BlackRock recognized Ethereum‘s dominance in tokenization on Wednesday, by dedicating part of it Thematic outlook for 2026 to the network’s potential hold on Wall Street.
While we wondered whether Ethereum could become the “turnpike” to blockchain-based markets, the report stated that Ethereum “could be poised to benefit” from a shift that is driving moves between existing financial institutions, from DTCC to the New York Stock Exchange.
According to the report, Ethereum currently supports 65% of tokenized assets. Meanwhile, stablecoin adoption is outpacing cryptocurrency trading volumes, suggesting that “tokenized assets may have a use case beyond purely speculative trading.”
According to Jay Jacobs, US Head of Equity ETFs at BlackRock, the second-largest digital asset by market cap has the potential to increase value as a growing number of companies tap Ethereum to create digital representations of real-world assets. He wrote the report.
“If we see more tokenized assets using the Ethereum blockchain, you would ultimately see it being a beneficiary of additional trading activity. [and the] issuance of things like stablecoins or real assets,” Jacobs said Declutter.
“If you’re an investor looking to capitalize on the growing adoption of blockchain technology, tokenization is one of the best and probably fastest-growing use cases today, and Ethereum is benefiting from that trend,” he added.
Although a pie chart in the report points to 10 networks that can support tokenized assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum are the only ones mentioned elsewhere, suggesting the world’s largest asset manager has strong views on it.
The report also did not include assets tokenized on Canton Network. The permissioned blockchain, that was recently tapped by DTCC for its tokenization pilot, is currently being used as a record-keeping layer for $362 billion in real-world assets, according to RWA.xyz. Ethereum, meanwhile, supports $13.2 billion in real assets that can be managed in a wallet.
When it comes to BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, the $1.6 billion product consists primarily of Ethereum ($499 million) and Binance’s BNB chain ($503 million).
Broadly speaking, Jacobs said there is a lot of interest in what BlackRock calls “the convergence,” with traditional markets becoming increasingly connected to crypto. As an example, he cited exchange-traded funds for digital assets.
BlackRock is behind the largest ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum, which it claims have $70.6 billion and $10.7 billion in assets under management, respectively. MintGlass. The company has endured while competitors have created products for other digital assets, such as XRP And Solana.
“You have traditional securities and assets that want to be tokenized, and frankly, you have [digital] assets that […] are finding their way into more traditional financial systems,” he said. “We believe in that convergence that seems to be accelerating.”
Still, Jacobs says there are still plenty of pieces to fall into place, whether they are regulatory or corporate-level policies. Last year, the SEC established a task force to develop a “comprehensive and clear” regulatory framework for digital assets, but the expected passage of one market structure law could also determine the way the regulator treats tokenized assets.
Furthermore, if companies want to take advantage of capabilities like 24-hour trading or instant settlement via tokenization — qualities that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink first highlighted in 2022 — Jacobs said a supportive market needs to be developed around the technology for a variety of assets.
“It’s early,” he said. “There is currently a lot of interest from financial companies to support this convergence, but not all innovation happens in a straight line – and ultimately you need to see the benefits of tokenization become a reality for the investors and the trading community.”