By Bhaji Illuminati, Chief Marketing Officer @ Centrifuge

After the success of our inaugural Real-World Asset Summit in New York last year, Centrifuge expanded the event series globally in 2024, hosting events in Dubai, Austin, Brussels, and Singapore, culminating in our flagship event back in New York City.

This year has been a landmark for real-world assets, largely thanks to major institutions realizing the utility of crypto.

On October 22nd and 23rd, 350 handpicked capital market leaders and crypto pioneers responsible for driving these milestones gathered at The William Vale for two days dedicated to defining tokenization’s near and long-term future.

Building on the momentum from the four summits earlier this year, our flagship event showcased a maturing vision and reality of tokenized assets, offering actionable insights into how onchain solutions are set to continue reshaping the future of finance.

Day one delivered the alpha, while day two handed the mic to the audience. We introduced dynamic formats like debates, fishbowls, workshops, and spotlight presentations to keep the experience fresh.

The result? Meaningful collaboration. Together, we went past the “what” and “why” and dug into the "how"—exploring ways to drive tangible impact and position the industry for 2025 and beyond.

And it wasn’t just Meltem and Leshner’s debate that delivered the hot takes from the two days…

Hot takes

• There’s no halfway with tokenization. This transformative technology has the potential to reshape finance entirely. If successful, all future funds will be fully tokenized; if not, none will.

• Tokenizing assets alone doesn’t increase their value. Instead, it’s the added liquidity, interoperability, and efficiency that elevate the financial landscape as a whole.

• The future lies in a multichain environment, moving beyond a choice between private and public chains to leverage both.

• To drive widespread adoption, improvements in utility and user experience are essential.

• Real results are forming. Franklin Templeton and BlockTower are achieving measurable cost savings—with asset clearing costs reduced by 30,000 times and securitization costs by 97%—demonstrating significant operational efficiencies tokenization is just beginning to unlock.

• Solving privacy and identity concerns remain top priorities for institutions.

• Macro shifts are positioning the industry for progress, particularly when it comes to regulation.

• Institutional players are here to stay and are eager to collaborate. It’s no longer “us vs. them” but a convergence.

• Novel use-cases that intersect with the masses–like Pippen’s $BALL project –are key to driving tokenization's cultural appeal.

Momentum

Thank you to everyone who joined us in creating another unforgettable Summit. A special thanks to our partners including Galaxy, Superstate and S&P Global, whose support made it all possible. We’re also grateful to our 60+ speakers for sharing their insights on stage and continuous commitment to driving our industry forward.

Relive the highlights and watch the session recordings, now available. Stay tuned—the 2025 Real-World Asset Summit events will be announced soon. Follow us on X for the latest updates.