Tokenization is moving fast, reaching nearly $40 billion in November 2026. There is a clear demand from Wall Street, whether from its banks or asset managers.
However, beyond tokenized stock, the demand and appeal of such products face a critical challenge. Turning any asset into a token does not guarantee anyone will buy it.
Interviews with financial infrastructure firms R3, T-RIZE, and XDC at TOKEN2049 reveal how this problem could shape Wall Street’s next expansion.
Wall Street’s Next Customers are Already on Blockchain
For decades, banks have relied on established financial networks to distribute investment products. Tokenization offers another route: reaching wider investors through blockchain-based platforms.
The commercial incentive is straightforward.
“It’s about how banks and others make money,” said R3 co-founder Todd McDonald.
Banks could potentially sell tokenized funds and other investments to a new pool of customers without building an entirely separate distribution network.
However, traditional finance has a fundamental concern. Banks often want private networks where they can control access and protect sensitive transactions.
That creates a problem when the customers they want are somewhere else.
“If you lock something into a private network and there are no customers to reach and no transactions to be done, you can have as private a network as you want — nobody is there,” said Todd McDonald.
The challenge is finding a way to reach blockchain investors while preserving the controls that regulated financial institutions require.
The Problem: Investors Still Need a Reason to Buy
Getting traditional assets onto blockchain platforms solves only part of the distribution problem.
Investors still need a product they understand, a return worth pursuing, and some confidence that they can recover their money.
“You have to understand what the client actually needs — to raise money, launch a new investment product, or connect to existing rails — and then help them reach liquidity,” said T-RIZE’s Thien Duy Tran.
Real estate offers a useful warning. Properties can be divided into digital investment tokens, theoretically allowing smaller investors to participate.
Yet buyers can struggle to assess the underlying property or determine a fair price.
“Returns looked interesting, but market pricing was hard.”
More standardized investments, including private credit and tokenized funds, have proved easier to position in T-RIZE’s experience.
The lesson for Wall Street is familiar. Investors care about the quality of an asset and whether they can sell it. Blockchain technology cannot settle those questions on its own.
The $2.5 Trillion Opportunity That Still Needs Real Money
The stakes extend far beyond investment portfolios. The Asian Development Bank estimates that businesses faced a $2.5 trillion trade-finance gap in 2025.
Consider a small Indonesian exporter shipping goods to Singapore. The company might need financing for just two or three days before receiving payment.
Tokenization could turn its invoice into an investment opportunity that lenders elsewhere can fund.
But the investment still needs to pass basic checks.
“Investors ask what the compliance position is, what the credibility of the project is, what the consignment consists of?” said Ritesh Kakkad, co-founder of XDC Network.
Those questions, raised by XDC representative Ritesh, expose the limits of the technology. A blockchain can record the investment, but lenders still have to judge its risks.
And even when financing is secured, another problem remains:
“secondary market liquidity for illiquid assets.”
An investor who expected to hold an asset for a year might need to sell after six months. Without another buyer, the token offers no automatic escape.
This uncertainty is increasingly drawing regulatory attention.
In November, Irish central bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf warned that the investor benefits, commercial viability, and resilience of tokenized finance remain uncertain.
Wall Street has the financial products. Blockchain networks offer another route to investors. The next test is whether those investors will actually commit capital.
For businesses waiting on financing, that decision could determine whether tokenization delivers anything useful.
