Author: Will Ogden Moore, Zach Pandl; Source: Grayscale; Compiler: Shaw, Golden Finance

Core points

• Asset tokenization will reshape the capital market by moving various assets and transactions onto the chain. This super wave has just begun and is expected to continue to bring incremental value to the underlying blockchain that supports the future landscape.

• Competition among public chains is becoming increasingly fierce.不同公链的底层架构差异显著，而判断谁能最终成为市场主流、以及所需时间周期，将成为投资者面临的一大核心难题。

• Grayscale Research believes that networks that focus on institutional needs (such as Canton) are expected to lead in the short term. Compared with public blockchains, institutional networks are more in line with the operating model of the existing traditional financial system and are more convenient for smooth transition between institutional users and intermediaries. In addition, institutional business scenarios generally have strong privacy requirements, and Canton has native privacy protection capabilities.

• 以太坊、Solana 等开放式公链仍在持续完善隐私与身份基础设施，但它们对资本市场重构有着更宏大的愿景；一旦落地，长期普及空间可能更大。 Grayscale Research predicts that the trading activities of tokenized assets will gradually migrate to decentralized, permissionless public blockchains in the long term.

• In addition to the underlying public blockchain, technology tracks such as Chainlink also provide investors with opportunities to deploy the tokenization wave throughout the cycle. No matter which public chain dominates in the future, the implementation of tokenization in the capital market will almost certainly be inseparable from infrastructure tools such as Chainlink.

• 我们认为，最有望受益于代币化超级趋势的核心协议包括：以太坊、Solana、Canton、Avalanche、BNB Chain 以及 Chainlink。

任何行业中，技术创新都会优化现有体系、颠覆老牌参与者，当下的资本市场也不例外，且正处于变革窗口期。灰度判断，未来十年金融体系将迎来一场深度变革：传统金融基础设施将逐步被区块链新型底层链路替代，依托这套现代化数字底层，资本形成与风险流转能以更高效率、更开放的方式运转。

Tokenization is the core driving force of this change. Tokenization is the process of converting asset rights and interests into digital certificates on the chain. Financial assets originally registered and managed based on traditional electronic accounting systems can be issued and transferred directly on the blockchain in the future.

We believe that the tokenization super trend contains huge investment opportunities. The global traditional securities market is approximately US$300 trillion, and this is only a small part of the assets that can be tokenized in the future (see Figure 1). Although the scale and categories of tokenized assets continue to expand, their proportion in the overall market is still very small. According to estimates, the current scale of global tokenized assets is approximately US$30 billion, which is equivalent to only 0.01% of the global stock and bond market.

Although the base is small, the tokenized asset market is growing rapidly, with a year-on-year increase of 217%.当前代币化资产主要集中在少数品类：以代币化美国国债（约 150 亿美元）为首，其次是大宗商品（约 50 亿美元），私人信贷、基金、股票及其他现实世界资产占比相对更小。

长期来看，我们预计规模约 300 万亿美元 的证券市场，以及房地产等其他大类资产，都将逐步完成链上迁移。 Subsequently, value will continue to accumulate in the public chains underlying tokenized assets such as Ethereum, Solana, and Canton.

Figure 1: The tokenization super wave is still in its infancy

Asset tokenization and next-generation capital markets

The modern financial system is mature in many aspects, but its underlying infrastructure is severely fragmented.交易往往需要经过多重中介、相互隔离的账本体系，再加上清算结算流程滞后，最终给参与者带来交易摩擦与额外成本。

Blockchain infrastructure provides a new paradigm: As the bottom layer of global shared settlement, it can achieve near-instant settlement, greatly improve capital efficiency, and allow the market to operate around the clock, while further broadening the reach of financial services (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Blockchain provides upgrade solutions for capital market infrastructure

Traditional securities trading process:

• Usually investors place orders through securities firms and complete transactions on exchanges or market maker networks.

• After the transaction is completed, it enters the post-trade clearing and settlement process, which involves the custodian institution and the central securities depository institution. Asset ownership records need to be updated simultaneously among multiple independent ledgers.

• Final settlement generally adopts the T+1 mode (delivery is completed one working day after the trading day).

• Each participant maintains independent accounting records, resulting in a large amount of accounting reconciliation work, as well as process delays, additional costs and operational risks.

Tokenized asset transaction process:

• Assets exist in the form of blockchain digital tokens.

• Transactions are automatically executed through smart contracts and recorded on a shared unified ledger. Transaction matching and clearing and settlement can be completed almost instantly within the same system (see Figure 3).

