A new fourth-quarter 2025 study from tokenization platform Brickken suggests that the majority of real-world asset (RWA) issuers are using tokenization to raise capital instead of unlocking secondary market liquidity, according to a report shared with CoinDesk.
Among those surveyed, 53.8% said capital formation and fundraising efficiency are their main reasons for tokenization, while 15.4% said the need for liquidity was their main incentive. Another 38.4% said there was no need for liquidity, while 46.2% said they expect liquidity in the secondary market within six to 12 months.
“What we’re seeing is a shift away from tokenization as a buzzword and toward tokenization as a financial infrastructure layer,” Jordi Esturi, CMO at Bricken, told CoinDesk. “Issuers are using it to solve real problems: access to capital, investor reach and operational complexity.”
Bricken’s report comes as major US exchanges announce plans to expand trading models for tokenized assets, including 24/7 markets. CME Group said it will offer 24/7 trading for its crypto derivatives by May 29, while the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq shared their plans to offer 24/7 tokenized stock trading.
Esturi said the exchanges’ plans have more to do with business model development than a disruption of issuer demand. “It’s less about getting ahead of demand and more about exchanges evolving their business model,” he said. “Exchanges increase revenue by increasing trading volume, and extending trading hours is a natural lever.”
At the same time, many issuers are still in what he described as the validation phase, where they are proving regulatory structures, testing investor appetite and digitizing issuance processes. “Liquidity is not yet their primary focus because they are building foundations,” he stressed, adding that they view tokenization as the “upstream engine that feeds trading venues.”
The Brickken CMO also said that without compatible, high-quality structured assets entering the market, secondary trading platforms have nothing meaningful to trade. “The true value creation happens at the issue layer,” noted Esturi.
Optional liquidity versus mandatory
While 38.4% of issuers surveyed said liquidity was not required, Esturi pointed out the difference between “discretionary liquidity and mandatory liquidity”, noting that many private market issuers operate for the long term. “Liquidity is inevitable, but it must scale in parallel with issuance volume and institutional adoption, not ahead of it.”
Ondo, which began with tokenized U.S. Treasuries and now has more than $2 billion in assets, is focused on stocks and ETFs specifically because of their “strong price discovery, deep liquidity and clear valuation,” Chief Strategy Officer Ian de Bode said in a recent interview with CoinDesk.
“You tokenize something either to make it easier to access or to use it as security,” de Bode said. “Equities fit both, and they price as assets people actually understand, as opposed to a building in Manhattan. If TradFi moves to 24/7, it’s a godsend,” added de Bode. “That’s our biggest bottleneck.”
The survey shows that tokenization is already operational for many participants: 69.2% of respondents reported having completed the tokenization process and being live, 23.1% are in progress, and 7.7% are still in the planning phase.
Rules are still an issue
Regulation is a major concern among respondents: 53.8% of respondents said regulation slowed their operations, while 30.8% reported partial or contextual regulatory friction. In total, 84.6% experienced some degree of regulatory drag. In comparison, 13% cited technology or development challenges as the most difficult part of tokenization.
“Compliance is not something issuers deal with post-launch; it’s something they account for and configure from day one,” said Alvaro Garrido, founding partner at Legal Node. “We see an increasing demand for legal structures that are tailored to the specific project needs and the underlying technology.”
The report also suggests that tokenization is expanding beyond real estate. Real estate accounted for 10.7% of assets tokenized or slated for tokenization, compared to 28.6% for equity/equity and 17.9% for IP and entertainment-related assets. Respondents spanned sectors including technology platforms (31.6%), entertainment (15.8%), private credit (15.8%), renewable energy (5.3%), banking (5.3%), carbon assets (5.2%), aerospace (5.3%) and hospitality (5.2%).
“The real bridge between TradFi and DeFi is not ideological,” said Patrick Hennes, head of digital asset service at DZ PRIVATBANK. “It is issuance infrastructure that translates regulatory requirements, investor protection and asset servicing standards into programmable systems.”
