Standard Chartered Projects $30 Trillion Tokenized Market by 2034

Standard Chartered has published one of the most ambitious forecasts for tokenized assets to date: the bank projects the global tokenized real-world asset market will reach $30 trillion by 2034. That represents a nearly 1,000x increase from today's $34.5 billion market — and a powerful signal that mainstream finance believes tokenization is not just real, but transformational.

The projection, detailed in the bank's latest digital assets research report, estimates that tokenization will eventually touch almost every asset class: real estate, fixed income, commodities, private equity, and intellectual property. The report identifies three phases of adoption that will drive growth over the next decade.

Phase 1: The Infrastructure Build (2024-2026)

We are living through Phase 1 today. Tokenized Treasuries, money market funds, and private credit have established the proof of concept. Regulatory frameworks (MiCA, GENIUS Act) are providing the legal foundation. Major custodians like BNY Mellon and State Street are building tokenization rails. The market has grown from $2B to $34.5B — impressive, but still negligible relative to global capital markets.

Standard Chartered estimates that by late 2026, the market will reach $100B as more institutional balance sheets are deployed into tokenized products and as new asset classes — particularly real estate and commodities — begin to tokenize at scale.

Phase 2: The Tipping Point (2027-2030)

The report identifies 2027-2028 as the inflection point. Key catalysts include:

• CBDC integration: As major economies launch retail CBDCs (Digital Euro, Digital Rupee), the settlement infrastructure for tokenized assets becomes frictionless. Tokenized bonds settle in central bank money, eliminating credit risk.
• Pension fund allocation: With clear legal frameworks, pension funds and insurers begin allocating 1-3% of AUM to tokenized assets. Global pension AUM stands at ~$56T — even a 2% allocation means $1.1T in inflows.
• Real estate tokenization at scale: Commercial real estate — a $4T annual transaction market — begins migrating to on-chain settlement. Saudi Arabia's droppRWA initiative is a bellwether, but Standard Chartered expects Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UAE to follow.

The bank projects the market will reach $2-3T by 2030, driven primarily by fixed income and real estate tokenization.

Phase 3: The Mainstream Era (2031-2034)

This is where the $30T projection takes shape. By the early 2030s, Standard Chartered envisions a world where tokenization is the default issuance mechanism for most capital market instruments:

• Equities: Stock exchanges globally begin offering tokenized settlement layers, reducing costs by 40-60%.
• Private markets: Private equity, venture capital, and credit funds are natively tokenized, enabling secondary trading and fractional ownership at scale.
• Commodities: Gold, oil, and agricultural commodities trade predominantly on-chain, with physical delivery guaranteed by tokenized warehouse receipts.
• Intellectual property: Royalty streams, patents, and music rights are tokenized and traded on liquid secondary markets.

Caveats and Risks

The $30T projection is not a foregone conclusion. Standard Chartered identifies several risks that could slow adoption: regulatory fragmentation (if major jurisdictions diverge on tokenized asset treatment), infrastructure bottlenecks (if settlement systems don't scale), and macroeconomic shocks that divert institutional attention away from digital asset innovation.

But the direction of travel is clear. When a global bank like Standard Chartered publishes a $30T forecast, it signals that tokenization has moved from "niche crypto experiment" to "mainstream financial infrastructure" in the eyes of institutional capital.