Citi predicts the tokenized securities market will grow to $5.5 trillion by 2030
Stablecoins alone will generate a demand for up to $1 trillion worth of onchain U.S. Treasury bills and $2.6 trillion for tokenized stocks, said Citi.
What to know:
- Citi projects that tokenization of real-world assets will surge from a $17 billion market today to as much as $5.5 trillion by 2030, with a range of $2.7 trillion to $8.2 trillion depending on adoption speed.
- Major market infrastructures including DTCC, Nasdaq and the NYSE’s owner are embedding tokenization into their core trading systems, while growing stablecoin use and clearer U.S. regulation are enabling instant, on-chain settlement.
- Citi expects tokenization to concentrate in mainstream public markets such as U.S. Treasuries and stocks, with parallel legacy and digital systems coexisting for years and giving an edge to large “structural orchestrators” that control both assets and payment rails.
However, Citi expects this market to increase to $5.5 trillion by 2030 in its base forecast. Depending on how fast adoption take place, that could land anywhere from a low end estimate of $2.7 trillion to a bullish forecast of $8.2 trillion, Citi said.
As the report points out, this is a major turning point: “You’re seeing the full weight of American financial power and the global reserve currency moving on change at scale,” Citi says in the report. “When DTCC and the NYSE embed tokenization into capital markets, this marks a tipping point.”
According to Citi, three big shifts are driving this trillions of dollars move.
First, the traditional companies that run the world’s stock markets are building this technology directly into their regular trading systems.
In early May, Wall Street giant Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced it would start limited production trades of tokenized securities in July, with a broader launch of its platform set for October. Nasdaq is working on a framework for companies to issue blockchain-based shares with a potential launch as early as 2027. Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, also has plans for tokenized stocks.
