Tokenized stocks, funds and gold are moving from pilots to production as 2026 unfolds, driven by growing institutional deployments, measurable market projections and clearer regulatory guardrails. Key players and advisers argue this convergence could lift the tokenized-asset market into the hundreds of billions of dollars by year‑end, reshaping settlement, liquidity and access.
Market forecasts and industry roadmaps explain why: Hashdex’s CIO Samir Kerbage projects tokenized assets could top $400 billion by the end of 2026, up from roughly $20 billion at the end of 2025, while Centrifuge projects Total Value Locked in real‑world asset tokens will exceed $100 billion by the end of 2026, according to their executives and industry reports.
Major exchanges and banks are planning live deployments: the New York Stock Exchange is developing a tokenized securities platform for 24/7 trading and on‑chain settlement, aiming for launch in Q2 de 2026, and Morgan Stanley has signalled plans to roll out a digital wallet for tokenized assets during 2026. J.P. Morgan Asset Management has already introduced a tokenized money market fund, MONY, demonstrating product-level execution.
Stablecoins are acting as settlement rails and liquidity bridges; one report cited roughly $33 trillion in stablecoin transactions in 2025 as evidence of that plumbing. Market participants say tokenization promises fractional ownership, extended trading hours, faster settlement and improved collateral mobility—features that directly address operational frictions in legacy markets.
‘With gold hitting all time highs and tokenized gold heating up fast, 2026 is shaping up to be the breakout year,’ said Lorenzo R., co‑founder of USDT0, summarizing why gold tokenization is gaining traction as on‑chain collateral.
Technology, interoperability and regulation
Technological layers are maturing: leading blockchains, L2 throughput improvements and composable custody models are enabling multi‑chain issuance, cross‑platform settlement instructions and the use of tokenized assets as DeFi collateral. Industry voices stress the need for reliable oracles, custody standards and settlement finality to scale institutional engagement.
The GENIUS Act was enacted in july, imposing 100% reserve banking and supervision for stablecoins, while U.S. proposals such as a Clarity Act and renewed pro‑innovation stances at major regulators are framing 2026 as a year for testing distributed ledger technologies at scale, according to legal advisers. Observers warn the primary risk this year is not regulation per se, but regulatory misalignment across jurisdictions that could fragment markets.
Operational and market risks remain relevant: leverage amplifies gains and losses, custody and proof‑of‑reserve practices vary, and cross‑border compliance will complicate issuance and distribution.
Those outcomes will determine whether tokenized stocks, funds and gold transition from promising innovations into routine market infrastructure, with direct consequences for liquidity, prime‑broker workflows and institutional product design.
