Centralization and the dark side of asset tokens – MEXC Exec

Tracy Jin, chief operating officer of the MEXC crypto exchange, warned that imposing a large amount of concentrated risks to real-world assets (RWAS) can lead to censorship, liquidity issues, legal uncertainty, cybersecurity issues, and confiscation through state or third-party intermediaries.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, executives said that as long as token assets remain within the scope of state regulators and centralized intermediaries, “tokenization will be just a new version of the old financial infrastructure, not a financial revolution.” Kim added:

“Most token assets will be issued under licensed or semi-centric blockchains. This gives authorities the authority to issue restrictions or confiscate assets. Tokens for assets such as real estate or bonds are still related to the national legal system.”

“If the property or company behind the token is local, then the risk of confiscation increases in a country with unstable legal environment or high political volatility,” the executive continued.

With the advent of world assets, RWA tokenization is expected to become a trillion sector over the next decade, which will increase the speed of currencies and expand the coverage of global capital markets.

Related: Dubai Land Department starts real estate tokenization project

The estimates of the future RWA market are significantly different

Tokens The real world assets include stocks, bonds, real estate, intellectual property, energy, art, private credit, debt instruments, fiat currencies, commodities and collectibles.

According to rwa.xyz, there are currently more than $19.6 billion in tokenized real-world assets OnChain, excluding the Stablecoin industry, which had a market capitalization of more than $200 billion in December 2024.

A Tren Finance research report surveyed large financial institutions, including Citi, Standard Chartering and McKinsey, and the report found that participants expect the RWA market to reach $4 trillion to $30 trillion by 2030.

McKinsey predicts that the RWA industry will include $2 trillion to $4 trillion by 2030, a relatively modest assessment compared to other forecasts.

Meanwhile, organizations such as standard franchising and executives of blockchain network polygons said that the RWA market will reach $30 trillion in the next decade.

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