BTC Markets eyes RWA trading license amid global tokenization wave

The roughly $26 billion in tokenized assets onchain today “is really just the proof of concept,” said BTC Markets CEO Lucas Dobbins.

Australian crypto exchange BTC Markets has notified the country’s securities regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, of its intention to apply for a markets license to offer regulated tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).

“Our plan is to obtain licensing infrastructure that enables particular types of tokenized assets to be offered and available to the public,” said BTC Markets CEO Lucas Dobbins on Monday.

The vision is a world where tokenized equities, bonds, and real-world assets will trade alongside cryptocurrencies, markets will operate continuously, and settlement will be instant, he added.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Dobbins said “the roughly $26 billion in tokenized assets on-chain today is really just the proof of concept.”

Even conservative forecasts suggest tokenized markets could reach around $2 trillion by 2030, while others, such as the Boston Consulting Group, have estimated the opportunity as high as $16 trillion, he added. 

BTC Markets is aiming to join the likes of Kraken and Robinhood, which began offering tokenized RWAs in 2025. 

American crypto exchange Kraken began offering tokenized stocks in June 2025 via a new platform called xStocks. 

On March 5, the platform launched xChange, an onchain trading engine designed to facilitate trading of tokenized stocks across the Ethereum and Solana networks.

Robinhood also announced a tokenized stock trading platform for European markets in 2025. 

Related: Crypto exchanges gain as tokenized commodity market climbs to $7.7B

In January, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange, said it was developing a platform to support trading of tokenized securities, including stocks and ETFs. 

Nasdaq has also proposed integrating tokenized versions of stocks and ETPs into its existing trading infrastructure. 

Meanwhile, Coinbase announced in December that it plans to launch Coinbase Tokenize, an institutional platform designed to support the issuance and management of tokenized RWAs.

In Australia, research from the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre suggests tokenized markets could generate around $24 billion AUD ($16.8 billion) a year in economic gains, roughly 1% of GDP, Dobbins continued. 

“On the current trajectory, we may only capture around $1 billion of that by 2030, which highlights the opportunity. Unlocking it will require licensed market infrastructure that allows tokenized assets to trade within a trusted regulatory framework,” he added.

Dobbins said that Australia also has “many of the structural drivers needed for adoption, including strong regulation, deep capital markets, and one of the largest pension systems in the world.”

“The first use cases will likely appear in areas such as private markets, infrastructure investments, and fund distribution, where tokenization can improve efficiency and access,” he said.

RWA.xyz reports that the current onchain total value of tokenized RWAs is $26.5 billion, with Ethereum commanding the largest share of the tokenized RWA market at 57.4%, not including layer-2 and EVM platforms.

Magazine: Bitcoin to outperform gold soon, FBI busts $46M crypto heist: Hodler’s Digest

Source: CoinTelegraph