Tokenization has become a strategic priority for 84% of financial firms

Tokenization has become a strategic priority for much of Wall Street, with 84% of financial institutions saying the technology is important to their business, according to a new survey from financial technology provider Broadridge.

The survey of 200 North American financial services executives suggested the financial industry is moving beyond experimenting with blockchain technology and beginning to prepare for a future in which tokenized assets become part of everyday market infrastructure.

Tokenization is the process of representing ownership of real-world assets — such as stocks, bonds, funds or real estate — as digital tokens on a blockchain. Proponents say it can streamline settlement, lower operating costs and enable assets to trade around the clock while making them easier to divide into smaller ownership stakes.

Interest in the technology has accelerated over the past two years as some of the world's largest financial institutions have launched tokenization initiatives. BlackRock's tokenized Treasury fund has grown into one of the largest blockchain-based investment funds, while Franklin Templeton offers tokenized money market funds. JPMorgan has expanded blockchain-based settlement through its Kinexys platform, and firms including Visa and DTCC are building infrastructure to support tokenized payments and securities.

On Wednesday, DTCC completed its first live production trades involving tokenized securities, marking a major step toward bringing blockchain technology into traditional financial markets.

Broadridge's findings suggest those efforts are influencing the broader industry. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said tokenization will at least partially reshape financial markets within the next three to five years, while nearly one-third plan to increase investment in tokenization projects by 26% to 50% or more over the next two years.

The survey also found firms are not preparing for an all-onchain future. Instead, 92% expect digital and traditional assets to coexist for the foreseeable future, and 69% plan to integrate tokenization into existing infrastructure rather than build separate blockchain-native systems.

That mirrors the approach taken by many large financial institutions, which have generally focused on connecting blockchain networks to existing trading, custody and settlement systems instead of replacing them.

Adoption remains uneven across the industry. Forty-four percent of capital markets firms said they already have tokenization initiatives in production or operating at scale, compared with 20% of asset managers and 9% of wealth managers.

The survey also pointed to where firms expect tokenization to gain traction first. About 80% of respondents believe tokenized mutual funds and money market funds will play a meaningful role within five years, reflecting the rapid growth of tokenized Treasury products. By comparison, only about half expect tokenized equities to achieve similar adoption over that period.