From Skyscrapers to Startups: How Tokenisation is Unlocking a New Asset Economy

In a world increasingly driven by digital innovation, tokenisation is emerging as a transformative force reshaping how we perceive, trade, and invest in assets. Whether it’s a share in a luxury apartment in Manhattan or exposure to a diversified pool of private credit, tokenisation is turning previously illiquid, high-barrier assets into accessible, tradable, and transparent digital units.

What is Tokenisation, and Why Does it Matter?

At its core, tokenisation is the process of converting ownership rights of a real-world or digital asset into a digital token that can be issued, traded, and stored on a blockchain. These tokens can represent a wide spectrum of assets, from cryptocurrencies and equities to real estate, intellectual property, and even art. Depending on their function, tokens are typically categorised as native, utility, payment, or security tokens. Each type brings specific value — for example, utility tokens like BNB provide access to services, while security tokens like tZERO represent fractional ownership in actual companies or assets.

The importance of tokenisation lies in its ability to democratise access to investment opportunities, enhance liquidity, and streamline market operations. It fundamentally changes how we interact with financial systems, breaking down traditional barriers to entry.

The Tokenisation Process: Bridging Physical Assets and Digital Markets

Tokenisation is not a single-step event but a structured process. It begins with identifying a suitable asset, such as a building or a loan pool, and assessing its readiness for digital conversion. Next, the process must comply with legal and regulatory requirements, particularly around securities laws and cross-border trading. Smart contracts are then developed to encode the rights and responsibilities attached to the tokenised asset, followed by the issuance and distribution of tokens.

Post-issuance, the focus shifts to custody and asset management, ensuring secure storage, dividend distribution, and voting rights (if applicable). Finally, the tokens can be listed on digital marketplaces for secondary trading, offering investors liquidity that traditional asset markets often lack.

Real-World Impact: Tokenising Real Estate, Credit, and Beyond

The most compelling use cases of tokenisation lie in the domain of Real World Assets (RWAs). Real estate is a prime example: platforms like RealT allow fractional ownership of properties through tokenisation, enabling investors with as little as €5,000 to gain exposure to high-value markets. A €200,000 apartment, once accessible only to wealthy buyers, can now be divided into 100,000 tokens - making real estate investment more inclusive and liquid.

Similarly, the private credit sector - now worth over $1.5 trillion - is being reshaped by platforms like Maple Finance and Creditcoin, which use blockchain to issue tokenised loans. These platforms facilitate undercollateralised lending and open capital flows to emerging markets, bypassing traditional gatekeepers.

The Promise and the Pitfalls

While the benefits of tokenisation are compelling - including enhanced liquidity, faster settlement, lower costs, and broader access - the technology is not without its drawbacks. Regulatory ambiguity, especially in cross-border settings, continues to pose challenges. Moreover, tokenised assets still carry traditional risks, such as credit defaults or legal disputes over ownership rights.

Tokenisation also introduces new concerns: cybersecurity threats, the need for enforceable smart contracts, and the complexity of taxation across jurisdictions. As regulators catch up with the pace of innovation, compliance and consumer protection remain central to sustainable growth.

Legal and Regulatory Dynamics

Navigating the regulatory landscape is one of the most critical elements of any tokenisation strategy. This includes compliance with data protection laws (like GDPR), managing intellectual property rights, ensuring consumer protection, and handling tax implications associated with token trading and income distribution.

In addition, platforms offering tokenised assets must often obtain regulatory licenses akin to financial services providers, and smart contracts must meet enforceability standards in different legal systems. As tokenisation blurs the line between code and law, these considerations become increasingly complex - but also increasingly urgent.

A Paradigm Shift in Finance and Investment

Tokenisation represents more than a technical advancement - it is a paradigm shift in how value is created, distributed, and managed. It allows for the fractionalisation of ownership, real-time asset trading, and global investment participation like never before. As platforms evolve and regulation matures, tokenisation has the potential to bridge the gap between traditional finance and decentralised innovation.

By unlocking capital from previously illiquid markets and expanding access to a broader investor base, tokenisation is not just changing how we invest - it’s reshaping who gets to participate in the financial future.