From Cointelegraph · By Nate Kostar
Tokenized assets are opening new trading opportunities across financial markets, but the growing supply of real-world assets (RWAs) being brought onchain has yet to be matched by investor demand, according to Alex Taaffe, chief revenue officer at crypto trading firm GSR.
Speaking during on a panel on liquidity and market fragmentation at CONNECT by Cointelegraph: Singapore Edition on Oct. 9, Taaffe said liquidity is improving in trading for pre-IPO stocks, commodities and global equities that investors previously had limited access to. However, he said demand for fully tokenized RWAs has not kept pace with the growing number of assets being issued.
Panelists (l-r): Rayco Tarrida Ortega, Min Teo, Shiliang Tang, Lingling Jiang, Alex Taaffe. Source: Cointelegraph
Cointelegraph brought together Web3 founders, investors and industry executives for four panel discussions covering tokenization, stablecoin payments, onchain trading infrastructure and venture capital exits, alongside a startup pitch competition.
“Specifically on RWAs, and fully tokenized assets, there’s a supply and demand inbalance. There’s a ton of supply. Every asset manager issuer wants to do capital formation onchain,” Taaffe said.
He said that the growing number of asset issuers and blockchains has further fragmented liquidity across tokenized markets.
Related: Securitize stock jumps over 10% after launching tokenized US equities on Solana. Source: RWA.xyz
Lingling Jiang, partner at DWF Labs, agreed that fragmentation remains a challenge, particularly when different issuers tokenize the same underlying asset but create separate liquidity pools.
However, Jiang said cryptocurrency liquidity has improved significantly in recent years, even as the industry has more work to do.
Related: Securitize stock jumps over 10% after launching tokenized US equities on Solana
Stablecoin adoption hinges on everyday payments
During the “Stablecoins at the Point of Sale: Cards, Wallets and the Race for Everyday Spend” panel, Mike Silagadze, founder and CEO of ether.fi, said while stablecoins have made it easier to move money across borders, wider adoption depends on whether consumers can use them for everyday expenses.
Silagadze pointed to Singapore, where consumers may hold USDC but still need local currency to pay bills, highlighting the gap between blockchain payment infrastructure and everyday financial services.
Yvonne Chia, head of communications at USDD, said that if the stablecoin issuer coinsiders the user’s point of view, “the most important thing for you is the user experience.”
“That’s the kind of direction that we want to move in, to make it as easy as possible for the user to have stablecoins, use stablecoins, to the point where it doesn’t cross their mind that they are using a stablecoin. It’s just a regular part of their lives,” Chia said.