Why Tokenisation is the Foundation of 2025's Business Evolution
2025 is the year of tokenisation. If you're still viewing tokenisation as just "digital assets on a blockchain," it’s time to rethink. Tokenisation isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a transformational framework that redefines how value, assets, and transactions are structured in the digital economy. Here's why and how your Web2 business should get ahead of this shift.
💡 What is Tokenisation?
According to the BIS, tokenisation is the process of creating digital representations of assets on programmable platforms. The key? Programmability. It’s not just about digitising; it’s about automating, integrating, and expanding possibilities in ways traditional digital systems can't achieve. Check out their latest report here.
Two critical pillars of tokenisation:
1️⃣ Multi-asset Integration: Bringing traditionally separate asset classes—stocks, bonds, real estate, supply chain invoices—onto unified platforms.
2️⃣ Interoperability: Ensuring these platforms and assets talk to each other, breaking down silos and enabling global-scale efficiency.
💼 Opportunities for Web2 Businesses
For Web2 companies, this isn’t just a Web3 problem. It’s a business model evolution:
1️⃣ Leverage this: Collapse Value Chains
Tokenisation enables businesses to redefine entire industries. By integrating multi-asset and multi-party processes, you can combine pre-trade, trade, and post-trade functions into one seamless flow.
Example: Real estate firms can tokenise property deeds, automating sale and compliance processes across borders. Supply chains can merge procurement, payments, and logistics into a single transaction.
2️⃣ Build this: Automate and Disintermediate
Traditional intermediaries in industries like insurance and banking must pivot or face disruption. Tokenisation is about streamlining settlement, automating compliance, and offering transparency that eliminates the need for middlemen.
Example: Insurance companies could build programmable policies with automated claims settlements—no more delays or disputes.
3️⃣ Implement this: Programmable Loyalty and Rewards
Programmable money isn’t just for DeFi. It’s a game-changer for customer engagement. Businesses can create customised, conditional financial products that respond to user actions in real time.
Example: Tokenised loyalty programs reward customers not just for spending but for actions aligned with brand values, like sustainable choices or social engagement.
4️⃣ Start focusing on this: User-Centric Systems
Tokenised systems thrive when they’re built around users—integrating their assets, actions, and preferences seamlessly. Success will depend on how effectively tokenised platforms cater to diverse use cases across industries.
If anything, we saw that users do not care about the underlying technology, they care about their experience while using it. Whilst taking your company on a web3 transformation, build for the common denominator mass market, who are not tech savvy.
🏦 The Bigger Picture: Tokenisation and Central Banks
Even central banks are being forced to rethink their roles. With programmable money and tokenised assets, central banks may soon play a drastically different role in how economies function. This shift has implications for settlement, monetary policy, and financial stability that ripple into private business ecosystems.
I’m not sure I want to live with paying for coffee with my Hilton points and taking the taxi with my SQ miles, but maybe that is a future we’re looking at in the world of tokenisation and interoperability.
🚀 The Call to Action
Web2 businesses can’t afford to wait on the sidelines. The tokenisation wave will create winners and losers:
✅ Winners: Companies that leverage programmability, redefine value chains, and embrace disintermediation.
❌ Losers: Businesses that stick to traditional models and miss this once-in-a-generation opportunity to innovate.
Let’s build the future together. How are you preparing for tokenisation? Drop your thoughts below or reach out—I’d love to hear your vision.