According to TD Cowen, the rapidly increasing weight of on-chain blockchain capital could surpass the $100 trillion threshold within five years. The bank cited a volume that has reached approximately $4.6 trillion since 2020, driven by policy momentum, standardization, and the convergence of major institutions toward common protocols. Analysts emphasized in a note shared after the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit in London that tokenization has transitioned from the concept phase to pilots due to gains in cost and settlement speed.
Policy Momentum Exceeds Expectations
TD Cowen highlighted significant advancements surpassing expectations on the political and regulatory front. In the United Kingdom, a plan for a digital markets champion to coordinate tokenization in wholesale markets is being discussed alongside efforts by banks in the US and Europe exploring a common stablecoin. The emerging cash leg could create a settlement alternative working alongside banks’ deposit tokens.
Inter-institutional technical consensus has emerged as a significant focus. Discussions with giants like JPMorgan, Bank of America, Euroclear, and Tradeweb indicate the maturing of protocols for transporting assets across shared networks. As infrastructure standardization deepens, the threshold for moving pilot projects to production environments will lower. BNY Mellon’s trials to modernize payments with tokenized deposits and BlackRock’s exploration of digitizing funds linked to real-world assets reinforce this trend.
Rapid Rise in Institutional Demand
On the demand side, institutional appetite is rising rapidly. According to research by State Street, institutional cryptocurrency investments could double within three years. More than half of the participants in the research foresee that 10–24% of their portfolios will be tokenized by 2030. Robinhood’s CEO also believes that major markets will have comprehensive tokenization frameworks by 2030.
In the yield architecture, staked assets, particularly Ethereum, are seen as the backbone of capital formation. Programmable finance combines lower costs and faster settlements in cross-border transfers through smart contracts linked to existing capital markets infrastructure. The consensus on common standards is anticipated to allow volume to jump from pilots to mass production, fueling a multi-year growth trajectory for on-chain blockchain assets.