By Morgan Stanley expects the market for tokenized real-world assets to reach between $3 trillion and $10 trillion by 2030, highlighting the growing role of blockchain infrastructure in traditional financial markets. Amy Oldenburg, the bank’s head of digital asset strategy, outlined the projection in an interview published on October 12, 2026, describing strong institutional interest in tokenized securities and financial products. The estimate is substantially higher than Morgan Stanley’s previously published base-case forecast of $2.3 trillion by 2030, released earlier this month.
The bank estimates that approximately $40 billion of real-world assets are currently tokenized, including securities, investment funds and other financial instruments. Reaching $3 trillion would require the market to expand roughly 75-fold from that level, while the $10 trillion upper estimate implies approximately 250-fold growth. The projections illustrate the scale of institutional expectations, although they remain forecasts rather than committed investment or issuance targets.
Institutional Demand Shifts Toward Tokenized Securities
Tokenization allows conventional financial assets to be represented digitally on blockchain networks, potentially improving transferability, settlement efficiency and collateral management. Morgan Stanley identifies government securities, money market funds and other liquid financial instruments as the most promising near-term applications. In an October 1 research discussion, the bank argued that tokenization could reduce the amount of collateral institutions must hold in separate accounts to accommodate settlement delays. Digital representations of securities and cash could enable collateral to move between financial institutions more efficiently, supporting markets operating beyond conventional trading hours. Tokenized money market funds could also allow investors to earn returns over shorter holding periods rather than relying exclusively on traditional daily processing cycles. Morgan Stanley expects these collateral and treasury-management applications to account for most of its $2.3 trillion base-case market.
The bank also sees opportunities to expand international access to U.S. securities by reducing operational barriers associated with cross-border investment. However, broader adoption depends on regulatory treatment, legal ownership structures, custody arrangements and interoperability between financial networks. Tokenized securities remain subject to existing financial regulations, and blockchain settlement does not eliminate counterparty or liquidity risks.
Morgan Stanley Targets Tokenized Equity Trading in 2027
Morgan Stanley is developing infrastructure to support tokenized equities through its alternative trading system. Oldenburg said the bank now expects to introduce that capability in the first quarter of 2027, moving beyond its previous target of the second half of 2026. The revised schedule reflects the complexity of integrating blockchain-based securities with established trading and regulatory infrastructure. Morgan Stanley intends to support transactions involving tokenized equities rather than simply offering cryptocurrency price exposure. The initiative comes as major financial institutions pursue similar projects.
Nasdaq is developing tokenized collateral infrastructure, while Securitize has introduced share-backed U.S. equities on Solana. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation is also advancing infrastructure for tokenized representations of securities held within traditional custody systems. These developments could help address a central obstacle facing tokenized markets: the limited availability of regulated products with sufficient institutional liquidity. Nevertheless, the difference between Morgan Stanley’s $2.3 trillion base case and Oldenburg’s $10 trillion upper estimate remains significant. The larger figure should be understood as an ambitious adoption scenario rather than the bank’s sole or central forecast. Market measurements also vary depending on whether stablecoins, tokenized deposits and other digital representations are included. For investors, the industry’s expansion may create opportunities across custody, settlement, trading and asset management. Morgan Stanley’s outlook suggests tokenization could become a major component of financial-market infrastructure by 2030, but achieving the upper forecast would require adoption far beyond today’s market.