Tokenisation is rapidly shifting from theory to practice across the financial services industry, with custodians leading the charge in offering digital assets. New findings from the 2025 Broadridge Tokenization Survey reveal that nearly two-thirds (63%) of custodians are already offering tokenised assets, with an additional 30% planning to do so within the next two years.
The report, based on a survey of 300 financial institutions across North America and Europe, underscores how tokenisation is poised to reshape capital markets by enhancing efficiency and democratising access for investors. While custodians have set the pace, wealth managers, by contrast, have been slower to adapt.
Custodians set the pace, wealth managers Lag
The data shows a distinct divergence in the rate of tokenisation adoption across different segments of the financial ecosystem. Custodians are highly motivated, with 91% citing improvements in efficiency, security, and innovation by offering tokenised assets.
Asset managers are accelerating their rate of adoption: while only 15% currently offer tokenised products, 41% plan to launch them soon. For asset managers, tokenisation provides a foundation for staying relevant with a client base increasingly interested in digital assets.
Wealth managers have taken a more cautious approach, with only 10% currently offering tokenised assets and 33% planning to adopt them in the next two years. The primary drivers for this cautious stance are operational complexity and the potential for disintermediation from direct-to-investor models. However, the report notes that recent activity among several firms related to tokenised equities suggests perceptions in the wealth management sector may be changing.
Germán Soto Sanchez, chief product and strategy officer at Broadridge, said that institutions that commit to trusted client experiences, strong governance, and scalable infrastructure for tokenisation can lead a transformation that will redefine global markets for the next generation of investors.
Regulatory uncertainty remains the biggest barrier
Despite the clear benefits—including improved transparency and data tracking, greater liquidity and accessibility, and lower costs—the majority (73%) of institutions surveyed cited regulatory uncertainty as the biggest challenge for tokenisation adoption. Concerns over security, infrastructure gaps, and a lack of common standards also influence adoption plans.
The findings highlight a widening gap between early adopters and non-adopters: those leading the charge report an average of four to five tangible benefits from tokenisation, while those waiting report fewer than three perceived positives. This underscores the measurable benefits already accruing to early movers.
Broadridge, the report’s publisher, is emerging as an early leader in supporting this shift, with its Distributed Ledger Repo (DLR) solution reporting daily processed trade volumes averaging $339billion in September. The DLR is noted as the largest institutional platform for the settlement of tokenised real assets.
Scaling tokenisation will require common standards, regulatory clarity, and robust technology partners, but also a crucial cultural change as institutions shift tokenisation from a side project to a core strategy. The report concludes that the difference between a successful pilot and scaled adoption lies in the ability to deliver tokenised products reliably and at volume across all asset classes.
