Tokenization in 2025: Navigating the New Frontier of Real-World Assets

You know when BlackRock, JP Morgan, Franklin Templeton, and Janus Henderson all make investments in the same space, that there must be tremendous opportunity.

That is certainly the case for Real-World Assets (RWAs). In the past year or so, each of these traditional finance (TradFi) leaders made bets that tokenization will become a transformative force in the financial landscape. BlackRock partnered with Securitize to tokenize assets and led a $47 million fundraise in the startup, Franklin Templeton launched a money market fund on Base, and Janus Henderson entered the foray by agreeing to manage a Liquid Treasury Fund from Anemoy.

The entire sector is scaling rapidly: a Chainlink report found that the current value of tokenized assets is already north of $118 billion, and will reach up to $10 trillion by 2030.

But this growth is not happening in a vacuum. The growth of tokenization relies on clear regulations and strong infrastructure. And this momentum is intersecting with politics and regulation at a critical time. The 2024 U.S. Elections ensured that Congress and the White House will be crypto friendly. Meanwhile, the EU's Market in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), will rewrite the rules for stablecoins with enforceability starting January 1, 2025.

Let's take a closer look at how this growth, regulatory support, and the new political landscape may impact those trying to navigate the world of RWAs in the year ahead.

Regulatory Landscape 2025: A New Global Paradigm

Crypto regulation is evolving. What was once a simple compliance exercise is now becoming a sophisticated framework, one that is robust enough to facilitate market growth. The MiCA regulation is a prime example of this shift.

Prior to the passage of MiCA, there were fragmented national regulations across Europe. MiCA provides a unified, comprehensive regulatory model – one that strives to balance innovation with investor protections. Importantly, MiCA defines clearly a regulatory perimeter for crypto assets, it provides licensing requirements across EU countries, and it mandates compliance standards and transparent disclosure. It's designed to be technologically agnostic and adaptable.

So what does this mean in practical terms for RWA specifically? MiCA will have a great impact on stablecoins. I expect that if these regulations are enforced, we're going to see a bifurcated market. On one side will be the stablecoins that are regulated by the EU, and on the other will be those stablecoins that remain unlicensed. Fully regulated stablecoins will be a significant step to attract TradFi capital into RWA tokenization.

The question around enforcement is critical: given that there are many jurisdictions and many regulators, if the EU does not effectively and uniformly enforce MiCA, this bifurcation will be much less pronounced with the bulk of the stablecoin market remaining unregulated

Just as we've seen in crypto markets across MENA and APAC, regulatory approaches are becoming increasingly sophisticated. MiCA's full implementation represents more than a compliance checklist — it's a market transformation.

Regulators beyond the EU will likely watch closely to see the impact of MiCA and course correct accordingly. The regulators who facilitate growth in their regions will strive to do so by offering flexibility without compromising fundamental market integrity.

Institutional Adoption: A Two-Way Street

But the future of the financial system is not just reliant on regulators. It's also on the DeFi and TradFi players to incorporate risk management strategies to keep up with the changing technology landscape.

There's been an interesting trend I've observed: it's gotten much easier to convince TradFi players like the BlackRocks and Janus Henderson that they should invest in DeFi and capitalize on these growth opportunities.

But there's been less conversation around getting DeFi players to adopt TradFi products and practices that could benefit them, especially risk management tools. We need the biggest DeFi players – even those with the most sophisticated processes in DeFi – to adopt TradFi practices. Even the most advanced DeFi players still do not come close to the risk management practices implemented by even a regional bank or financial firm.

In order to break down barriers to adoption on both sides, DeFi players must continue to show how blockchain can make TradFi processes safer and more efficient to open up new market opportunities.

But we also need DeFi players to start adopting TradFi risk management practices. If we're going to truly re-write the financial future, it will be thanks to adaptation and collaboration from both sides.

Future Outlook: What Does it Mean for the U.S.?

Projected market trends for tokenized RWAs suggest exponential growth, but the path is anything but linear. The intersection of technological innovation and regulatory frameworks will be critical.

Here in the U.S., the results of the most recent presidential and congressional elections will impact the DeFi markets for the foreseeable future. But even with a pro-crypto president and congress, we should not expect things to change overnight.

That's because many crypto tokens are stuck in a regulatory limbo. U.S. banks and brokers can't legally hold these assets in custody under our current system. That means tokens cannot be used as collateral or for margin services. In order to address this, the SEC needs to create new interpretative guidance and approve new rules. That's a process which requires market input and may be painstakingly slow. I would not expect these issues to be fully resolved until 2026 or so.

In recent days, President-Elect Trump has said he will put forth Paul Atkins as the SEC Chair. Given his past stances, it is expected that the current lawsuits, specifically those involving the Howey test, will be settled or withdrawn. This would help lift the cloud of enforcement actions and enable more predictable business and longer-term strategies. Hopefully, it will include a shift in the SEC approach, providing clearer guidance or rule-making to distinguish between non-securities tokens and securities tokens as has been proposed in the past by Commissioner Peirce.

Given the evolving U.S. political perspective toward crypto, there is great potential for the U.S. to become a leader alongside the E.U. in forging a new path forward for RWAs.

Conclusion: A Call to Action

The future of tokenized assets isn't about complex technology—it's about making finance work better for everyone. We're seeing big financial players and innovative tech companies come together to create something new: a financial system that's more transparent, efficient, and accessible. While the road ahead isn't simple, with regulatory hurdles and technological challenges, the potential is exciting. If we can continue bridging the gap between traditional finance and blockchain, we might just create a smarter way of managing and investing in real-world assets that benefits both everyday investors and large institutions.

Eli Cohen is a corporate lawyer with 25+ years of experience in commercial transactions, financial services and regulatory matters and has worked in Asia, Europe and the United States. He is the General Counsel for Centrifuge, a real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and securitization platform and Chief Compliance Officer for Anemoy Capital SPC Limited a British Virgin Islands fund company issuer of the tokenized Anemoy Liquid Treasury Fund 1. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, has a Masters in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.