September 15, 2025

In our earliest days, we bartered goods, exchanging grain for cattle or tools for fish. Over time, societies began to use more standardized mediums of exchange such as seashells, salt, and precious metals. With the rise of empires and trade, coins were minted to represent value more uniformly. Eventually, paper money emerged as a tool of convenience, backed first by gold and later, through the rise of fiat currency, by the trust of sovereign governments.

As commerce expanded and economies became more complex, we built banks to safeguard capital, issue credit, and facilitate transactions. Central banks followed, establishing monetary policy and regulating money supply. In the 20th century, credit cards, SWIFT, and digital banking brought capital online, but the architecture of the financial system remained fragmented, slow, and opaque.

Exhibit A: Technology is Driven By Major Waves of Innovation

Source: Coatue EMW/2025 as of June 2025. For illustrative purposes only.

Now, we are entering a new era. Tokenization is not just the digitization of value; it is the transformation of how value is created, represented, and transferred in a programmable, permissionless, and global way. By placing financial assets onchain, tokenization introduces a financial operating system where ownership is transparent, markets operate continuously, and settlement is instant.

At Rayo, we believe tokenization marks the next chapter in this millennia-long evolution of value. Just as the printing press transformed commerce and the internet redefined information, blockchain is re-architecting capital markets from the ground up. As Coatue described in its Emerging Money World 2025 keynote, we are at the precipice of a “New Money Moment,” where capital becomes faster, programmable, and accessible by default.

We are in the early innings of the tokenization movement, but the long-term implications are clear: finance is going onchain. Every asset class is being reimagined with programmable ownership, global liquidity, and transparent settlement. This primer is not just a snapshot of where we are; it is a map of where we are going. The following sections introduce our upcoming series, exploring how tokenization is transforming each asset class in depth.

Rayo Capital Group’s mission is to stay ahead of this curve, investing in the infrastructure, protocols, and founders building this new financial internet, while advising institutions, corporates, and innovators on how to navigate, adopt, and thrive in this new paradigm.

Exhibit B: Twin Flywheels of Tokenization Market Adoption

Source: Approaching the Tokenization Tipping Point by Ripple and Boston Consulting Group, April 07, 2025.

Overview: Public equities represent shares of companies listed on stock exchanges, forming a cornerstone of global capital markets. Tokenization enables 24/7 trading, global access, programmable compliance, and near-instant settlement.

Use Cases:

1. Global, fractional access to blue-chip public equities via tokenized representations.

2. Real-time settlement with onchain recordkeeping and automated compliance workflows.

3. Synthetic equity markets offering derivative exposure to public companies.

What’s Been Done:

1. Backed Finance launched tokenized versions of U.S. stocks such as TSLA, AAPL, and NVDA onchain, backed 1:1 and tradable on Solana.

2. Galaxy Digital partnered with Superstate to tokenize 32,374 shares of its Class A Common Stock on Solana in September 2025, enabling compliant, onchain representation of public equity.

3. Injective Protocol introduced decentralized derivatives including synthetic exposure to public equities.

Who’s Doing It Today:

1. Backed Finance: Powering tokenized U.S. equities accessible globally via Solana-based platforms.

2. Kraken and Bybit: Listing tokenized equities through partnerships with xStocks and custody-backed infrastructure.

3. Galaxy Digital (with Superstate): tokenizing its own public stock on Solana for 24/7 trading and settlement, limited to KYC-approved investors.

Overview: Private equities represent ownership in companies not listed on public exchanges. Tokenization opens these traditionally illiquid investments to global, fractional participation, enabling programmable ownership rights and streamlined secondary trading.

Use Cases:

1. Tokenized LP interests in private equity funds with programmable carry and compliance rules.

2. Fractionalized private company shares for early liquidity events.

3. Secondary markets for global investor access to private growth companies.

What’s Been Done:

1. Hamilton Lane has tokenized multiple feeder funds for private equity strategies on Securitize.

2. KKR tokenized a portion of its Health Care Strategic Growth Fund on Avalanche via Securitize.

3. ClearToken is building global clearing and settlement infrastructure for tokenized private markets.

Who’s Doing It Today:

1. Hamilton Lane: Offering tokenized feeder funds for private equity strategies.

2. KKR: Pioneering tokenized private fund offerings.

3. ClearToken: Infrastructure for institutional settlement in tokenized private markets.

Overview: Fixed income includes assets such as bonds and debt instruments that generate regular income. These assets can be transformed through tokenization to provide instant settlement, global investor reach, and programmable yield distribution.

