The tokenisation market, though currently still small compared to other sectors, is at a tipping point, with momentum building, according to experts at the FIX EMEA Trading Conference.
Specifically, increasing activity and evolving regulatory support are seeing digital asset adoption gaining pace, reflecting a “new kind of lifestyle experience,” for market participants, as described by one panellist.
Referencing increasing regulatory support, discussions highlighted political factors, as well as key drivers in the Americas, such as the GENIUS Act, passed in July 2025 to create a framework for stablecoins, and the CLARITY Act, which is expected to be passed in 2026.
Speaking on the importance of these developments, one expert commented: “For the last couple of years we were experimenting, and we’ve had a number of use cases. Traditional assets in tokenised format currently stand at about $30 billion which is a very small fraction, importantly we now have more or less the regulatory landscape fully in place.”
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The critical nature of this regulation for digital assets reaching an inflection point should not be undermined, with one panellist emphasising: “You are paralysed if there is no clarity from a regulatory standpoint.”
Building bridges between tradfi and digital assets
Despite this, it still appears that there is much to be done to fully scale the adoption of tokenisation across the entire financial markets landscape.
To ensure the success of this adoption, learning lessons from traditional finance appears to essential to ensure all participants are comfortable with this transition.
Within this, discussions highlighted that tokens must be standardised and interoperable to avoid fragmented liquidity pools or “walled gardens”, with one expert stating: “Fundamentally, for institutional adoption of tokenisation you need the same fungibility and same rights and legal enforcement as securities themselves.”
In addition, panellists were also quick to point out that digital markets need to ensure they are adapting key parts of traditional markets, to enable a smooth transition, and keep a sense of consistency and interoperability between these two divergent parts of the industry.
Read more – Institutional demand for digital assets growing, yet obstacles to adoption remain
Within this, replicating the trust seen in traditional markets into digital landscapes is essential. “In the traditional financial world, everything is based on a very high level of professionalism and trust,” commented a panellist.
“Therefore, we clearly need regulation and the partnership of the public sector, central banks, Ministry of Finances and the buy-side, sell-side and market infrastructure players. That’s where we will see significant dynamics coming in.”
In a similar vein, legacy systems should not be abandoned or ‘disrespected’ when scaling tokenisation in modern financial markets, with one panellist affirming: “Legacy systems play an important role, so by interacting with traditional OMS systems and enabling links to fixed gateways, you’re able to trade traditionally without ripping up legacy infrastructure. We need to allow interoperability of legacy systems with this digital world.”
With the next few years set to see tokenisation and digital assets creating an increasingly bigger place for themselves across markets, panellists were unanimous in agreeing that the time is now for the industry to begin preparing for this shift.
As one expert concluded: “Digital transformation comes quicker than expected. That’s why as an industry we have to work on rebuilding financial market information infrastructure now.”