‘No going back’ for institutions moving toward tokenized onchain future, says Fidelity

Executives on a panel at Longitude Singapore said institutional momentum behind tokenization is building and appears unlikely to reverse. Matthew Horne of Fidelity characterized the current push by large institutions to move assets onchain over the past 18 months as a one-way shift, arguing tokenization improves investor access and helps asset managers reach new markets. Speakers highlighted specific asset classes that could bring meaningful scale onchain. Ka Yan Chan, head of digital assets business development at UBS, pointed to treasuries and equities as familiar portfolio staples that could migrate onto tokenized platforms and attract substantial capital. Chan said a pivotal step would be market infrastructure players — such as central counterparties or custody platforms — updating the custody layer to support tokenized securities, an action she said could unlock much larger flows. Regulatory developments already show some accommodation for tokenized markets. The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a “no action” letter in December 2025 to a DTCC subsidiary to permit a securities market tokenization service, and in September the SEC granted a temporary exemption enabling limited trading of tokenized U.S. stocks on certain onchain venues. Industry firms have moved to offer tokenized share trading tied to security entitlements. Onchain activity data cited during the discussion underscores growing interest: RWA.xyz reported a 41% rise in demand for tokenized assets over a 30-day window and more than 493,000 addresses holding tokenized real-world assets (excluding stablecoins). OnchainBenchmark measured over $1.2 billion of capital moving onchain in the past 30 days and a total onchain supply across stablecoins and tokenized assets exceeding $323 billion. Forecasts cited at the event include a Standard Chartered estimate that tokenized real-world assets could reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028.