Tokenized assets shift into high gear as institutions accelerate adoption

Tokenised assets have moved decisively from conceptual discussion into operational rollout in financial services, a new white paper reveals.  

Based on a survey of 300 institutions in North America and Europe, a landmark report from Broadridge Financial Solutions finds that custodians are taking the lead, with 63% already offering tokenised assets and an additional 30% planning to do so within two years.

“Custodians have set the pace with 91% citing improvements in efficiency, security, and innovation by offering tokenized assets,” says Germán Soto Sanchez, chief product and strategy officer at Broadridge. “Institutions that commit to trusted client experiences, strong governance, and scalable infrastructure for tokenization can lead a transformation that will redefine global markets for the next generation of investors.”

Among asset managers, 15% currently offer tokenised products but 41 % intend to within the near term. Meanwhile, among wealth managers, just 10% currently participate and 33% expect to adopt within two years.

Regulatory ambiguity ranks highest among barriers to adoption with 73% of respondents citing it as their chief concern. Infrastructure shortfalls, security questions and the need for industry standards were also flagged heavily.

Tokenization offers meaningful operational and client-value advantages such as enhanced liquidity, increased transparency, reduced cost and faster servicing. Early adopters reported an average of four-to-five tangible benefits compared with fewer than three for non-adopters.

The report emphasises that scaling tokenised product offerings will require “common standards, regulatory clarity, and robust technology partners.”

Advisors should therefore:

• Evaluate how tokenised vehicles could align with client portfolios, especially where fractionalisation or alternative asset exposure is of interest.
• Engage custodians and service providers now to understand infrastructure readiness and governance frameworks.
• Monitor the regulatory landscape closely — given the high level of uncertainty flagged.
• Position themselves early: the performance gap between pioneers and laggards is widening.

Broadridge itself is moving at pace with its Distributed Ledger Repo platform processing average daily volumes of $339 billion in September, demonstrating the operational scale of tokenised real-asset settlement.