By 2030, tokenized assets could account for 2% of all financial assets in the capital markets ecosystem, representing a market value of up to US$8.2 trillion, according to new estimates by Citi.

This projection marks a dramatic shift from the estimated US$17 billion global tokenization market for financial assets recorded as of April 2026, a figure which itself reflects a threefold increase from the previous year.

Public equities lead the charge

This growth will be driven by public market equities, which are expected to achieve the highest penetration rate among key asset types at 2.9%, generating the largest volume in absolute terms. By 2030, approximately US$5.4 trillion worth of public equities assets could exist in tokenized form, constituting roughly 66% of the total tokenized asset market. The US is set to dominate this segment, accounting for US$3.9 trillion of that volume through a 4.5% tokenization penetration rate.

Retail trading activity and participation in US equity markets are projected to migrate towards tokenized distribution models over time, with Citi estimating that about 10% of such activity could eventually move to these platforms.

This trend will be mostly driven by younger, digitally native investors, particularly millennials and Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, alongside the continued rise of app-based brokerage and crypto-native financial ecosystems. These investors, both in and outside the US, will continue to expect 24/7 convenience in everything they do, from food delivery to e-commerce, banking and trading.

With approximately 145 million Gen Z and Millennials in the US, these generations have been raised in a digital finance environment and are actively reshaping the sector. According to a 2025 report by Robinhood Markets, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and the World Economic Forum, these younger investors participate in capital markets at higher rates than previous generations and seek personalized, tech-enabled guidance.

58% of Gen Z individuals start learning about investing before entering the workforce, compared to 21% of Baby Boomers, or those born between 1946 and 1964. 36% of these younger generations use AI chatbots, versus 15% for their older counterparts, and 19% utilize robo-advisors, compared to 11% for Baby Boomers and Gen Xs born between 1946 and 1980.

Outside of the US, public equities are expected to see lower tokenization penetration, estimated at just 1.5% and amounting to US$1.6 trillion worth of tokenized assets. Citi attributes this disparity to fragmented market structures, lower retail participation, and slower-moving regulatory and post-trade modernization efforts.

The US has the world’s largest public equity market, accounting for about half of global stock market capitalization at more than US$75 trillion, according to Bloomberg and Visual Capitalist calculations. East Asia, led by China, stands in second with about US$40 trillion in stock market capitalization, followed by Europe as a whole, with about US$20 trillion.

Tokenization in public fixed income and institutional innovation

After public equities, public fixed income is set to constitute the largest portion of tokenized assets by absolute value. By 2030, up to US$2.2 trillion in fixed-income assets could be tokenized, representing a penetration rate of 1.3%. This implies a 27% share of the total tokenized market for this asset class, which includes instruments like US Treasury Bills and Money Market Funds (MMFs) designed to provide predictable income and principal return.

This projection assumes a tokenization penetration of up to 15% for the US Treasury Bill market, representing the highest among all asset types. According to Citi, treasury bills are operationally well-suited for tokenization given their deep liquidity, broad collateral usage, standardization, and central role in repo and liquidity markets.

Current adoption has been led by crypto-native treasury and stablecoin ecosystems. For example, Ondo Finance is a platform for tokenized real-world assets that has surpassed US$2.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) across its tokenized products, which comprise tokenized US Treasuries and stocks.

Simultaneously, MMFs are poised to emerge as an important area of adoption with tokenization penetration potentially reaching 7% by 2030. This will be driven by MMFs’ growing role as institutional cash-equivalent and collateral instruments.

Large US asset managers have already launched tokenized government liquidity and MMF products. Franklin Templeton, for example, launched in 2021 the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX), the first US-registered MMF to use a public blockchain as the official system of record for processing transactions and recording share ownership. The fund accrues yield continuously and reflects it in holder balances throughout the day, and holds at least 99.5% of its assets in short-term US government securities, cash, and repurchase agreements.

BlackRock entered the space in 2024, launching the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). BUIDL invests 100% of its total assets in cash, US Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements, and allows investors to earn yield while holding the token on the blockchain. Investors can transfer their tokens 24/7/365 to other pre-approved investors, and access flexible custody options.

BlackRock is now working on launching two additional MMFs designed specifically for investors who hold their cash in stablecoins, Bloomberg reported in May.

Transforming capital markets structure

Beyond specific asset classes, Citi expects tokenization to fundamentally change how core market functions in capital markets are delivered, connected, and priced.

In traditional markets, multiple intermediaries perform post-trade functions such as clearing, settlement, reconciliation, and custody, often due to fragmented record-keeping and delayed settlement cycles. Tokenized systems introduce a shared ledger where ownership transfer and settlement can occur in near real-time, reducing reconciliation-heavy processes and compresses post-trade layers.

This will result in significant efficiency gains, with a 2025 report by BCG and Ripple suggesting that an issuer handling US$1 billion in annual bond issuance could save approximately US$2-3 million in costs by moving to on-chain issuance.

Furthermore, traditional markets tend to be structured around asset-for-cash exchanges, where cash acts as the intermediary in most transactions. Tokenization could facilitate a shift towards asset-to-asset transactions, including collateral swaps, securities-for-securities exchanges and multi-asset transactions executed atomically, reducing reliance on cash as an intermediary and supports more efficient collateral utilization.

Tokenization is also expected to introduce new revenue opportunities emerging in areas such as token issuance and structuring, collateral optimization and financing, data and analytics, and smart contract lifecycle services. It could also enable real time collateral mobilization, supporting intraday funding and dynamic pricing, and improving liquidity.

Industry participants recognize these potential advantages. A 2025 survey by Citi involving 537 market participants found rising expectations that market structures based on distributed ledger technology can reduce post-trade processing costs (51%), improve liquidity and asset mobility (43%), and enhance balance sheet efficiency (32%).

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Swtzerland, based on image by Mockup_Mania via Magnific