Use Cases:

1. Tokenized government or corporate bonds with onchain coupon payments.

2. Programmable debt instruments with embedded compliance.

3. Collateralized lending markets using tokenized bonds.

What’s Been Done:

1. Franklin Templeton issued a tokenized U.S. government money market fund on Stellar and Polygon.

2. Ondo Finance launched tokenized U.S. Treasuries for DeFi integration.

3. The U.S. Federal Reserve TechLab analyzed tokenized bonds issued on Ethereum (Santander 2019, EIB 2021), validating transparency and programmable execution for fixed income on public chains.

Who’s Doing It Today:

1. Franklin Templeton: Operating tokenized money market funds with billions under management.

2. Ondo Finance: Tokenized U.S. Treasuries accessible through DeFi and institutional channels.

3. Chainproof: Offering insurance for Ethereum staking to protect against slashing losses, supporting yield generation.

Overview: These include stable, short-term instruments like Treasury bills and commercial paper. Tokenization of these assets offers seamless global liquidity, 24/7 transferability, and improved transparency.

Use Cases:

1. Global, permissionless stablecoins backed by U.S. Treasuries.

2. Treasury-backed savings instruments usable in DeFi.

3. Institutional cash management with instant redemption and settlement.

What’s Been Done:

1. Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT dominate the stablecoin market.

2. BlackRock’s BUIDL fund offers tokenized short-term U.S. Treasuries.

3. Sky (formerly known as MakerDAO) uses real-world assets including short-term debt as collateral.

Who’s Doing It Today:

1. Circle (USDC): Issuer of the second-largest stablecoin, integrated across global payment, DeFi, and institutional platforms.

2. Tether (USDT): Largest stablecoin issuer, with reserves including short-term U.S. Treasuries and cash equivalents.

3. Anchorage: Mountain Protocol — enabling tokenized T-bills for non-U.S. investors, combining regulated custody with programmable yield access.

Overview: Real estate includes physical properties such as residential, commercial, or land assets. Real estate tokenization fractionalizes physical assets, improving liquidity, reducing investment thresholds, and offering global participation.

Use Cases:

1. Fractional ownership of rental properties with onchain cash flow distribution.

2. REITs managed and settled via smart contracts.

3. Global access to regional property markets through token issuance.

What’s Been Done:

1. Ondo Finance has capabilities for tokenizing real-world assets, including real estate, as part of its broader RWA suite.

2. Parcel enables DAO-style ownership of land parcels, creating onchain governance and income-sharing models.

3. Chintai Network (Chex) powered a $100M tokenized real estate fund and supports tokenization of real estate debt.

Who’s Doing It Today:

1. Ondo Finance: Expanding into real-world asset markets including real estate-backed tokens.

2. Parcel: DAO-driven real estate tokenization on public blockchains.

3. Chintai Network (Chex): Compliant RWA infrastructure with Singapore licensing and global partnerships.

Overview: Commodities include physical goods like metals, energy, or agricultural products. Tokenizing commodities brings transparency, liquidity, and programmability to traditionally opaque markets, whether metals, energy, or agricultural products.

Use Cases:

1. Tokens representing grains (e.g., soy, corn, wheat) collateralized at 1 ton = 1 token, usable as collateral or payment.

2. Commodity-backed stablecoins enabling farmers to access credit and DeFi.

3. Traceability-enabled commodity supply chains integrating payment, certification, and ESG tracking.

What’s Been Done:

1. Paxos Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT) issued gold-backed tokens.

2. Open Commodities piloted decentralized trading protocols for commodity markets.

3. Agrotoken in Latin America tokenized over 200,000 metric tons of grains, partnering with Visa, Santander, and Algorand.

Who’s Doing It Today:

1. Paxos (PAXG): Gold-backed commodity tokens with institutional-grade custody.

2. Tether (XAUT): Providing digital gold exposure.

3. Agrotoken: Grain-backed tokens used for credit, merchant payments, and financial products in LatAm.

Overview: Alternative investments include assets like hedge funds, private equity, collectibles, infrastructure, and crypto-native assets, often characterized by lower liquidity but potential for high returns. Tokenization enhances accessibility and liquidity for these assets.