• This model can reduce reliance on intermediaries, streamline business processes, and create a more efficient financial market that operates around the clock.

Figure 3: Blockchain can streamline the entire securities trading process through smart contracts

The underlying infrastructure behind this change

Asset tokenization relies on multi-layer infrastructure, which can be divided into three major categories (see Figure 4):

1. Smart contract blockchain: core underlying infrastructure

2. Middleware tools: used for price oracles, compliance risk control, identity authentication and anti-money laundering (KYC/AML)

3. Professional tokenization service provider: Responsible for asset issuance, structure design and market distribution

Grayscale believes that one of the core ways to lay out this super trend is to invest in the first type of underlying blockchain infrastructure. Smart contract public chains such as Ethereum and Solana are currently the carrier base for tokenized assets, supporting asset issuance, ownership registration and on-chain circulation. Any on-chain activity on these networks — such as issuing and transferring tokenized shares — requires transaction fees to be paid in native tokens. As the scale of on-chain tokenization continues to expand, the demand for block space and native tokens used to pay fees will also rise simultaneously.

In this context, value capture (value aggregation) refers to how economic activities on the blockchain bring benefits and value addition to the entire public chain. The value generated by tokenization can be deposited into the smart contract public chain through multiple positive circulation mechanisms: The higher the activity of asset issuance, transactions, and transfers, the more handling fees will be generated, which directly binds network usage to the demand for native tokens; some public chains will destroy or redistribute handling fees, allowing on-chain activities to directly affect the token supply and demand pattern; as the ecological scale grows, network effects will further gather liquidity, developers, and institutional capital, and continue to strengthen the demand for native tokens.

As more and more financial assets complete on-chain migration, this set of value logic will form a compound interest effect. Public chains that carry more tokenized businesses are expected to share the large amount of economic value created by this wave. This leads to a key question: Which smart contract public chains are best able to seize this round of opportunities?

Figure 4: The infrastructure supporting this round of change is divided into three major categories

Competitive Landscape of Asset Tokenization

Smart contract blockchains are mainly divided into two types, which are competing for the tokenized business ecosystem: open architecture public chains and institution-specific networks.

Open architecture networks represented by Ethereum and Solana are inherently permissionless and fully transparent. Any individual or institution can freely access the network, issue assets, build applications, trade tokenized financial assets, or run verification nodes. This type of public chain is a general-purpose underlying technology that is adaptable to multiple application scenarios and developer ecology, and has global distributed layout and deep liquidity advantages. At the same time, it operates with a transparent ledger mechanism, and all transactions since its creation are publicly viewable. This architecture provides a single trusted source of data shared in real time by all participants, improving auditability and cross-protocol composability.

Institution-specific networks represented by Canton and Provenance are tailor-made for regulated financial institutions from the beginning. This type of system natively integrates privacy protection, access permissions, compliance control and other functions, which is crucial for processing sensitive financial data. Unlike open public chains, they do not retain completely transparent and network-wide transaction records. Transaction data is only visible to authorized participants, and privacy and confidentiality take precedence over openness and transparency.

Figure 5: Organization-specific networks and open architecture public chains have their own trade-offs and clear pros and cons

There is also a third category: Hybrid blockchain, which aims to bridge the above two models. Avalanche's first-layer public chain, as well as Ethereum's second-layer networks such as BASE and Arbitrum, can not only have customization and permission control features, but also be interconnected with the underlying open ecosystem. This allows institutions to conduct business in an exclusive customized environment while sharing the security endorsement, liquidity and cross-ecological interoperability of an open public chain.

Mainstream tokenization platforms

At present, a number of leading networks have emerged on the track: the open architecture camp is represented by Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain; the institutional exclusive camp is headed by Canton.

Ethereum has the strongest ecological network effect and is far ahead in terms of market value, developer activity, and number of applications. At the same time, it has the most complete decentralized financial ecosystem, with a total value of locked assets (TVL) on the chain of approximately US$50 billion. The complete ecosystem allows tokenized assets on the chain to be seamlessly connected to the lending market, derivatives, mortgage systems and various financial applications, while enjoying deep liquidity and composability advantages. Ethereum’s network-wide security level also qualifies it to become an institutional-level underlying infrastructure.

