Katana CEO Says Tokenized Asset Usage Could Be Near 20%, Metrics Understate Market

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Usage of tokenized real-world assets may be closer to 20%, far above some widely cited industry estimates, according to an analysis.

Matthew Fisher, chief executive officer of Katana, told CoinDesk on Aug. 29 that reported utilization rates for tokenized assets this year have ranged from less than 1% to 7%, 11.7% and 20%. The wide gap reflects the fact that each dataset measures the market using different standards.

One reason current utilization appears low is that the data includes assets such as private credit, which were not actively traded in the first place, Fisher said. He also said some tokenized assets are being used as collateral at exchanges or financial institutions without being deposited into smart contracts, leaving them largely absent from conventional decentralized finance, or DeFi, statistics.

BlackRock's tokenized fund BUIDL is being used as derivatives margin, while Franklin Templeton's BENJI and tokenized stocks are also being used as trading collateral. Factoring in those use cases, utilization for tokenized assets created for actual use could be close to 20%, Fisher said.

Still, Fisher said broader adoption of tokenized assets will require faster settlement and redemption. What matters is not how many assets have been tokenized, but how much they are actually being used and how quickly investors can retrieve their funds, he added.