Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization has become one of the most credible bridges from crypto to traditional finance. Once viewed as an experimental niche, it now commands serious institutional interest, with over $32 billion in tokenized assets live on-chain, according to data from rwa.xyz.
At Blockchain Life 2025 in Dubai, a panel titled “Tokenization of Real-World Assets: A New Era of Investing” examined how blockchain is reshaping traditional finance.
The session was moderated by Alevtina Labyuk, Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer at BeInCrypto.
The panel featured Brendan Ma, Head of Investment Strategy at Arbitrum Foundation; Antonio Senatore, CTO at VeChain; Andrei Grachev, Managing Partner at DWF Labs; and Khalifa AlShehhi, Chairman at the Metaverse Committee at the UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism.
Institutions Lead the March Toward Tokenization
At the beginning of the discussion, Brendan Ma, Head of Investment Strategy at the Arbitrum Foundation, framed tokenization as more than a passing trend. He described it as the natural progression of global markets toward open rails. He explained:
“Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen multi-billion dollar companies go public. We’ve seen Wall Street embrace digital assets, cryptocurrency. We’ve seen tokens or tokenization plays by some of the biggest institutions in the world on blockchains that we all know and love. It’s important because the institutional market is extremely significant. And I think we’re still very early.”
Ma referred to Arbitrum’s internal data. The network secures more than $18 billion in value across DeFi, payments, and RWA applications, with around $1 billion already tokenized on-chain. Yet, compared with the $100 trillion global equity market, this remains a fraction of the potential.
He added:
“And I think we’re moving towards a phase where almost every single asset that can be more composable, that can unlock liquidity, that can be accessible across different markets, will go on this march towards tokenization. It’s a phenomenally significant opportunity, and it’s something that basically every institution in the world is trying to grasp with both hands.”
Ma used Robinhood’s expansion in the EU as an example of early milestones. Through Arbitrum, Robinhood customers can now trade roughly 644 tokenized equities directly inside their existing app.
More than 10,000 transactions have been processed, with cumulative gas costs of only $130. Ma continued:
“When we think about the opportunity when it comes to tokenizing assets, it’s about increasing inclusion, increasing accessibility, increasing the types of use cases that are seamless. Customers don’t have to understand the technical complexity. They can simply trade and use technology that works.”
When Liquidity Becomes the Story
From there, the conversation turned to how tokenization is shifting into a corporate strategy. Andrei Grachev of DWF Labs approached it from the investor’s angle.
He explained that two forces are shaping the market’s momentum. The first is the rise of tokenized stocks, which create arbitrage opportunities for traders and increase overall market activity.
Meanwhile, the second is the emergence of crypto-native yields. Grachev pointed out that several banks, including Société Générale, are now tokenizing fixed-income products and running looping strategies on-chain. He argued:
“This is the distribution that never happened before. With a tokenized nature of reward assets, these products are going to be available for 24/7 trading and settlement. From my point of view, in the near future, these two markets should merge and unlock 24/7 weekend settlement and looping strategies and DeFi transparency for trade-free assets.”
However, Grachev cautioned that yield and liquidity only matter if holders can exit. According to him, without reliable secondary markets or enforceable redemption, tokenized assets drift toward speculation rather than finance.
Grachev stressed:
“If we don’t have trust to the tokenization framework, this market will be developed very, very slowly because people will be afraid to give this money, people will be afraid to lend this money or buy this assets. And this framework is very, very important part.”
Regulation as a Runway for Tokenized Assets
Representing the government’s view, Mr. Khalifa AlShehhi, Chairman at the Metaverse Committee at the UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism, spoke about policy as an enabler rather than a constraint.
“We consider the regulation actually is a runway, which means we need to make sure we path the way for the technology to be accepted. Because, as we are all aware, that development is much faster than the regulation maturity or the regulation development.”
— Khalifa AlShehhi
He illustrated this approach through Dubai’s real-estate tokenization sandbox, developed jointly with the Central Bank. In one trial, an entire property that would normally take months to sell was fully subscribed within minutes. The queue numbers reached 20,000–30,000 participants, with a minimum entry of AED 2,000 per investor.
Phase 1 restricted sales to UAE residents, while Phase 2 will expand access to global investors. A third phase will even allow tokenization from architectural plans. To reduce risk, ticket sizes remain small.
Ownership is tracked through a dual-token model, where one token represents user rights and another, held by the government, secures custody on official ledgers.
Building the Infrastructure of Trust
The session also touched on the technical side. Antonio Senatore, CTO at VeChain, explained that the sector’s durability depends on infrastructure that users can trust and easily interact with.
He described blockchain as a “truth machine,” a system built on verifiable records that preserve the provenance of assets.
“That’s why real-world assets are pushing now, because you can tokenize US dollars or anything else on-chain quickly,” Senatore said.
For him, real-world tokenization succeeds only when the four pillars advance in sync. These pillars are regulation, custody, verification, and standards.
Senatore also highlighted that usability is now as important as security. The most effective systems, he said, make blockchain operations invisible to users while maintaining every transaction’s verifiability. This balance of simplicity and integrity will determine whether tokenized assets transition from pilot projects to mass adoption.
For instance, he cited VeChain’s work in tokenizing sustainability data, where measurable, real-world outcomes, such as carbon reductions, become auditable digital assets. It illustrates how transparent infrastructure and intuitive design can coexist, turning complex systems into accessible tools for both institutions and individuals.
Three Words for the Future of RWAs
As the session drew to a close, moderator Alevtina Labyuk invited the panelists to sum up the future of real-world assets in just three words.
Brendan Ma didn’t hesitate. He chose access, collaboration, and everywhere. His answer reflected a vision of RWA adoption that reaches beyond institutions and borders. Khalifa AlShehhi followed with trust, access, and integration, showing that regulation and inclusion must advance together.
Meanwhile, Andrei Grachev kept his answer brief but bold. “Everything, liquid, tokenized,” he said. For him, the line between traditional and digital assets will soon disappear.
Finally, Antonio Senatore of VeChain took a more forward-looking turn, focusing on alternatives, users, and AI, hinting at a future where tokenized value and intelligent systems converge.
The post Tokenizing the World: Arbitrum, VeChain, DWF Labs & UAE Officials Speak at Blockchain Life Dubai 2025 appeared first on BeInCrypto.