Apex Group, a financial services provider with more than $ 3 trillion in assets under administration, said Tuesday that it had acquired a majority share in Tokeny, a Luxembourg-based company helping institutions to tokenize assets in the real world (RWA) on public blockchains.

According to the agreement, Apex expects to take full ownership of Tokeny for the next three years, after first investing in the business by the end of 2023, Apex said in a press release. The companies did not reveal the conditions for the acquisition in the press release and a spokesman did not immediately return a request for a comment.

The acquisition comes as more traditional financial companies look at tokenization as the next border in capital markets using blockchain technology for moving assets such as bonds, funds and other securities.

For institutional investors, the process promises simpler cross -border transactions, faster settlement and new liquidity channels. Tokenized assets could be a $ 18 trillion market by 2033, a report from BCG and Ripple last month projected.

“Tokenization is a fundamental shift in how assets will be controlled, distributed and access to,” APEX founder and CEO Peter Hughes said in a statement. “Our strengthened partnership with Tokeny is the key to providing our vision to be the infrastructure provider in the digital finances.”

Tokeny’s infrastructure has already been used to tokenize over $ 32 billion in assets that support the full life cycle of tokenized securities-from issuing to transfer to compliance and is best known for establishing ERC-3643, a widely used standard for compatible digital assets.

Apex said Tokeny’s team and tools will be brought internally, and it aims to offer clients a turnkey infrastructure for blockchain-based financing, layering of smart contracts and decentralized protocols on top of its traditional services.

Read more: Ripple, BCG Project $ 18.9T Tokenized Asset Market in 2033