Tokenisation is solving yesterday’s problems
September 2026
Eric Piscini, adviser to Hashgraph, considers how tokenisation’s real potential lies not in making existing financial products more efficient, but in enabling entirely new markets, products, and business models
Image: Hashgraph
It is clear that institutional adoption of tokenisation is already gaining real traction.
Settlement is faster. Costs are lower. Access to financial services is expanding. Stablecoins now process trillions in annual transaction volume, while real world asset tokenisation has grown to roughly US$38 billion, with forecasts approaching US$1 trillion by the end of the decade.
But step back for a moment and ask a simple question: what has actually changed?
Most activity today still follows a familiar formula. Bonds become digital bonds. Funds become tokenised funds. Payments become stablecoin transfers instead of wires. The rails are changing, but the products themselves remain largely the same.
That is how every major technological transformation begins.
When businesses first adopted the internet commercially, they mostly recreated existing models in digital form. Retailers built online storefronts. Newspapers uploaded articles to websites. Banks moved customer services onto portals. The first phase focused on replication and efficiency.
Only later did the internet reshape industries entirely. Companies like Airbnb and Uber emerged because the infrastructure enabled new forms of coordination. Streaming transformed entertainment distribution and monetisation. Social platforms created entirely new models for media, commerce, and community.
Tokenisation is following a similar path.
Tokenisation is still in phase one
Today, financial institutions are focused on moving existing products onto new rails. Faster settlement reduces counterparty risk. Lower transaction costs improve margins. Programmable assets simplify operations.
Adoption is already accelerating behind the scenes. Kinexys by J.P. Morgan processes billions in tokenised transactions.
BlackRock’s tokenised money market fund has attracted significant institutional participation. In carbon markets, organisations like Blockchain for Energy are using distributed ledger technology (DLT) to improve environmental asset verification. Central banks are also exploring how tokenised money interacts with existing payment systems through initiatives like Project Acacia in Australia.
The momentum is undeniable. Structurally, however, the financial system still looks remarkably familiar.
Efficiency will become the baseline
Right now, tokenisation feels like a competitive advantage.
That is typical of new infrastructure. Early adopters gain speed, flexibility, and capabilities others lack. But infrastructure advantages rarely stay differentiated forever. Once technologies become reliable and widely adopted, they fade into the baseline.
We have seen this pattern before. Banks once differentiated through mobile apps.
Retailers once stood out for online checkout. Today, customers simply expect those capabilities to exist.
The same transition is coming for tokenisation. Customers will eventually expect financial services to operate instantly, globally, and at low cost by default.
Stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and programmable payments will become standard infrastructure rather than strategic advantages.
The systems that scale successfully will be those that integrate with traditional finance, not those attempting to replace it outright.
Public networks will bring openness and accessibility. Private permissioned systems will provide governance, compliance, and control. Long-term success depends on how effectively these systems work together.
The shift from efficiency to feasibility
The deeper opportunity is not simply making today’s financial system faster. It is enabling models that were previously impractical.
Historically, many financial ideas failed because transaction costs were too high, settlement was too slow, or coordination between participants was too complex. Tokenisation changes those economics. When value can move instantly and programmably at near zero cost, entirely new models become viable.
Micropayments are a clear example. For years, media companies relied on subscriptions because charging consumers for individual articles was economically inefficient. Traditional payment rails consumed too much of the transaction value.
As costs approach zero, the equation changes. A reader could pay a few cents for a single article instead of committing to a monthly subscription. The implications extend far beyond media. Connected devices could eventually transact autonomously for energy, storage, or digital services.
The automobile did not simply create faster transportation. It reshaped logistics, manufacturing, urban planning, and consumer behaviour. Entire industries emerged because the infrastructure unlocked new possibilities.
Tokenisation has the potential to do the same for financial services.
Interoperability and security will define scale
None of this works if tokenised systems operate in isolation.
Trust remains the foundation of every financial system. Value must move securely and seamlessly across institutions, jurisdictions, and networks. Without interoperability, markets risk fragmented liquidity, operational complexity, and inconsistent standards. Infrastructure providers including Euroclear, DTCC, and Clearstream have all highlighted this challenge.
Consider a future British stablecoin moving instantly from a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)-regulated business account into a retail banking environment in Australia. That future requires shared standards, trusted coordination, and secure interoperability between public and private infrastructure.
But interoperability without security introduces systemic risk.
Bridge exploits and decentralised finance vulnerabilities continue to expose billions of dollars to theft and operational failures. Institutional capital will not move at scale into systems that cannot guarantee resilience, governance, compliance, and asset protection.
Interoperability may determine whether tokenised markets can connect. Security will determine whether they can be trusted.
The next phase requires intentional innovation
Financial leaders now face a strategic choice. Some institutions will spend the next decade optimising existing systems. Others will use this moment to experiment with entirely new categories of products, services, and revenue models.
History tends to reward the second group.
The companies that dominated the internet era were rarely the ones that digitised fastest. They were the ones that recognised the internet would eventually reshape markets, behaviour, and business models themselves.
Tokenisation now sits at a similar crossroads.
The first phase is already underway, with billions in assets moving onchain and meaningful efficiency gains delivered across financial markets. But efficiency alone does not redefine industries.
Institutions that delay experimentation risk optimising systems that are already becoming outdated, while competitors define entirely new markets.
