Naval Ravikant once said, “Blockchains are not just money. They are the foundation of a new internet of trust.”
When crypto came along, I was sceptical and still am, in some ways. But tokenisation?
That resonates differently.
Because this wasn’t about betting on coins, it was about rebuilding the financial system from scratch. Faster. Cheaper. Fairer.
When I started trading stocks, everything was slow. Settlements took days. Custodians charged fees. Brokers felt stuck in the past.
Then came Ethereum, not just another cryptocurrency but a programmable base layer.
Tom Lee, the financial strategist at Fundstrat, refers to it as the software layer of finance.
Today, over $24 billion in real-world assets (RWAs) live on public blockchains, triple what they were last year. And it’s not fringe players anymore.
BlackRock, J.P. Morgan, Siemens, Franklin Templeton… They’re not experimenting.
They’re rebuilding.
What Changed? The old system was built for paper and time zones.
Blockchain rewires capital markets for real-time flow, global, programmable and 24/7.
Robinhood just launched its own chain on Arbitrum.
Figure has processed $40B. Ondo? $1B+.
BlackRock’s BUIDL fund hit $2.6B AUM, paying yield in USDC on Ethereum.
The smartest players aren’t becoming banks; they’re replacing them.
No more clearing houses. No custodians. Just code, blockspace and software.
It reminds me of what Paul Graham, former president of Y Combinator, once said: “Live in the future, then build what’s missing.”
That’s exactly what’s happening.
Tokenised Markets Are Already Here
- $1B+ in daily volume on chain is no longer fiction.
- Kraken is preparing to list tokenised Apple and Nvidia shares.
- Fidelity is tokenising treasuries.
- SpaceX and Anthropic shares are already trading as digital tokens.
What happens when a major IPO goes fully on chain?
This is the ETF revolution: faster, cheaper and global from day one.
But there’s a catch.
Most tokenised assets today? They’re transferable. Not truly owned.
Ownership is off chain. Voting rights? Legal clarity? Still missing.
That’s the next frontier: true digital property rights.
Without that, blockchain becomes another walled garden with shinier locks.
Why is everything anchored to Ethereum?
Because it’s the programmable layer that RWAs can be built around, stablecoins, shares, treasuries and funds, even BlackRock chose it.
The rails are live. The system is rewiring itself. Most people haven’t noticed yet.
Let’s pay attention before it’s mainstream.
Awet Ghirmay, Head of Investment Research
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Risk warnings
The value of investments and the income derived from them may fall as well as rise. You may not get back what you invest. This communication is for general information only and is not intended to be individual advice. You are recommended to seek competent professional advice before taking any action. All statements concerning the tax treatment of products and their benefits are based on our understanding of current tax law and HM Revenue and Customs practice. Levels and bases of tax relief are subject to change. This blog is based on my own observations and opinions.