Use Cases:

1. Tokenized LP interests with programmable carry and management fees.

2. Art, wine, or collectible NFTs enabling fractional access.

3. Infrastructure projects tokenizing revenue rights or ownership.

What’s Been Done:

1. Apollo launched the ACRED tokenized feeder fund for its Diversified Credit Fund, providing exposure to private credit alternatives.

2. BlackRock and Hamilton Lane have begun tokenizing fund structures.

3. Numerous NFT platforms are enabling fractionalized collectible ownership.

Who’s Doing It Today:

1. Apollo: Offering tokenized fund structures.

2. BlackRock: Tokenizing alternative investment funds.

3. Masterworks: Enabling fractional ownership of high-value art.

Overview: Foreign currency (Forex) markets involve the exchange of one currency for another. Forex tokenization enables frictionless FX exposure, stablecoin-based remittances, and decentralized currency markets accessible 24/7.

Use Cases:

1. Onchain FX markets offering reduced fees and real-time execution via stablecoin pairs.

2. Stablecoin rails for remittances and business transactions in emerging markets.

3. Synthetic FX stablecoins pegged to regional currencies, enabling access and hedging strategies.

What’s Been Done:

1. Protocols like Curve and Maverick enabled FX trading using stablecoin pools.

2. Regionally pegged stablecoins (e.g., EURC, GBPC) supported by platforms like Circle.

3. Synthetic currency tokens created via Synthetix to model forex exposure.

Who’s Doing It Today:

1. Circle (USDC, EURC): Providing fiat-pegged stablecoin liquidity across global markets.

2. Curve Finance: Facilitating stable-swap pools for efficient FX liquidity.

3. Zabio: Enabling the FX informal economy in Colombia by bridging USDT and local currency through combined digital and physical infrastructure.

Overview: Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology involving advanced computational systems that can perform tasks like data analysis, automation, and decision-making. AI is accelerating every layer of tokenization:

Use Cases:

1. Underwriting & Credit: AI models can score borrowers in real time, even in opaque emerging markets.

2. Compliance & Monitoring: Automated surveillance of tokenized asset flows, detecting risk anomalies instantly.

3. Decentralized AI Agents: Decentralized AI agents can execute smart contract logic and inference across distributed nodes, supporting automation in compliance, fund audits, and asset servicing.

What’s Been Done:

1. Zoniqx launched its AI-driven Tokenized Asset Lifecycle Management (TALM) platform, automating valuation and compliance for tokenized RWAs across Ethereum, XRP Ledger, and Polygon.

2. Gaia deployed decentralized AI agents for smart contract execution, enabling automated compliance checks for tokenized funds.

3. Bittensor’s dTAO upgrade and Ritual partnership enabled AI-driven subnets to automate analytics for tokenized assets in DeFi, supporting over 113 independent economic subnets.

Who’s Doing It Today:

1. Zoniqx: Using AI to optimize multi-chain RWA tokenization, automating valuation and compliance workflows.

2. Gaia: Providing decentralized AI agents for smart contract automation, enhancing compliance and audits in tokenization.

3. Bittensor: Operating a decentralized AI network that incentivizes machine learning through TAO tokens and subnets, enhancing tokenization processes by automating data analysis and compliance in DeFi and RWA ecosystems.

As AI continues to mature, it will create faster, smarter, and more autonomous capital markets.

Tokenization is poised to redefine global finance, unlocking unprecedented levels of efficiency, accessibility, and programmability across every asset class. As blockchain technology matures, it paves the way for a future where capital flows seamlessly, ownership is verifiable, and markets are truly global.

This primer serves as an introduction to an upcoming series, where we will dive deeper into each asset class covered here, exploring their unique opportunities and challenges in the tokenized economy.

Exhibit C: Tokenization Cube - Growth Methodology to 2033

Source: Approaching the Tokenization Tipping Point by Ripple and Boston Consulting Group, April 07, 2025.

Rayo Capital Group (“Rayo”) is a New York City-based investment and advisory firm focused on the digital assets economy. Rayo invests in and advises on the infrastructure, protocols, and founders shaping the future of finance onchain, helping institutions, corporates, and innovators navigate and thrive in this transformative paradigm.

Author: Andoni Almeida
Contributors: Julian Bermeo, Christian Narvaez