Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig said U.S. financial markets need to prepare for "mass tokenization" and 24/7 on-chain finance, while macro investor Raoul Pal noted the transformation could eventually extend far beyond stocks, bonds and real-world assets.
Speaking at the U.S. Treasury Market Conference on Tuesday, Selig said blockchain technology could enable near-instant settlement and real-time movement of collateral across clearinghouses, intermediaries and investors.
On Sept. 22, Pal took that argument several steps further, predicting that identity, contracts, attention, data, energy and computing power could eventually become tokenized assets traded by humans and AI agents.
Why CFTC Prepares for Mass Tokenization
Selig said regulators cannot simply modernize existing markets but need to prepare for a financial system increasingly built around blockchain, AI and continuous trading.
"This means readying our markets for mass tokenization," Selig said.
- RWA tokenization is one of the most important developments, he argued, pointing out high-quality tokenized collateral that could improve liquidity and market resilience.
- Blockchain-based assets could allow collateral to move in real time and transactions to settle almost instantly.
- Stablecoins are expected to form another part of that infrastructure. Selig said the CFTC has already expanded eligible tokenized collateral to include certain payment stablecoins.
Crypto and precious metals may be better suited to continuous trading than agriculture, energy and some financial products, Selig highlighted.
Raoul Pal: Tokenization Is Bigger Than Wall Street
Pal said the financial industry’s current focus on tokenized securities represents only the first stage of a much larger transition.
"Everything will be a token," Pal said, revisiting a thesis he first developed in 2014 when he described blockchain as a potential global ownership ledger.
Pal pointed to roughly $300 billion in stablecoins and about $14.8 billion in tokenized U.S. Treasury funds as evidence that TradFi is beginning to move on chain.
Pal defined a token more broadly as information that a machine can "read, verify, price and trade" without requiring human intervention.
Tokenization could ultimately extend from dollars and securities to digital identity, insurance policies, reservations, warranties, property rights and other contracts.
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