Tokenization is increasingly moving beyond the crypto ecosystem and into the core of modern finance. At its simplest, tokenization involves issuing, recording, and transferring financial assets on blockchain-based infrastructure. But according to a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) paper, the technology’s real significance lies elsewhere: it fundamentally separates the creation of financial assets from the infrastructure on which they move.
Traditionally, banks operated as vertically integrated institutions, managing payment rails, issuing money, and providing customer-facing services within a single system. Tokenization breaks this model apart. The IMF frames the emerging ecosystem as three distinct layers: infrastructure, which provides the underlying rails and governance; assets, comprising tokenized forms of money and securities; and services, including wallets, exchanges, and user applications. Each layer can now evolve independently, opening the door to greater competition and innovation.
Trends Across the Three Layers
The IMF identifies important shifts across each layer of this emerging financial stack.
At the infrastructure layer, the industry is moving beyond the traditional debate between public and private blockchains. Instead, regulated institutions are increasingly adopting hybrid governance models. Assets may be issued on public permissionless networks while smart-contract controls, such as participant whitelisting and permissioned access, govern who can transact. At the same time, established financial market infrastructures are building interoperable tokenized settlement networks that combine distributed ledger technology with existing regulatory safeguards.
At the asset layer, tokenization is producing an increasingly diverse range of digital liabilities. Tokenized bank deposits, stablecoins, and tokenized central bank reserves each represent different claims, redemption arrangements, and governance structures. New distribution models are also emerging, with intermediaries issuing tokenized liabilities backed by commercial bank deposits or other reserve assets.
Meanwhile, the services layer is becoming increasingly independent of asset issuance. Wallet providers, exchanges, and other intermediaries now manage customer relationships, identity verification, and transaction monitoring separately from those issuing the underlying assets. This separation fundamentally redistributes operational responsibilities across the financial system.
The Policy Challenge: Making Stablecoins Truly Stable
One of the IMF’s most practical observations is on stablecoins, which the paper analyzes alongside tokenized deposits and tokenized central bank reserves as the three primary forms of on-chain monetary liabilities.
In a tokenized ecosystem, stablecoins are a prominent example of how asset issuance is decoupled from infrastructure: they are typically issued by private entities, accessed via third-party wallets at the services layer, and settled on public permissionless networks.
The paper notes that creating a digital token that stays pegged to a national currency is only part of the challenge. The bigger question is whether users will continue to trust that token during periods of financial stress. Imagine a stablecoin issuer facing a sudden wave of redemption requests. Even if its reserves appear sufficient on paper, users need confidence that they can always redeem their tokens at full value. If that confidence weakens, the stablecoin can quickly come under pressure.
The IMF argues that regulation should therefore focus not only on the assets backing a stablecoin, but also on whether the issuer has sufficient safeguards to absorb losses and continue honouring redemptions during periods of market stress. In other words, stability depends not just on what sits in reserve today, but on whether the system can withstand tomorrow’s shocks.
Rather than prescribing a single regulatory model, the IMF presents this as an open policy question. Some jurisdictions may rely primarily on strong private safeguards, while others may decide that stablecoin issuers should have greater access to public payment infrastructure. The key objective is the same: ensuring that users can trust stablecoins even when markets become volatile.
When Blockchains Become Financial Market Infrastructure
The report also argues that tokenization is changing the role of blockchain networks themselves. As they increasingly perform functions such as clearing, settlement, and record-keeping, they begin to resemble traditional Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) like central securities depositories and payment systems.
This means regulators can no longer view blockchain networks as merely technology platforms. Questions of legal certainty, operational resilience, governance, and accountability become just as important as the underlying technology. Even decentralised systems must provide confidence that transactions are final, ownership is legally recognised, and critical services can continue during periods of disruption.
Building an Interoperable Financial Future
Perhaps the IMF’s most important conclusion is that regulators should avoid trying to identify a single “winning” blockchain or technology. Instead, the public sector should focus on creating common legal standards, interoperable infrastructure, and governance frameworks that allow different tokenized systems to work together safely.
Ultimately, the report suggests that the future of tokenized finance will depend less on technological innovation alone and more on regulatory coordination. If policymakers can create clear and compatible rules, tokenization has the potential to modernise financial markets while preserving the trust and stability on which they depend.