Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo said he believes tokenized stocks and ETFs, not private credit or financial products, will be the asset class that ultimately drives the real assets (RWA) market into the trillions.
Speaking at an ETHConf panel in New York on Tuesday, Domingo argued that bringing stocks and exchange-traded funds on-chain could unlock a market far larger than today’s roughly $30 billion tokenized asset sector.
“The whole stock and ETF market worldwide is probably like $150 trillion,” Domingo said. “Only if a small percentage of that, like 2% or 3%, moves on the chain, it gets you very close to the $5 trillion.”
The comments come as Securitize prepares to go public and seeks to expand its role as one of the largest tokenization providers to institutions, including BlackRock.
While tokenized US Treasuries have emerged as the dominant RWA category over the past two years, Domingo argued that tokenized equities could become the industry’s next big growth engine. Securitize has announced partnerships with the New York Stock Exchange and transfer agent Computershare to enable on-chain trading and settlement of shares.
Domingo also distinguished between what he considers “real” tokenized stocks and the growing number of blockchain-based stock products offered outside the United States.
“A lot of people today who say they’re tokenizing equity, they’re not tokenizing equity,” he said, arguing that many offerings rely on derivatives or synthetic structures rather than direct ownership of the underlying shares.
According to Domingo, the long-term goal is for blockchain-based securities to offer the same investor rights as traditional stocks, while benefiting from instant settlement, 24/7 tradability and deeper integration with decentralized finance.
Domingo maintained that public blockchains, particularly Ethereum, remain the infrastructure of choice for institutional tokenization despite concerns about transparency and compliance. Securitize uses smart contracts to limit ownership to approved investors while allowing assets to move on permissionless networks.
Looking ahead, Domingo said he expects blockchain-based markets to develop alongside existing financial infrastructure before gradually absorbing a larger portion of the activity.
“The traditional markets will remain,” he said. “We’re going to see a new market emerging in parallel that will run on blockchain rails and be much more efficient.”
Read more: BlackRock-backed tokenization firm Securitize clears key hurdle to list on NYSE
