Wall Street Expands Tokenization Efforts with Focus Beyond Equities

"One of the things that we are planning for the second half of 2026 is turning on our trajectory… to support tokenized equities later this year," Amy Oldenburg, the bank's head of digital asset strategy, said during a panel at the Digital Assets Summit in New York on 24 Mar. 

Oldenburg pushed back on the idea that banks are only now entering the space, saying the shift toward tokenization is part of a longer-running effort to modernize financial infrastructure. "TradFi is getting FOMO and is now getting involved... it really isn't accurate," she said. 

Tokenization stack 

But even as banks move toward tokenizing public equities, executives suggested the biggest gains may lie in parts of the financial system that remain operationally inefficient. Speaking at the event, BNY Mellon CEO Robin Vince pointed to less standardized markets as the next immediate opportunity. 

"Loans are clunky, real estate’s clunky, physical commodities are clunky," Vince said, arguing that these asset classes may benefit more from blockchain-based infrastructure than already efficient public equity markets.  

Recent initiatives from both firms demonstrate how traditional finance is building out different layers of the digital asset stack. 

Morgan Stanley applied in February for a trust bank charter that would allow it to custody and trade digital assets, while also developing a tokenized asset wallet. 

BNY Mellon, meanwhile, has focused on the underlying infrastructure, working on tokenized money market funds, acting as custodian for crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and launching services tied to stablecoin reserves and tokenized Treasury funds. 

Adoption bridge 

Executives also emphasized that scaling tokenization will depend less on deploying new products and more on coordinating changes across the existing financial system. 

Oldenburg said efforts to modernize infrastructure cannot happen in isolation, pointing to the complexity of the underlying system. "We can’t just modernize on our own," she said, describing financial markets as "an incredibly complex, integrated global network" of institutions and clients that must move together. 

BNY's Vince believes that coordination challenges are a key reason large institutions will play a central role in adoption. 

"A technology that's in search of adopters can sometimes struggle," Vince said, adding that established firms can act as "an adoption vehicle" by bringing existing clients into new infrastructure. "We can actually encourage our customers to make the [digital assets] leap." 

Vince also cautioned that the tokenization shift will unfold over the coming years. "This will be a 5, 10, 15-year journey," he said.