Securitize has partnered with the Wormhole Foundation to enable cross-chain interoperability of all tokenized assets on its platform, according to a September 20 announcement.
This partnership will make Wormhole the official blockchain interoperability provider for Securitize’s current and future tokenized assets, marking a significant milestone in the tokenization and cross-chain interoperability of digital assets.
Securitize can thus connect its tokens to 32 blockchains available on Wormhole’s infrastructure, thus strengthening its cross-chain functionalities. The company is the provider of tokenization infrastructure for institutions such as BlackRock and Hamilton Lane.
This collaboration aims to facilitate institutional adoption and bridge the gap between traditional and decentralized financial systems by enabling asset issuers using Securitize’s tokenization platform to seamlessly transfer tokens across various blockchain ecosystems.
This is expected to improve the liquidity and accessibility of tokenized assets, providing investors with greater flexibility in managing their digital assets across multiple blockchains.
Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, emphasized that tokenized versions of real-world assets (RWAs) must thrive on public, permissionless blockchains to fully realize the potential of blockchain technology.
Securitize plans to integrate its custom smart contracts with Wormhole’s secure, open-source interoperability platform, creating tailored solutions that meet the needs of specific asset managers and are compliant with regulations. Platform users can expect increased trust, flexibility, and legitimacy in cross-chain activities, leveraging Securitize’s compliance expertise.
Robinson Burkey, co-founder and COO of the Wormhole Foundation, said the integration with a cross-chain messaging protocol paves the way for institutional adoption of tokenized assets. He called it a “significant moment” to bridge traditional finance and DeFi.
A problem to solve
The tokenized US Treasury bond market is commonly used to gauge the health of the RWA tokenization industry. According to data from RWA.xyz, the market size is currently over $2.2 billion.
BlackRock’s tokenized fund, BUIDL, represents a significant portion of the market capitalization with approximately $522 million in assets under management (AUM). All of BUIDL’s shares are deployed on the Ethereum blockchain.
Additionally, funds such as TBILL, OUSG, and USDY are also deployed on Ethereum, representing a total of $1.6 billion in tokenized US Treasuries on the network.
Stellar holds the second largest market share due to hosting the second largest tokenized fund by market share, Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX, while Solana comes in third with $69.2 million in tokenized assets.