The jump from $17 billion to $5.5 trillion is, in fact, driven by a key variable: regulation rather than technology. As on-chain settlement infrastructure keeps getting better, without compliant pathways, it’s nothing but castles in the air.

Citi Institute in its latest report said the current global tokenized assets market is about $17 billion, and is expected to reach $5.5 trillion under the base-case scenario by 2030. Under the bear and bull case scenarios, it would reach $2.7 trillion and $8.2 trillion, respectively. The report believes that growth is expected to be driven mainly by public-market securities, especially U.S. stocks and Treasuries; on-chain settlement assets such as stablecoins and tokenized deposits will be an important foundation for the expansion of tokenization.