From J.P. Morgan to Fidelity: Why Institutions Are Betting on Tokenised Assets Now

Why Blockchain Infrastructure Built for Real-World Use, Including XDC Network, Is Now Leading the Tokenisation Race

Article By: Ziv Keinan, Head of Markets and Partnerships, XDC Network

A year ago, tokenising real-world assets was a strategic consideration for most financial institutions. Today it is a strategic priority. Major financial institutions like J.P. Morgan has launched a money market fund on blockchain. Fidelity is exploring tokenised fund issuance. BNY Mellon, Citi, NatWest and Lloyds are all actively developing. The gap between institutions that are moving and those still watching is widening fast. At XDC Network, we have spent years working with exchanges, asset managers, banks, and technology firms on real-world asset tokenisation, and what we are seeing today feels genuinely different from anything we came across in 2018 or even 2022. The experimentation phase is largely over. The adoption phase has begun.

The regulatory log-jam is clearing

For a long time, the biggest obstacle to institutional participation was not technology. The technology worked. The obstacle was regulatory uncertainty. In the UK and across major financial centres, institutions were building capability quietly but holding back commitment until the regulatory direction became clearer. That clarity is beginning to arrive. Across major financial centres, regulators are moving from cautious observation to active framework building. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been progressively developing its digital assets regime and UK institutions including NatWest and Lloyds are already building. 

Parallely, the US is moving in the same direction too. The current administration has signalled that digital asset infrastructure is strategically important and that institutions, not speculative retail platforms, should lead. The US has initiated a  ban on the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), backing a private sector led model for digital finance. That sends a clear message globally.

For institutions on both sides of the Atlantic that were waiting for a clearer signal before committing, that signal has now broadly arrived.

The plumbing that makes it all work

Settling a cross-border transaction today can take 4-5 days traditionally and involve multiple intermediaries. A blockchain-based system can settle the same transaction in seconds with full auditability and far fewer moving parts. The Bank of England and the FCA have both acknowledged this problem. Their joint work on the Digital Securities Sandbox is directly aimed at testing whether blockchain infrastructure can modernise how securities are issued and settled in the UK. For that to work at scale, you need a settlement currency on the same infrastructure. That is where stablecoins come in, not as speculative instruments, but as functional financial plumbing. 

Large multinationals are already moving value between subsidiaries across borders using them, simply because it is faster and cheaper than going through traditional banking. Once investors are holding stablecoins on-chain, the natural next question is where the yield is, which means more financial instruments will find their way onto blockchain networks to meet that appetite. 

Where this is heading

By the end of 2026, I expect a wider range of financial products on blockchain networks, with traditional exchanges including Nasdaq, the NYSE and the London Stock Exchange making explicit moves into blockchain-based issuance. Beyond that, the next wave of demand may come from an unexpected place. As AI agents become more embedded in business operations, they will need a way to transact autonomously. They cannot open a bank account but they can hold a digital wallet and settle in stablecoins. That quiet shift could drive blockchain payment infrastructure further and faster than most people currently expect. 

The shift happening in financial markets right now is not unlike what happened with mobile payments. A decade ago banks debated whether customers would ever trust paying with their phones. Today contactless payment is the default and cash is the exception. The institutions that moved early built the infrastructure, captured the customers and set the standards. Tokenisation is at the same inflection point. The infrastructure is being built, the regulatory frameworks are falling into place and the largest institutions in the world are committing capital. The window to move early is open but it will not stay that way. The marathon has started. The question is no longer whether to run. The question is whether you can afford to fall behind.