Solana offers another set of differentiators. The network has demonstrated high-performance expansion capabilities adapted to capital market scenarios, with a transaction processing capacity of over 1,000 transactions per second and a peak daily transaction volume of 100 million transactions. The current scale of tokenized assets on the chain is US$2 billion, which is lower than Ethereum’s US$16 billion, but the transaction speed is faster and the handling fees are lower. We believe that these characteristics can further lower the threshold for retail investors to participate, broaden asset distribution channels, and also make Solana very suitable for segmented scenarios such as on-chain retail stock trading.

Figure 6: Solana has network performance advantages suitable for the capital market

BNB Chain is another leading open architecture public chain. BNB relies on Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency centralized exchange by trading volume, and has natural channel distribution advantages. At present, BNB Chain has joined Ethereum and Solana in the ranks of open architecture public chains with the leading market value of tokenized assets (see Figure 7).

Figure 7: Ethereum, Solana, and BNB lead the market value ranking of open public chain tokenized assets

Canton is ready for commercial implementation and can meet the current business needs of large institutional capital. In 2026, Canton quickly emerged and successively announced cooperation with top institutions such as Nomura Securities and Mizuho Financial Group. At the same time, the number of network users and participating institutions increased significantly (see Figure 8).

It is worth noting that the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) - the core clearing and settlement infrastructure operator of the US capital market - has selected Canton as the first batch of supporting underlying networks for its tokenization services. The relevant business is carried out under the regulatory framework of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) no-objection letter.

In addition, Canton’s total on-chain capital ranks first among all blockchains, with the total value of tokenized assets exceeding US$348 billion (see Figure 9).

Figure 8: Canton network ecological activity will increase significantly in 2026

Provenance is another large institution-specific blockchain network developed by Figure Technologies. The network is already used to support the issuance, follow-up services and financing of home equity lines of credit and structured credit products, and is also the second-largest institutional exclusive network in terms of tokenized assets.

Other hybrid blockchains will also compete for market share. For example, Avalanche has undertaken the tokenized asset business of top institutions such as KKR, Citibank, and Apollo Global Management; and BASE, as one of the leading Ethereum second-tier networks, has unique traffic distribution advantages relying on the Coinbase ecosystem.

Figure 9: Leading blockchains in the field of tokenization (top five in market capitalization)

Asset tokenization development roadmap and the role of privacy

Major public chains such as Ethereum, Solana, and Canton are all competing to become the mainstream underlying platform for the tokenized capital market. As mentioned above, they compete on multiple dimensions, with privacy becoming an increasingly critical deciding factor. For institutional participants, it is impossible to carry out large-scale formal business if sensitive information such as counterparties and transaction amounts are fully open and transparent.

This also creates a sharp distinction between different blockchain architectures. Institution-specific networks represented by Canton come with privacy attributes by default: only transaction-related participants can view transaction details. 而以太坊这类开放式架构网络，原生设计为公开透明，所有交易均可公开审计。 Although this feature ensures openness and composability, it brings practical obstacles to the implementation of organizations that pay attention to information confidentiality.

The process of migrating the capital market to the bottom layer of the blockchain is expected to last ten years or even longer. Public chains with different structures may take turns to lead the industry at different stages of development. Exclusive platforms for institutions such as Canton have natural advantages in the early popularization stage of the industry. Although Ethereum and Solana are actively developing privacy solutions, the related technologies are still in a mature stage, and there are inevitably trade-offs in terms of expansion performance and implementation.

Because of this, Canton has an excellent opportunity to seize the first-mover advantage. Recently, Visa, Circle, and Apollo Global Management have officially joined the ranks of ecological contributors as super verification nodes, and the number of their cooperative institutions has exceeded 60. If Canton continues to attract more financial institutions to settle in, it will gradually form a network effect and further consolidate its position as the preferred on-chain platform for institutions in the early stages of the industry.

But from a long-term perspective, the industry competition landscape is expected to become more balanced. Open public chains may continue to improve privacy solutions through a combination of underlying protocol upgrades, second-layer network architecture, zero-knowledge proofs and other technologies. Once mature privacy capabilities can be implemented on a large scale, open architecture networks will have the strength to compete head-on with institutional networks and undertake the on-chain circulation needs of institutional capital.

By then, the open public chain will also rely on its structural advantages to seize a larger potential market space.

The permissionless nature of the open network, which is open to all individuals and institutions around the world, means that the potential market size is larger. For project parties and developers, open network architecture can lead to faster innovation: any developer or institution can seamlessly access the network and share global liquidity. This will attract participation from a wider range of institutions and counterparties, including those excluded from the traditional Western financial system, and such groups often lack access to closed institutional exclusive networks.

