On 17 May 1792 a group of stockbrokers and merchants signed an agreement under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street that would become the founding document of the New York Stock Exchange. Matt Hougan chief investment officer at digital asset fund manager Bitwise Asset Management, compared living through tokenization as similar to being under that buttonwood tree.

He said in a broadcast on X: “We are at the moment when floor-based trading closed down  nd moved to digital. It is a once-in-a-few generations change.”

Hougan has a background in exchange-traded funds, and he compared the progress of tokenization to the ETF industry. Initially, people imagined that ETFs would only cover US equities, but the wrapper has evolved to include multiple asset classes and strategies, including active ones.

“You can put a lot of things in ETFs,” he added. “Tokenization is an incredible wrapper that allows financial assets to move around the world at the speed of light, makes it easy to borrow against them and makes them perfect collateral.”

He believes that every valuable financial asset could be tokenized but said the industry has not done a good job explaining why tokenization is important. Jim Hiltner, co-founder of Superstate, the financial technology firm for crypto capital markets, agreed on the X broadcast that the benefits of tokenization need to be framed correctly for different audiences.

For example, there is a lot of demand on digital asset rails that large asset managers are not servicing today. For compliance, operations and technology, they can do more with fewer people. Digital money and assets can settle atomically 24/7 on blockchains, so risk can be reframed based on how quickly collateral can move to support a position.

“The iPhone touch screen moment is happening,” said Hiltner. “We are unlocking access to products that were traditionally siloed and creating a seamless experience. I think the sky is the limit but question is how we get there.”

Regulated securities that are onchain are only available to qualified investors or institutions, so Hiltner argued that regulatory permissions are needed to create more democratized access.

The Clarity Act, the proposed U.S. legislation for digital asset market structure will be the next “watershed moment” for institutions to interact with more of the ecosystem, according to Hiltner. The Act was approved by the Senate Banking Committee on 14 May 2026. Hougan agreed that the Clarity Act will unlock investment into the infrastructure that powers tokenization. He highlighted that after the U.S. administration passed the Genius Act, a federal framework for stablecoins, there was a “huge” amount of investment in blockchains designed specifically to serve stablecoins.

⚡️ Tokenized RWAs hit $30B milestone

Tokenized real-world assets just crossed $31.6B in total value, up 199% YoY with $21B in fresh capital.

US Treasury debt dominates at $15.4B, nearly half the entire sector.@Securitize, @OndoFinance, @Circle, and @FTI_US are leading the… pic.twitter.com/5MyzvqP5HF

— CryptoDep (@Crypto_Dep) May 13, 2026

Tokenized funds

The broader tokenized asset market is projected to reach $18.9 trillion by 2031 with the onchain market for tokenized real world assets currently over $30bn, according to Bitwise. Tokenized U.S. treasuries have surpassed $15bn, making yield-bearing funds the fastest-growing category. Fidelity International, JP Morgan and BlackRock have all recently announced plans to launch new tokenized money market funds.

Hiltner said Superstate has talked to a lot of allocators who are looking to tokenize investment grade, high yield or private credit funds that pay a spread on Treasury bills, but also have liquidity. On the demand side, he said large banks, asset managers, exchanges, clearing houses that move a lot of capital in the world are starting to interact with tokenized rails.

“That will be a big inflection point,” added Hiltner. “In addition, getting retail access, will really head us towards a multi-trillion dollar number.”

On 7 May 2026 Bitwise and Superstate said in a statement that they intend to transition investment management of the Superstate Crypto Carry Fund (USCC) to the asset manager. Upon completion of the transition, expected on 1 June 2026, USCC will be renamed the Bitwise Crypto Carry Fund.

This marks Bitwise’s entry into tokenized funds. For Superstate, the firm is stepping back from fund management to focus on FundOS, its infrastructure platform for onchain funds, which will continue to power USCC.

Hougan said each firm has specific expertise and focus. Bitwise is focused on crypto-related asset management and distribution while Superstate is the core infrastructure provider on tokenization. He added: “We are really honored to be taking over the investment management of USCC, and putting our distribution muscle behind building that business.”

Superstate is “extremely excited” for the partnership, according to Hiltner, which he described as a “massive” net benefit to both organizations and investors in the fund. He said: “We are not as plugged into traditional distribution, and we don’t have a large portfolio management risk team.”

The USCC fund has over $267m in assets under management, and Hiltner said he expects the fund to reach $1bn soon.

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