Headline: Tokenization Is Becoming a Capital-raising Tool — Not a Liquidity Shortcut, Brickken Survey Finds
Tokenization of real-world assets is increasingly being used as a way to raise capital and streamline issuance rather than an instant route to liquid secondary markets, according to a Brickken survey of RWA issuers conducted in Q4 2025 and shared with CoinDesk.
Key findings
- 53.8% of respondents said capital formation and fundraising efficiency are their primary reasons for tokenizing assets.
- Only 15.4% cited liquidity as their main incentive; 38.4% said liquidity was not required for their purposes.
- Still, 46.2% of issuers expect secondary market liquidity to emerge within six to 12 months.
- Tokenization is already live for most participants: 69.2% report completed tokenization and live issuance, 23.1% are in progress, and 7.7% are planning.
- Regulation is the dominant operational drag: 84.6% of respondents reported some regulatory friction (53.8% said regulation slowed operations, 30.8% saw partial friction). By contrast, only 13% pointed to technology or development as their biggest hurdle.
What issuers are prioritizing — and why
Brickken’s CMO Jordi Esturi frames the shift as a move from hype to utility: tokenization is emerging as a “financial infrastructure layer” that solves concrete issuer problems such as capital access, investor reach and operational complexity. Many issuers, he said, are still in a validation phase—building compliant structures, testing investor appetite and digitizing issuance—so market liquidity is a mid-stage objective rather than an immediate aim.
Esturi added that exchanges’ plans to broaden trading windows aren’t necessarily driven by issuers’ current needs. Rather, exchanges are evolving business models to drive trading volume — for example, CME Group plans 24/7 trading for crypto derivatives by May 29, and both the NYSE and Nasdaq have announced roadmaps for 24/7 tokenized stock trading. “Exchanges increase revenue by increasing trading volume, and extending trading hours is a natural lever,” he said.
Quality issuance first, liquidity later
Brickken’s report underscores a practical sequencing: without compliant, structured, high-quality tokenized assets, secondary trading venues have little meaningful product to list. “The true value creation happens at the issuance layer,” Esturi said, noting a distinction between optional and mandatory liquidity; many private-market issuers operate on long time horizons and expect liquidity to scale in parallel with issuance volumes and institutional adoption.
Market participants’ perspectives
- Ian de Bode, Chief Strategy Officer at Ondo (which began with tokenized U.S. Treasuries and now manages more than $2 billion in tokenized assets), said equities and ETFs are attractive tokenization targets because they offer price discovery, deep liquidity and clear valuation. “You tokenize something either to make it easier to access or to use it as collateral,” he said. For firms like Ondo, 24/7 traditional finance trading would relieve a major bottleneck.
- Alvaro Garrido, founding partner at Legal Node, emphasized that issuers are building compliance into product architecture from day one, driving demand for tailored legal structures that match each project’s technology and business model.
- Patrick Hennes, head of digital asset servicing at DZ PRIVATBANK, argued the real bridge between TradFi and DeFi will be issuance infrastructure that converts regulatory requirements, investor protections and servicing standards into programmable systems.
Scope of tokenization is widening
Tokenization is expanding beyond real estate: among assets tokenized or planned for tokenization, equity/shares accounted for 28.6%, IP and entertainment 17.9%, and real estate 10.7%. Respondent industries included technology platforms (31.6%), entertainment (15.8%), private credit (15.8%), renewable energy (5.3%), banking (5.3%), aerospace (5.3%), carbon assets (5.2%) and hospitality (5.2%).
Implication
The Brickken survey paints a market maturing from proof-of-concept experiments to structured issuance focused on capital formation and compliance. Secondary market liquidity is expected, but most issuers are prioritizing foundational work—legal frameworks, investor onboarding and standardized issuance—so tokenization’s promise of 24/7 tradability and instant liquidity may arrive more gradually as issuance scales and institutional confidence grows.
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