The next phase belongs to institutions willing to ask harder questions. What happens when the cost of moving value approaches zero? What becomes possible when money moves globally in real time?
And perhaps most importantly, are we redesigning financial systems for the future, or simply repackaging the past?
Settlement is faster. Costs are lower. Access to financial services is expanding. Stablecoins now process trillions in annual transaction volume, while real world asset tokenisation has grown to roughly US$38 billion, with forecasts approaching US$1 trillion by the end of the decade.
But step back for a moment and ask a simple question: what has actually changed?
Most activity today still follows a familiar formula. Bonds become digital bonds. Funds become tokenised funds. Payments become stablecoin transfers instead of wires. The rails are changing, but the products themselves remain largely the same.
That is how every major technological transformation begins.
When businesses first adopted the internet commercially, they mostly recreated existing models in digital form. Retailers built online storefronts. Newspapers uploaded articles to websites. Banks moved customer services onto portals. The first phase focused on replication and efficiency.
Only later did the internet reshape industries entirely. Companies like Airbnb and Uber emerged because the infrastructure enabled new forms of coordination. Streaming transformed entertainment distribution and monetisation. Social platforms created entirely new models for media, commerce, and community.
Tokenisation is following a similar path.
Tokenisation is still in phase one
Today, financial institutions are focused on moving existing products onto new rails. Faster settlement reduces counterparty risk. Lower transaction costs improve margins. Programmable assets simplify operations.
Adoption is already accelerating behind the scenes. Kinexys by J.P. Morgan processes billions in tokenised transactions.
BlackRock’s tokenised money market fund has attracted significant institutional participation. In carbon markets, organisations like Blockchain for Energy are using distributed ledger technology (DLT) to improve environmental asset verification. Central banks are also exploring how tokenised money interacts with existing payment systems through initiatives like Project Acacia in Australia.
The momentum is undeniable. Structurally, however, the financial system still looks remarkably familiar.
Efficiency will become the baseline
Right now, tokenisation feels like a competitive advantage.
That is typical of new infrastructure. Early adopters gain speed, flexibility, and capabilities others lack. But infrastructure advantages rarely stay differentiated forever. Once technologies become reliable and widely adopted, they fade into the baseline.
We have seen this pattern before. Banks once differentiated through mobile apps.
Retailers once stood out for online checkout. Today, customers simply expect those capabilities to exist.
The same transition is coming for tokenisation. Customers will eventually expect financial services to operate instantly, globally, and at low cost by default.
Stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and programmable payments will become standard infrastructure rather than strategic advantages.
The systems that scale successfully will be those that integrate with traditional finance, not those attempting to replace it outright.
Public networks will bring openness and accessibility. Private permissioned systems will provide governance, compliance, and control. Long-term success depends on how effectively these systems work together.
The shift from efficiency to feasibility
The deeper opportunity is not simply making today’s financial system faster. It is enabling models that were previously impractical.
Historically, many financial ideas failed because transaction costs were too high, settlement was too slow, or coordination between participants was too complex. Tokenisation changes those economics. When value can move instantly and programmably at near zero cost, entirely new models become viable.
Micropayments are a clear example. For years, media companies relied on subscriptions because charging consumers for individual articles was economically inefficient. Traditional payment rails consumed too much of the transaction value.
As costs approach zero, the equation changes. A reader could pay a few cents for a single article instead of committing to a monthly subscription. The implications extend far beyond media. Connected devices could eventually transact autonomously for energy, storage, or digital services.
The automobile did not simply create faster transportation. It reshaped logistics, manufacturing, urban planning, and consumer behaviour. Entire industries emerged because the infrastructure unlocked new possibilities.
Tokenisation has the potential to do the same for financial services.
Interoperability and security will define scale
None of this works if tokenised systems operate in isolation.
Trust remains the foundation of every financial system. Value must move securely and seamlessly across institutions, jurisdictions, and networks. Without interoperability, markets risk fragmented liquidity, operational complexity, and inconsistent standards. Infrastructure providers including Euroclear, DTCC, and Clearstream have all highlighted this challenge.
Consider a future British stablecoin moving instantly from a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)-regulated business account into a retail banking environment in Australia. That future requires shared standards, trusted coordination, and secure interoperability between public and private infrastructure.
But interoperability without security introduces systemic risk.
Bridge exploits and decentralised finance vulnerabilities continue to expose billions of dollars to theft and operational failures. Institutional capital will not move at scale into systems that cannot guarantee resilience, governance, compliance, and asset protection.
Interoperability may determine whether tokenised markets can connect. Security will determine whether they can be trusted.
The next phase requires intentional innovation
Financial leaders now face a strategic choice. Some institutions will spend the next decade optimising existing systems. Others will use this moment to experiment with entirely new categories of products, services, and revenue models.
History tends to reward the second group.
The companies that dominated the internet era were rarely the ones that digitised fastest. They were the ones that recognised the internet would eventually reshape markets, behaviour, and business models themselves.
Tokenisation now sits at a similar crossroads.
The first phase is already underway, with billions in assets moving onchain and meaningful efficiency gains delivered across financial markets. But efficiency alone does not redefine industries.
Institutions that delay experimentation risk optimising systems that are already becoming outdated, while competitors define entirely new markets.
The next phase belongs to institutions willing to ask harder questions. What happens when the cost of moving value approaches zero? What becomes possible when money moves globally in real time?
And perhaps most importantly, are we redesigning financial systems for the future, or simply repackaging the past?
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