscraper in New York. On a Sunday. With a few clicks.
2. Instant, cheap settlement
The current financial system is stuffed with middlemen — brokers, custodians, clearinghouses — each one adding fees and delays.
Tokenized transactions are peer-to-peer. No middlemen and the associated clearing fees. No T+2 delays. Just transactions executing instantly and securely on a blockchain.
JPMorgan alone spends billions maintaining its settlement infrastructure. With smart contracts automating that process, those costs vanish.
3. A new financial operating system
Tokenization doesn’t just improve the old system. It’s building a new one.
Imagine mortgages closing in hours, not weeks. Cross-border payments settled in seconds, with no need for banks in the middle. Paying for coffee using a sliver of your Apple stock, tokenized and liquid.
Tokenization could even replace IPOs. Why would a founder endure the torturous, multimillion-dollar IPO roadshow when they could mint their company’s equity directly onto a global network, accessible to all, for fraction of a cost?
So how do you profit from tokenization?
Much of the backbone of this entire revolution is being built on Ethereum.
BlackRock launched its first tokenized fund on Ethereum.Franklin Templeton uses it to issue tokenized Treasury funds.Visa and PayPal are testing stablecoins on Ethereum rails.
If you’re looking for the “picks and shovels” play on tokenization, you don’t need to look far.
Buying and holding ETH gives you direct exposure to the rails of the next financial system.
But it won’t be the only winner.
There’s a new class of smaller, faster, and more specialized protocols that are built for tokenization from the ground up.
Some focus on tokenized Treasuries. Some are engineered to host real-world assets like real estate. Some are reinventing lending and borrowing.
These are tiny projects today. They’d be considered “nanocaps” in the stock market. But as Wall Street floods into crypto, these platforms stand to outperform every other major crypto.
I’ve just put a brand-new report together on the five coins best positioned to profit as the $16 trillion tokenization trend goes mainstream. For now, it’s available exclusively to Venture members. Click here if you want to join us and access the report.
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The $250 trillion opportunity in crypto was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.