Evidence

McKinsey Global Institute estimated global net worth at around USD 510 trillion in 2020. Residential real estate including land accounted for 46 percent of global net worth, while corporate and government buildings and associated land accounted for another 23 percent.

The World Economic Forum describes tokenization as a digital representation of physical or financial assets on blockchain infrastructure. Citi expects tokenized financial and real-world assets in private markets to reach almost USD 4 trillion by 2030. BCG and ADDX describe a scenario of USD 16.1 trillion for tokenized illiquid assets by 2030.

Our view

Our view: Digital assets are becoming more important, but they do not replace real assets. Land, energy assets, water infrastructure, buildings, commodities and productive equipment remain central stores of value because they enable real-world use.

From our perspective, the actual shift is not that assets suddenly become digital. A share, a bond or a land register entry has always represented a legal claim. What is new is that such claims can increasingly be represented, transferred and managed digitally.

Our interpretation: A token does not automatically improve the quality of the underlying asset. A weak property does not become better because it can be traded digitally. A poorly structured infrastructure project does not become more resilient because its rights are tokenized. Digital assets matter when they make real systems more measurable, connected and scalable.

Evidence / sources: The global net worth figures are based on McKinsey Global Institute. The definition and development of tokenization are based on the World Economic Forum, Citi GPS and BCG/ADDX. The sections under "Our view" are L.P.E.I.'s interpretation of these facts.