Tokenization in 2025 and What to Expect in 2026

Tokenization in 2025 shifted from pilots and narratives to repeatable, production-grade deployments. The biggest changes happened in three places: tokenized cash and Treasuries, institutional market infrastructure, and stablecoin settlement and regulation.

2025 in brief: the most significant events

1) Tokenized Treasuries became a real market

By the start of 2026, tokenized Treasuries tracked by RWA.xyz were about $9.00B with 62 products and 59,004 holders (as of 01/01/2026).

Source: RWA.xyz Treasuries dashboard

This was not just a chart story. Treasuries became the default "low-risk on-chain yield" building block, increasingly treated as collateral and cash-equivalent inventory in crypto-native venues.

2) BlackRock and Securitize pushed multi-chain distribution for BUIDL

BlackRock's tokenized liquidity fund BUIDL expanded to Solana via a new share class, and the announcement noted BUIDL had surpassed $1B AUM.

Source: PRNewswire / Securitize announcement (Mar 25, 2025)

The lesson: issuance is not enough. The winners distribute across the networks and venues where users already live.

3) JPMorgan launched a tokenized money market fund on public Ethereum

J.P. Morgan Asset Management announced MONY, its first tokenized money market fund, running on the public Ethereum blockchain (powered by Kinexys Digital Assets).

Source: J.P. Morgan Asset Management press release (Dec 15, 2025)

This mattered because a major bank moved beyond closed pilots and offered an institutional-grade on-chain yield product on a public chain.

4) DTCC received SEC no-action relief for tokenizing DTC-custodied assets

DTCC announced that DTC received an SEC No-Action Letter allowing a tokenization service for select DTC-custodied assets in a controlled production environment, and stated DTC anticipates beginning roll-out in the second half of 2026.

Source: DTCC press release (Dec 11, 2025)

This is one of the clearest "core U.S. market plumbing is preparing for tokenization" milestones.

5) Major fund administrators and banks tokenized money market fund shares

Reuters reported Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon launched digital tokens tied to money market fund shares, with trading on BNY's LiquidityDirect and the ownership record on Goldman's blockchain.

Source: Reuters (Jul 23, 2025)

This is the institutional pattern: start with short-duration, high-liquidity instruments where operational wins are obvious.

6) Regulators and central-bank bodies converged on a "tokenized system" blueprint

The BIS press release on a tokenized unified ledger described a "trilogy" of tokenized central bank reserves, tokenized commercial bank money, and tokenized government bonds, and explicitly argued tokenization can deliver profound changes while maintaining "sound money" principles.

Source: BIS press release (Jun 24, 2025)

7) Stablecoin regulation and settlement moved into the mainstream

Reuters and AP reported that President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, establishing a U.S. regulatory framework for stablecoins, including reserve backing and disclosure expectations.

Sources: Reuters (Jul 18, 2025) | AP (Jul 18, 2025)

Visa announced it launched USDC settlement in the United States, citing more than $3.5B in annualized stablecoin settlement volume, with initial participants including Cross River Bank and Lead Bank settling over Solana.

Source: Visa press release (Dec 16, 2025)

Stablecoin rails matter for tokenization because stablecoins are the "settlement and liquidity layer" around tokenized markets.

2026: what to expect, based on commitments already made

2026 is set up to be less about marketing and more about execution: distribution, standards, and production infrastructure.

1) Market infrastructure will move from pilots to controlled production

DTCC has already stated DTC anticipates rolling out its tokenization service in the second half of 2026. Expect similar moves from other market infrastructure providers, starting with highly liquid assets and conservative roll-out constraints.

Source: DTCC press release (Dec 11, 2025)

2) Tokenized Treasuries will become standard collateral in more venues

With tokenized Treasuries around $9B at the start of 2026, the next step is integration: margin and collateral workflows, treasury management, and 24/7 settlement processes that treat these tokens as cash-equivalent inventory.

Source: RWA.xyz Treasuries dashboard

3) Tokenized money funds and cash products will multiply

JPMorgan's MONY launch and the Goldman/BNY money market token initiative are strong signals: cash-like products are the wedge where institutions see clear benefits. Expect more tokenized MMFs, deposit-adjacent representations, and on-chain share classes across multiple fund managers.

Sources: JPM AM (Dec 15, 2025) | Reuters (Jul 23, 2025)

4) Stablecoin settlement will spread through payment and treasury operations

Visa's USDC settlement rollout is a clear "payments rail" inflection point. If more large networks and processors adopt stablecoin settlement, tokenized assets get a smoother on-and-off ramp for settlement and liquidity across time zones and weekends.

Source: Visa press release (Dec 16, 2025)

5) Standards and data will decide distribution winners

As the asset menu expands, the hardest problem becomes operational: how wallets, custodians, dashboards, and exchanges reliably answer:

• what this token represents
• who can hold it (eligibility gating)
• what the cash flow terms are and when they were last updated
• what the primary sources are (issuer docs, attestations, filings)

This is why 2026 will reward teams that work on:

• canonical identifiers for tokenized assets
• consistent schemas across issuers and wrappers
• provenance and freshness metadata
• programmatic eligibility checks

Summary

2025 made tokenized cash and Treasuries real and pushed tokenization into institutional infrastructure; 2026 is shaped to be the year those rails scale in production and distribution, and where standards and trusted data become the bottleneck and the moat.