Across Asia, projects dedicated to asset tokenization have become a cornerstone of the new digital economy, showing the world the technology’s possibilities.

a year ago

Tokenization, the process of digitizing and representing assets as tokens on a blockchain, is quickly ushering in the next era of the digital economy. With the potential to spur wide-ranging changes across the global market, institutions are working diligently to facilitate the growth and implementation of tokenized platforms to modernize traditional financial infrastructure.

While traditional financial assets like securities, commodities and bonds are some of the most widely recognized items that are being tokenized, there are new and increasingly interesting asset classes emerging. From physical assets such as art and real estate to emerging market assets such as carbon credits and intellectual property, the range of available and acceptable collateral is rapidly expanding. These developments are creating the potential to unlock a staggering amount of value across markets and within industries.

Just as computerized ledgers were transformational to the previous paper-based generation, the tokenization of digital and real-world assets will stand to be a crucial evolution that underpins global market infrastructure.

While asset tokenization is making headway across the world, Asian governments and enterprises are increasingly embracing — and scaling — projects dedicated to asset tokenization as a cornerstone of the new digital economy. With experts projecting asset tokenization to be a US$3 trillion economic opportunity in Asia alone, the region has transformed into a hotbed of asset tokenization activity and adoption, spanning both governments and enterprises.

A combination of innovation-focused regulators, collaborative forward-thinking companies, and favorable economic and demographic conditions — such as a young population, high internet penetration rate, surging middle-class and a huge generational wealth transfer — is helping to drive the region forward in exciting new ways.

Across Asia, efforts to develop and scale real-world and digital asset tokenization platforms — as well as implement legal frameworks and government initiatives around them — are occurring at a rapid pace for both retail and wholesale applications.

Project Bakong, a blockchain-based nationwide payment system from the Central Bank of Cambodia, is already in wide use, transforming mobile payment and banking with a digital token backed by the riel, Cambodia’s sovereign currency. Bakong combines e-wallets, mobile payments, online banking, and financial applications within one easy-to-use interface for any preferred bank account.

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