Innovation is continuing at a rapid pace and just as the transition to T+2 settlement revolutionized the plumbing of Wall Street, a new wave is surging, and it's no longer just a buzzword, and that's tokenization.
Well, in 2026 alone we've already seen more than 18 digital bond issuances in public markets across the globe, and major banks and asset managers are tokenizing.
Money market funds will joining me to weigh in is Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize.
Good morning, Carlos.
Thank you so much for joining us.
While the tokenization space has gone from a topic to one of the most talked about areas in financial markets in about 18 months.
But this is a long time coming for many.
So give us the real story of what's actually unfolding right now.
Well this is an industry that people have been talking to and we started the company 8 years ago so the concept of tokenization is not new.
I think what we've seen in the last 18 months uh it's a it's a a consequence of two things one is you know companies like ours maturing and becoming regulated having the necessary licenses to be able to issue securities on chain.
Then you've seen the entrance of the largest asset managers in the world companies like BlackRock, etc. that are entering the space and tokenizing their assets and and expressing very bullish views uh towards the space and more importantly, since the change of administration we've seen uh uh an SEC chair Paul Atkins that is very pro tokenization and that is providing the regulatory clarity that perhaps we haven't had in the past.
I do want to get your take on new rails because skeptics might ask why this tokenization matter at all when our current settlement systems already handle billions of dollars daily.
So walk us through how this new technology actually improves operational efficiency and also reduce risk compared to say the traditional market plumbing out there.
I mean our current settlement systems do manage uh efficiently, not billions of dollars I would say trillions of dollars, right?
So um however the the way they do it is by you know first having a web of intermediaries that create a lot of inefficiencies that you know end up costing money to investors ultimately.
Um, the second thing is the settlement speeds because they're not, you don't have any ability to do quick settlement or instant settlement, uh, creates, you know, it, it locks capital and creates counter counterparty risk, uh, and then, you know, there's kind of like generally a lack of transparency towards who owns what in capital markets that creates inefficiency people like unable to short sell with naked short sell without actually owning the stocks, uh, etc. so I think that this new rails will kind of improving all those different, uh, you know, vectors.
Yeah, and I understand that Securitize has had a lot of recent announcements.
So tell us about your merger and how you are tokenizing your own equity to do this.
Yes, we announced in October last year that we are, uh, you know, merging with, uh, Cantor equity feral sponsors pack, uh, is, uh, Cantor equity partners, uh, to the, the ticker CPT is trading in NASDAQ currently.
We will switch it to SECZ, uh, which is our, uh, our ticker once we, we go public as uh securitized and, and alongside the, the public listing in traditional markets we also going to tokenize our own equity.
Um, using our own, you know, transfer agent and platform to be able to kind of have, uh, you know, uh, equities, native equities that sit some of them sit in traditional rails within DTCC that trade and settle on traditional markets, and then, you know, the tokenized, uh, version of the same.
Equity that sits on blockchain rails and that can do, you know, instant settlement, have more efficient distribution trade 24/7, etc. and I think this is an experiment that is going to showcase to people the advantages of like the new tech and and slowly how you know markets are going to be migrating to this new rails.
Yeah, and speaking of announcements, you also announced a partnership to tokenize the Trump International Hotel and resort in the Maldives.
So tell us about this deal and what does an investor actually own when they buy into this.
This is a very interesting uh project because you know real estate obviously something everybody's been talking for years about how to tokenize real estate but nobody has done it successfully and I think we're we're very privileged to be.
To be able to partner with the Trump Organization and with our Global, which is the developer of the Trump Maldives resort, um, and then, uh, with World Liberty Finance, which is the, the, the company led by Zach Witkoff that is actually kind of, uh, you know, creating a very interesting, you know, new crypto infrastructure, uh, so this is a partnership across four organizations where we actually instead of giving you equity on the on the project we're gonna give you, uh, you know, uh, exposure to to the the loans that are.
Being taken to to develop the property as well as potentially the the IRR when the property is sold.
So so this is uh and and that yields somewhere between 6% uh in in the loan phase to up to 20% IRR once the property is fully developed.
So we think it's going to be a very attractive, you know, trophy asset obviously because it's a Trump branded uh you know looks at the result in the Maldives that we are going to try to make it as integrated as possible with all the DIFI ecosystem.
And finally, Carlos, before I let you go, I do want to ask you about the token.
So BlackRock's token trading 24/7 on Uniswap X and accepted as collateral on major exchanges.
So for the layperson out there who is watching and trying to get a handle on what this means and what this represents, what would you tell them?
I'll tell them that you know a very good example of recently what has happened when when the the the bombing in Iran happened uh on a weekend and and traditional markets are closed, you know, if you need if you have a need to move your treasuries to dollars or your dollars to treasuries uh you know during.
You know, world events that happen outside of market hours precisely what we're doing with Biddle and what we're doing with UniswapX will allow you to do that will allow you to basically, you know, trade Biddle, uh, which is a token treasury fund back into dollars to be able to trade something else with those dollars, etc. uh, 24/7 in a very, very efficient, you know, instant settlement rails with the technology provided by UNISOX and as providing the kind of the regulatory coverage because what you're trading there are securities, so.
OK, Carlos, we will, we will have to leave it there.
So thank you so much for joining us today and thank you so much for all of your insights.
It, it was great.
Thanks for having me.
