The Tokenization Conversation Continues
Stablecoins and tokenization remained central themes during Day 2 of DAS London. The market value of stablecoins has grown to nearly $300 billion, serving as what some call tokenization’s “top of the funnel.” Meanwhile, tokenized real-world assets now total about $33 billion across various categories including private credit, money market funds, and equities according to RWA.xyz data.
Algorand Foundation CEO Staci Warden opened the main stage discussions by describing tokenization as crypto’s killer application. This perspective isn’t entirely new – even traditional financial institutions like Vanguard have been exploring blockchain technology for years to streamline asset-backed securities markets, despite their cautious approach to cryptocurrency products.
Industry Frustration with Slow Progress
During one panel discussion, Inversion founder Santiago Roel Santos expressed growing impatience with the industry’s pace. “I’m tired of sitting behind a screen or coming to these panels and pontificating about this technology,” Santos remarked. “It’s good, we use it, but someone has to deploy it at scale.”
Santos argued that the industry shouldn’t need another decade before mass adoption takes hold. He identified what he called a three-to-five year “execution window” before tokenization becomes expected standard practice across financial markets. His message was clear: the technology and regulatory environment are sufficiently developed, so there’s no excuse for failing to push forward with implementation.
The Push for Implementation
“The tech is ready, the regulation is there and so let’s accelerate that, let’s actually muscle our way to go-to-market and development,” Santos emphasized. His comments reflect a broader industry sentiment that’s shifting from theoretical discussions to practical implementation.
This urgency comes as tokenization moves from being a niche concept to something even traditional financial players acknowledge could transform how assets are managed and traded. The conversation has evolved beyond whether tokenization will happen to questions about when and how it will achieve meaningful scale.
Santos’s perspective suggests we’re approaching a critical juncture where talk needs to translate into tangible deployment. The window for establishing tokenization as standard practice appears to be narrowing, creating pressure for the industry to demonstrate real-world applications that can drive broader adoption beyond the crypto-native space.
