Pondering whether Ethereum could become the “toll road” to blockchain-based markets, the report stated that Ethereum “could be poised to benefit” from a shift spurring moves across legacy financial institutions, from DTCC to the New York Stock Exchange.
Ethereum currently underpins 65% of tokenized assets, according to the report. Meanwhile, the adoption of stablecoins is outpacing spot crypto trading volumes, suggesting that “tokenized assets may have a use-case outside of purely speculative trading.”
The second-largest digital asset by market cap has the potential to accrue value if a growing number of firms tap Ethereum for creating digital representations of real-world assets, according to Jay Jacobs, U.S. Head of Equity ETFs at BlackRock. He authored the report.
“If we see more tokenized assets utilizing the Ethereum blockchain, ultimately, you would see it be a beneficiary of additional trading activity, [and the] issuance of things like stablecoins or real- world assets,” Jacobs told Decrypt.
“If you’re an investor looking to play the growing adoption of blockchain technology, one of the best and probably fastest-growing use cases right now is tokenization, and Ethereum is a beneficiary of that trend,” he added.
Although a pie chart included in the report references 10 networks capable of supporting tokenized assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum are the only ones that are mentioned elsewhere, suggesting that the world’s largest asset manager has a distinct view toward them.
The report didn’t include assets tokenized on Canton Network either. The permissioned blockchain, which was recently tapped by DTCC for its tokenization pilot, is currently used as a record-keeping layer for $362 billion in real-world assets, according to RWA.xyz. Ethereum, meanwhile, supports $13.2 billion in real-world assets that can be managed in-wallet.
When it comes to BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, the $1.6 billion product primarily exists on Ethereum ($499 million) and Binance’s BNB Chain ($503 million).
Broadly, Jacobs said there’s a lot of interest in what BlackRock is calling “the convergence,” where traditional markets are becoming increasingly interconnected with crypto. He pointed to spot exchange-traded funds for digital assets as an example.
BlackRock is behind the largest ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have $70.6 billion and $10.7 billion in assets under management, respectively, according to CoinGlass. The firm has stood by as competitors have created products for other digital assets like XRP and Solana.
“You have traditional securities and assets that are looking to be tokenized, and frankly, you have [digital] assets that […] are making their way into the more traditional financial systems,” he said. “We believe in that convergence that does seem to be accelerating.”
Still, Jacobs said that there are plenty of pieces that need to fall into place, whether that’s regulatory policy or company-level policy. Last year, the SEC created a task force to develop a “comprehensive and clear” regulatory framework for digital assets, but the expected passage of a market structure bill could also shape the regulator’s treatment of tokenized assets.
What’s more, if firms want to take advantage of capabilities like around-the-clock trading or instant settlement through tokenization — qualities that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink first highlighted in 2022 — then Jacobs said there would need to be the development of a supportive market around the technology across a variety of assets.
“It’s early,” he said. “There’s a lot of interest across financial firms to support this convergence right now, but not all innovation happens in a straight line — and ultimately, you need to see the benefits of tokenization materialized for the investors and trading community.”