A larger economic radiation range, coupled with open liquidity and composability, will form a positive flywheel effect: attracting more participants to settle in, strengthening the network effect, and ultimately transforming into stronger long-term value capture capabilities. In addition, from the perspective of valuation logic, the native tokens of open public chains such as Ethereum and Solana are also expected to obtain additional currency premium valuations by virtue of their digital value storage attributes.

Figure 10: Overview of matching between various blockchain architectures and industry development roadmaps

Investors can also layout the tokenization trend in a way that is not constrained by the industry popularization stage or blockchain architecture type, and have stronger long-term income stability.

Chainlink is one of the most typical representatives. Grayscale believes that Chainlink can be called one of the best investment targets for shovel sellers in the tokenization wave. It provides indispensable middleware services for the entire life cycle of tokenized assets, including reserve certificates, off-chain data transmission, and various compliance-related functions.

Chainlink spans multiple blockchains and does not rely on a single public chain ecosystem; no matter how the market landscape evolves in the future, it has the ability to continue to benefit (see Figure 11).

In addition to Chainlink, there are also a number of service providers that are promoting the popularization of tokenization: Securitize provides institutions with on-chain issuance infrastructure, and the scale of its tokenized assets under custody has increased by 37% so far this year; Ondo focuses on packaging and distributing tokenized exposures of traditional financial assets for investors, and the scale of tokenized assets has increased by 89% so far this year.

Figure 11: Chainlink covers the complete life cycle of tokenization

Risk tips and precautions

The logic of the tokenization track is complex and still faces many major challenges and potential variables. There will not be only one winner in the blockchain infrastructure track, and hybrid architecture public chains such as Avalanche are also expected to get a share of the pie.

If Canton can achieve large-scale early implementation in traditional financial institutions, it will establish long-term solid advantages. In market segments subject to strict institutional rules, such as overnight repurchases, liquidity formation and business collaboration are highly dependent on the existing institutional network ecosystem. In such scenarios, the network effect advantage of an open, permissionless network will be significantly weakened, and Canton is expected to occupy an absolute dominant share.

At the same time, the boundaries between open public chains and institutional proprietary networks may no longer be a black and white binary. Institutions that choose to deploy on open public chains such as Ethereum may have a permission control layer similar to the institutional network, which will weaken the original liquidity and composability advantages of the open system to a certain extent. In the long term, as the tool ecosystem improves and selective permission access mechanisms become more popular, the two types of architectures may gradually converge in edge scenarios; however, the core trade-off between control permissions and complete composability is likely to exist for a long time.

Another key question: To what extent the tokenized full-service link can eventually be fully on-chain. The current industry implementation level is uneven: many tokenized assets only use the blockchain as the outer packaging and distribution bottom layer, while core links such as custody, redemption, transfer registration, and voting rights are still highly dependent on off-chain infrastructure. To fully unleash the value dividend of tokenization, a higher proportion of such core functions must be gradually migrated to the chain in the future.

Other risks that hinder the popularity of tokenization include: overall regulatory policy risks, regulatory uncertainty that limits the space for asset migration across the entire chain, and crypto market fluctuations that suppress institutions' short-term willingness to enter the market.

Conclusion

Asset tokenization brings epic opportunities to investors deploying blockchain infrastructure. In the short term, Canton and other institutions’ proprietary architecture networks have leading advantages: they adapt to the existing financial system architecture and have native built-in privacy capabilities. However, the long-term trend will gradually tilt towards open public chains such as Ethereum and Solana. Institutional networks are just optimizations and improvements to existing financial models, while open public chains carry a more ambitious vision—to reconstruct the entire capital market from the bottom up.

For investors, the core question is not whether the capital market will migrate on-chain, but how the migration path will evolve, and which platforms and their native tokens can seize advantageous positions at each stage of the transformation. We judge that underlying public chain tokens such as ETH, SOL, and CC will continue to capture industry value: institutional exclusive networks are expected to capture early business increments, while open public chains will dominate the long-term upside.

No matter which path this financial revolution takes, LINK has unique advantages: it is universal across chains, not bound to a single architecture, and can provide stable track exposure at every development stage of the industry.

Tokenization is not a short-term theme of a market trend, but a phased, long-term structural change. From a small-scale implementation in early institutions to a full spread to open networks in the later period, this process may create one of the most important infrastructure iterations in the history of modern finance, and drive the revaluation and asset reallocation of the entire financial system.