When BeInCrypto launched in 2018, the digital asset industry was still in its infancy. The excitement around initial coin offerings had just peaked, Ethereum was straining under its first wave of global adoption, and the idea that traditional financial securities could live on a blockchain was more science fiction than market reality.
A year prior, in 2017, Securitize had already issued its first-ever tokenized security on Ethereum. That early experiment shaped our conviction that blockchains would fundamentally change how financial markets operate. Today, that conviction has only grown stronger: Securitize has brought more than $3 billion in securities natively to over ten different blockchains, more than anyone else in the industry. The infrastructure is finally in place, the opportunity is more than $20 trillion, and tokenization is inevitable.
The promises of tokenization are being emphasized by some of the largest institutions in the world. Securitize has tokenized funds with Apollo, BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, KKR and VanEck. The launch of BlackRock’s BUIDL on Securitize has been called a “watershed moment” for onchain finance.
Beyond our own work, Bank Of America recently described tokenization as “Mutual Fund 3.0” – the next evolution after mutual funds and ETFs. And according to S&P Global, if adoption continues at its current pace, tokenization will intersect with other megatrends such as the rise of private credit and AI, “to significantly disrupt the future of capital markets over the next five to ten years.”
From Technology Platform to Full Financial Services
When we began building our offerings, Securitize’s vision was clear but perhaps too narrow: we saw ourselves as a tokenization technology platform. We wanted to help issuers move assets onchain. What quickly became clear though was that technology alone wasn’t enough. Issuers needed more than smart contracts; they needed compliant recordkeeping, investor servicing, and distribution.
That realization transformed us from a technology platform into a fully-regulated financial services provider. We became a transfer agent, then a broker-dealer, and more recently a fund administrator. Each step wasn’t just vertical integration, it was a recognition that successful tokenization requires the entire regulatory and operational stack.
Building the Marketplaces That Didn’t Exist
In 2018, the prevailing belief was that if you tokenized an asset, liquidity would naturally follow. In reality, markets don’t work that way, especially when compliance is non-negotiable. Tokens do not magically create liquidity; underlying demand and trusted marketplaces do.
That insight led us to build our own trading infrastructure. We became an alternative trading system (ATS) in the U.S. and later participated in Europe’s DLT Pilot Regime. These venues didn’t exist when we started, but we realized that if we wanted compliant liquidity for tokenized assets, we had to build it ourselves.
The Industry Evolves: Regulation, Institutions, and New Rails
The industry itself has changed dramatically since 2018. Regulators are more engaged than ever, providing clarity that was absent in those early years. That clarity, in turn, has brought institutional adoption. Global asset managers like Apollo, BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, KKR and VanEck are now launching tokenized products with Securitize, something unimaginable in 2018.
The technology rails have evolved too. Tokenization started on Ethereum, and Ethereum remains the premier platform for bringing financial assets onchain. But today, we live in a multichain world. Assets move across Ethereum to other chains like Arbitrum, Solana, Avalanche, and more. Cross-chain infrastructure from partners like Wormhole and oracle providers like RedStone enables a new level of interoperability and transparency we could only dream of in the early days. Wallet and key management has also been streamlined.
Stablecoins also play a big role in making tokenization more useful, providing both tokenized dollars alongside tokenized securities on the same ledger to be able to provide the settlement efficiencies we do not have in traditional capital markets infrastructure. Those two have evolved. When I started Securitize, Tether AUM was around $3B and mainly used within the Bitfinex ecosystem, USDC did not even exist. Today Tether is a juggernaut with $170B AUM and USDC has reached $70B.
And then there’s DeFi. In 2018, the term barely existed. Aave was called ETHLend for those who remember. Uniswap launched late in 2018. Today, decentralized finance is a core driver of adoption, creating utility for tokenized assets by allowing them to serve as collateral, power lending markets, enable new forms of structured yield and make decentralized trading possible.
Then vs Now: From Hypothesis to Reality
In 2018, tokenization was a hypothesis. Would investors care? Would regulators accept it? Would institutions ever participate? Seven years later, those questions have been answered. Tokenization has moved from concept to reality, and the largest players in finance are embracing it.
As cliche as it sounds though, we are still just at the beginning. The past seven years have taught us that not every asset should be tokenized immediately, and not every tokenized asset will be liquid from day one. What matters is building the right infrastructure, earning regulatory trust, and working with institutions to scale adoption.
The Road Ahead
So, will every alternative asset class eventually be tokenized? Securitize believes the answer is yes. The efficiencies, transparency, and accessibility offered by blockchain technology are too powerful to ignore. The infrastructure is built, the regulatory frameworks are evolving, and the largest asset managers in the world are leading the charge.
Tokenization isn’t coming. It’s already here. And as we look back from 2018 to 2025, the story is one of inevitability: trillions of dollars will move onchain, and every asset you know will eventually live there.