New Q4 2025 surveys from tokenization platform Brickken indicate that most real-world asset (RWA) issuers are using tokenization to raise capital rather than unlock secondary market liquidity, according to a report shared with CoinDesk.
Among respondents, 53.8% cited capital formation and financing efficiency as their primary reasons for tokenizing, while 15.4% cited liquidity needs as their primary motivation. Another 38.4% said there was no need for liquidity, while 46.2% said they expected secondary market liquidity to appear within 6 to 12 months.
“What we’re seeing is that tokenization has moved from a buzzword to tokenization as a financial infrastructure layer,” Jordi Esturi, chief marketing officer at Brickken, told CoinDesk. “Issuers are leveraging it to solve real problems: capital access, investor influence, and operational complexity.”
Brickken’s report comes as major U.S. stock exchanges announced plans to expand trading models for tokenized assets to include 24/7 markets. CME Group said they will offer round-the-clock trading of their cryptocurrency derivatives by May 29, while the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq have also shared their plans to offer 24/7 tokenized stock trading.
Esturi said the exchange’s plans have more to do with the evolution of its business model than a disconnect with issuer needs. “It’s not so much about outpacing demand but exchanges evolving their business models,” he said. “Exchanges increase revenue by increasing trading volumes, and extending trading hours is a natural lever.”
At the same time, many issuers are still in what he calls the validation phase, during which they prove regulatory structures, test investor interest and digitize the issuance process. “Liquidity is not their main focus yet as they are laying the foundation,” he stressed, adding that they view tokenization as an “upstream engine to serve trading venues.”
Brickken CMO also said that if no compliant, structured, high-quality assets enter the market, the secondary trading platform will have no trading significance. “The real value creation happens at the issuance level,” Estrie noted.
Optional Liquidity vs. Mandatory Liquidity
While 38.4% of issuers surveyed said liquidity was not required, Esturi noted the difference between “optional and mandatory liquidity,” noting that many private market issuers operate on a longer-term basis. “Liquidity is inevitable, but it must grow in tandem with issuance and institutional adoption, not ahead of it.”
Ondo, which started out as tokenized U.S. Treasuries and now has more than $2 billion in assets, focuses on stocks and ETFs, particularly because of their “strong price discovery capabilities, deep liquidity and clear valuations,” chief strategy officer Ian de Bode said in a recent interview with CoinDesk.
“You can tokenize something to make it easier to access or use it as collateral,” DeBord said. “Stocks fit both, and they’re priced like assets that people actually understand, unlike buildings in Manhattan. It would be a godsend if TradFi moved to 24/7,” de Bode added. “That’s our biggest bottleneck.”
The survey shows that tokenization is already operational for many participants: 69.2% of respondents said they have completed the tokenization process and are live, 23.1% are in progress, and 7.7% are still in the planning stage.
Regulation remains an issue
Regulation was the top concern among respondents: 53.8% said regulation slowed down their operations, while 30.8% reported some or related regulatory friction. Overall, 84.6% of businesses experienced some degree of regulatory drag. In comparison, 13% cited technical or development challenges as the most difficult part of tokenizing.
“Compliance is not something issuers deal with after issuance; it is something they consider and configure from day one,” said Alvaro Garrido, founding partner at Legal Node. “We are seeing an increasing need for legal structures that are tailored to specific project needs and underlying technology.”
The report also suggests that tokenization is expanding beyond real estate. Real estate accounts for 10.7% of assets that are tokenized or planned to be tokenized, while equity/stocks account for 28.6%, and intellectual property and entertainment-related assets account for 17.9%. Respondents spanned industries such as technology platforms (31.6%), entertainment (15.8%), private credit (15.8%), renewable energy (5.3%), banking (5.3%), carbon assets (5.2%), aerospace (5.3%) and hospitality (5.2%).
“The real bridge between TradFi and DeFi is not ideological,” said Patrick Hennes, head of digital asset services at DZ PRIVATBANK. “Issuance infrastructure translates regulatory requirements, investor protection and asset servicing standards into programmable systems.”