MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Tokenization won’t replace systems overnight, but it is steadily reshaping the underlying pipeline, Wall Street executives said at the Consensus 2026 conference in Miami.
Digital asset leaders from Citi, JPMorgan and DTCC said during the panel discussion that blockchain-based railways are entering production, with real volumes and real customers determining how the technology is deployed.
A year ago, Citi’s tokenized deposit system processed millions of funds. “Right now we are moving billions of dollars,” said Ryan Rugg, head of digital assets for the bank’s treasury and trade solutions division.
She said the demand comes from customers who want to move money around the clock, not just during banking hours.
JPMorgan Chase is seeing a similar pattern. Kara Kennedy, head of market development for the bank’s digital assets unit, said its blockchain platform Kinexys has processed more than $1 trillion in transactions.
She said the focus is less on building parallel systems and more on splicing blockchain rails into existing infrastructure for faster settlement and ongoing operations.
DTCC, located in the heart of the U.S. market pipeline, is taking a longer-term view. The company is working to bring parts of its $150 trillion securities infrastructure to a shared digital layer, with initial rollout plans already underway.
“You can’t just replace what’s already there,” said Nadine Chakar, head of digital assets at DTCC. “It’s an evolution.”
The approach reflects a broader shift in the market. Early tokenization efforts are often about finding a problem that needs to be solved. Now, companies are targeting specific pain points, particularly in areas such as collateral, cross-border payments and liquidity management.
For large enterprises, the ability to move funds in real time across time zones and holidays is changing the way finance functions operate. Rather than pre-positioning cash days in advance, companies can respond immediately to margin calls or investment opportunities.
Still, panelists dismissed the idea that blockchain would eliminate intermediaries altogether. Core functions such as risk management, compliance and settlement guarantees remain difficult to replicate in a fully decentralized system.
“We always need some level of intermediary,” Chakar said.
Cryptocurrency native players, however, see a longer arc. Evan Auyang, president of Animoca Brands, said the industry is still in a transitional phase, with blockchain gradually proving its efficiency ahead of larger structural changes.
“The essence of blockchain is that it is transformative,” Ouyang said, noting that processes such as loan approvals can be faster, from weeks to days. But he added that a fully native on-chain market “isn’t ready yet” given the scale and regulatory constraints of existing systems.
At the same time, he believes that this direction cannot be ignored. “If there are efficiencies and cost savings, they will be adopted,” he said, adding that traditional finance and decentralized systems are now “converging.”