What tokenization actually means here
Real-world asset, or RWA, tokenization means representing something like a US Treasury bond, a money market fund, or private credit as a token on a blockchain, where the token represents legal ownership or a claim on the underlying asset, with a regulated entity typically responsible for holding the actual asset and honoring redemptions. The appeal is real: tokenized versions of these instruments can settle near-instantly, trade outside traditional market hours, and be used as collateral within DeFi protocols in ways a paper certificate never could.
This has moved well past whitepaper territory. Several major asset managers now offer tokenized treasury and money market fund products that hold real, audited value, and this has become one of the more closely watched growth categories in the industry precisely because the underlying asset, a US Treasury bill, is boring and well understood, unlike a lot of what tokenization projects have promised in the past.