While Everyone Is Watching Artificial Intelligence, Another Technology Is Transforming Finance Faster: Tokenization

What if I told you that the next major financial revolution is not happening on Wall Street, but in Caracas, Nairobi, or Mumbai?

What Is Tokenization and Why Should We All Pay Attention?

Tokenization consists of recording ownership of any asset—such as a house, a bond, a work of art, or a currency—on a blockchain-based digital network. This allows assets to be transferred, stored, and verified securely, quickly, and transparently, without intermediaries, paperwork, or manual processes.

According to the article “How tokenisation could transform finance”, written by Larry Fink (CEO of BlackRock) and Rob Goldstein (COO) and published in The Economist in December 2025, we are entering a new era in which money and assets no longer need to pass through traditional structures to circulate.

My Own Experience: From Fax and Signatures to Blockchain

In 2008, when I worked as a stockbroker buying and selling equities and bonds, buy and sell orders arrived by fax. I had to visit clients in person to collect signed authorizations, and phone lines collapsed whenever the dollar price moved—especially when it shifted from 2.1 to 1.8 bolívares.

It was a slow, costly, and limited system. Today, all of that could be done from a digital wallet, in seconds, with full traceability.

That comparison clearly shows how transformative tokenization is. This is not just about technology—it is a radical shift in how markets operate and how people access them.

What Makes Tokenization So Powerful?

Fink and Goldstein summarize the benefits into two main pillars:

1. Speed and Efficiency

• Transactions can settle instantly, eliminating counterparty risk.

• Delays and errors caused by paperwork are removed.

• Operations can be executed from anywhere in the world, without unnecessary intermediaries.

2. Access and Democratization

• Traditionally inaccessible assets, such as real estate or infrastructure, can be divided into small, tokenized fractions.

• Anyone with a smartphone can participate, even with small amounts.

• The investment universe expands far beyond listed stocks and bonds.

Venezuela: A Quiet Example of Real Adoption

While many people in the West hold cryptocurrencies without using them, in Venezuela they have become practical tools for everyday life. My friends use them to pay at the supermarket, for rent, or even for a cup of coffee. In a country with hyperinflation, limited access to banking, and a dominant informal economy, blockchain is not a promise—it is a real solution.

This phenomenon is repeated across many countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. According to the article, 75% of crypto asset holders live outside the United States and Europe.

Are We Back in 1996?

The authors compare this moment to the early days of the internet. In 1996, Amazon was just beginning to sell books, and giants like Facebook, Google, or Tesla did not yet exist. Tokenization today is at a similar stage: early, but explosive.

ETFs revolutionized global investing by connecting markets. Now we are seeing Bitcoin ETFs listed on traditional exchanges.

All signs point to a near future where stocks, bonds, real estate, and cryptoassets coexist in a single digital portfolio—accessible from an app, with no entry barriers.

The Role of Governments: Regulate Without Stifling

Innovation should not be stopped, but guided. Fink and Goldstein propose a clear roadmap:

• Update existing regulations instead of creating entirely new frameworks.

• Establish standards for security, identity verification, and investor protection.

• Judge risk by its nature, not its format: a bond is still a bond, even if it lives on a blockchain.

Tokenization does not eliminate the role of regulators, but it does require an agile and proactive legal framework.

Conclusion: The Financial Future Is No Longer Exclusive

The research “How tokenisation could transform finance” shows that this is not a trend, but a profound transformation in access, security, and efficiency across global markets.

While everyone talks about artificial intelligence, millions of people are already using blockchain and tokenization as real tools for financial inclusion.

The next major revolution is not being built in Silicon Valley, but at the edges of the system—in countries with more need than resources, where creativity outpaces infrastructure.

This is not the future. It is the present. And it is already underway.

Source:
“How tokenisation could transform finance”, Larry Fink and Rob Goldstein, The Economist, December 2025.

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