Digital Assets Could Grow Like ETFs Did: From Zero to Trillions

A financial expert believes that turning real-world assets into digital tokens could become as big as the ETF market, which is now worth $20 trillion.

John Hoffman, who just joined the company Ondo Finance, says we're seeing the early days of something huge. He compares today's tokenization (turning physical assets like stocks or bonds into digital versions on blockchain) to when ETFs (exchange-traded funds - bundles of stocks you can buy like a single share) first started.

What's happening now: • The tokenized asset market has grown to $33 billion in just one year • Major banks and investment firms are experimenting with digital versions of bonds and stocks • Experts predict this market could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030

The most interesting part? Hoffman believes artificial intelligence (AI) will need these digital assets to work properly. He envisions a future where AI programs can automatically buy, sell, and manage investments using blockchain technology (a secure digital ledger that records transactions).

Why this matters: Just like ETFs made investing easier and cheaper for regular people, tokenization could make buying and selling all kinds of assets faster and more efficient. Instead of waiting days for trades to settle, everything could happen instantly on blockchain networks.

This technology is still very new, but if it follows the same path as ETFs, we could see explosive growth in the coming years.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/06/13/tokenization-mirrors-the-usd20-trillion-etf-boom-as-blockchain-and-ai-converge-ondo-exec-says