By Michael Lukasevicz, Growth Marketing @ Centrifuge

RWA Brussels, held during EthCC, marked the third RWA Summit of the year and brought together 250 of the most respected industry leaders, innovators, and experts to forge the future of real-world asset tokenization.

There were a lot of great conversations both on and off stage. A few common themes and takeaways emerged from these discussions:

• Tokenization is inevitable

• The institutions are here to stay

• RWAs democratize access to traditionally inaccessible assets

• Composability will lead to mass adoption

In this post, we'll take a closer look at what we heard in Brussels and how it could shape the trajectory of RWAs through the end of 2024—and beyond.

Tokenization is Inevitable

One of the most common threads was the growing consensus that tokenization is inevitable for the future of financial markets. Numerous industry leaders shared insights on the rapid rise of tokenization, how it has scaled, and its transformative potential for the financial services space.

In his fireside chat, The Role of Oracles to Bring RWAs Onchain, Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink Labs, highlighted two key benefits driving this trend: the opening of new markets and significant efficiency gains. He emphasized that tokenized funds are already operating much more efficiently than traditional counterparts, citing improvements in settlement speed, redemption processes, and back-office operations.

“We, for example, have gone live on production with Fidelity International and Signum to put NAV onchain. We can take the redemption period from a month to a minute or less, depending on how often you want to calculate the NAV.”

In a subsequent panel about Infrastructure Needed for Institutional Adoption of Tokenized Assets, Paul Brody, Global Blockchain Leader at EY, said: "Our estimate at EY is that by 2040, we will need to process roughly 450 million transactions on Ethereum a day,” said Brody. “The vast majority of those are going to be tokenized real world assets, and we expect transaction volumes to grow at a CAGR of 28-35% for the next 20 years."

In the same panel, Niklas Kunkel of Chronicle Labs predicted that tokenized assets would excel past the current DeFi landscape within a few years.

During the panel, RWA Composability Opportunities Today and Tomorrow, Philipp Pieper, co-founder of Swarm, drew attention to the potential for blockchain technology to revolutionize traditional financial products like ETFs and mutual funds. The increased transparency, cost-effectiveness, and reliability offered by blockchain could drive the next wave of innovation in financial markets, echoing recent statements from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.

The Institutions Are Here

Another popular sentiment was the increasing presence and interest of traditional financial institutions. This shift marks a significant milestone in the evolution of asset tokenization – and its integration into mainstream finance.

"Some of our investors are the largest investment banks in Latin America. When they look at us, why do they make that investment?” asked Kevin Miao, head of credit at BlockTower Capital, during a panel about onchain asset management. “They want to understand how we're using this technology to actually make things work more efficiently in the future.”

Ben Forman, founder of ParaFi Capital, reported exponential growth in institutional interest in tokenization during the panel Finding Product Market Fit: RWAs and Stablecoins. He referenced Fink's statement that tokenization represents the most significant innovation in capital markets since the shift from analog to digital record-keeping in the 1970s and 1980s.

“We've seen KKR tokenize an LP stake in one of its private equity funds. Hamilton Lane did the same. You're seeing a lot in tokenized repo. There's a lot of activity happening in the space and it feels like that is very much like a leading indicator," Forman added.

Zach Rynes, AKA ChainLinkGod, emphasized that both DeFi and TradFi parties share the goal of creating a more efficient global financial system with fewer intermediaries.

The message is clear: major financial institutions are not just observing tokenization anymore. They are actively participating in driving its innovation.

RWAs Democratize Access to Traditionally Inaccessible Assets

Many speakers talked about how they are exploring strategies to broaden the investor base for tokenized assets, bridging the gap between TradFi and DeFi. They highlighted several approaches to unlock distribution and increase accessibility.

“How do you attract people that don’t meet minimum requirements for hedge fund grade assets?” asked Matthew Low, head of tokenization at Fasanara Capital, during the panel Onchain Asset Management: The New Paradigm.

“We can customize those assets to the yield requirements, the interest requirements, and the risk requirements of an end investor,” said Low. “And, we can make that available to them at a price point that has never been conceived before for a fund of its nature. People can invest with as little as $5,000.”

In the discussion Infrastructure Needed for the Institutional Adoption of Tokenized Assets, Stefan George, CTO at Gnosis, described their efforts to build frictionless bridges between traditional and blockchain-based systems. This allows users to transact using familiar methods like SEPA, Visa, and Mastercard while leveraging the benefits of tokenization. The aim is to ensure onchain and offchain transactions are indistinguishable for the end-user.

Kaledora Kiernan-Linn, co-founder of Ostium, discussing how gas and account abstraction make onchain applications more accessible during the panel RWA Composability Opportunities Today and Tomorrow.

While speaking about Unlocking Ddistribution of RWAs, Itay Tuchman, founder of TomNext, emphasized that expanding access is the primary goal in unlocking distribution. By connecting investors to existing products they currently can't access and introducing innovative offerings like SME financing with attractive yield profiles, asset tokenizers can create compelling reasons for investors to engage with new asset classes.’

Composability Will Lead to Mass Adoption

A final key theme that emerged was the growing importance and potential of composability in the RWA ecosystem. Speakers noted how the ability for tokenized assets to interact can drive significant innovation and efficiency.

Sergey Nazarov predicted that a blockchain-agnostic approach will enable massive connectivity and liquidity flows between tokenized assets, regardless of their native chain.

Sergey’s vision of seamless interoperability was echoed by Philipp Piper, who forecasted an "explosion of composability" for RWAs. He noted that the digitization of assets allows them to benefit from the innovations developed in the broader DeFi space.

Sam MacPherson, CEO at Phoenix Labs, highlighted how composability enables the creation of yield-bearing stablecoins that can be used as building blocks for other DeFi applications in a panel about RWA composability opportunities. These coins can allow users to earn returns even when their assets are locked in other protocols, reducing opportunity costs compared to traditional finance.

The potential for composability to bridge permissioned and permissionless systems was discussed by Jeroen Offerijns, CTO at Centrifuge, during the panel The Role of Interoperability for RWA Tokenization. He outlined how market makers could connect regulated markets with decentralized protocols, enabling liquidity to flow between previously siloed ecosystems.

Jeroen cautioned that true interoperability remains an unsolved challenge even in traditional finance, particularly for less liquid asset classes like private credit. He stressed that bridging these gaps in the tokenized asset world will take continued innovation.

Conclusion

RWA Brussels showcased the growing maturity of the tokenization industry. As we navigate regulatory challenges and continue to build infrastructure, it is clear that tokenization is positioned to play a central role in shaping the future of finance. Significant progress has been made while ample opportunity for innovation and growth remains.

Lastly, a big shoutout to our partners for making RWA Brussels possible.

• Co-hosts: Centrifuge, Tioga Capital

• Innovators: Keyrock, Chronicle, Swarm, Enzyme

• Supporters: Gnosis, Propy, Spark, Maker, Plume, Florence Finance, Karpatkey, Vlayer, B2C2, Superform

Upcoming RWA Summits

• RWA Singapore | September 17 @ TOKEN2049

• Real-World Asset Summit New York | October 22 & 23