Tokenization platform

Securitize is the tokenization platform and transfer agent behind BlackRock's tokenized fund BUIDL, handling investor onboarding, the token issuance and the register of holders on behalf of the fund. Tokeny, based in Luxembourg, offers issuers a compliance layer for tokenizing equity, debt and fund shares on public blockchains, checking each transfer against the issuer's own eligibility rules before it settles. Taurus, a Swiss company, sells banks the technology to custody, tokenize, trade and manage digital assets across several chains; Deutsche Bank has invested in Taurus and uses its technology.

Which blockchain a platform supports matters as much as which functions it offers. Franklin Templeton's BENJI runs on nine public chains, including Stellar, Ethereum and Solana, so an investor's choice of wallet or exchange can decide which version of the same fund share they end up holding. A platform built for one chain only, or for a private, permissioned ledger such as the one DTCC uses internally, suits an issuer that wants tight control over who can hold and move the token; a platform that spans several public chains suits one that wants the token to reach the widest possible pool of crypto-native buyers.

Clearstream, the post-trade arm of Deutsche Börse Group, runs D7 DLT, a platform for tokenized securities that connects to the trading venues of Deutsche Börse and grew out of the 2024 wholesale DLT trials of the ECB, where Clearstream issued commercial paper and intraday repo on a distributed ledger. In the United States, the Depository Trust Company built a tokenization service on top of the custody it already runs for most US securities, rolled out through 2026 with more than 30 participating firms. In Frankfurt, 21X holds a BaFin license under the EU DLT Pilot Regime to trade and settle tokenized securities on its own venue, going beyond tokenizing them for someone else to trade elsewhere.

An issuer choosing a tokenization platform weighs a few practical questions: does the platform issue the token, keep the register, offer a trading venue, or several of these together; which blockchains does it support; and does it already hold the license the issuer needs, such as a BaFin crypto securities registrar license in Germany, or does the issuer need its own. Cashlink, active in Germany, holds licenses as both a crypto securities registrar and a crypto custodian, so an issuer can use one provider for both jobs instead of contracting two.

A bank rarely builds a tokenization platform from scratch. Deutsche Bank's investment in Taurus and its use of Taurus technology is typical of the pattern: a bank buys or licenses the ledger, custody and compliance software from a specialist, then wraps its own client relationships and regulatory approvals around it. A market infrastructure such as Clearstream or DTCC follows a different path, extending its existing custody and settlement business with a tokenization layer instead of adopting an outside vendor's full platform, since it already has the licenses, the client base and the securities on its books.

Finance Loop is the meeting place for people who build, license and choose tokenization platforms. CoreLedger, a Finance Loop partner since December 2024, builds asset tokenization technology and spoke at a real-world asset evening at TechQuartier in Frankfurt on tokenizing gold and real estate. Chainlink Labs, which connects tokenization platforms to outside data through its oracle network, joined the panel of Tokenization & On-Chain Capital Markets, a Point Zero Forum side event in Zurich, alongside 21X, Franklin Templeton, DFNS and AMINA.

At the Frankfurt Forum on Digital Assets & Applications, organized by d-fine, DekaBank, 360X, 21X and Seturion discussed client needs and design choices for DLT-based market infrastructures. Finance Loop has a cooperation with 21X, an exchange for digital securities licensed under the EU DLT Pilot Regime. Gubbi, a Finance Loop Premium Partner, runs the GDX Primary Market for digital assets, and Fondskonzept AG and DGFRP have connected to it so that financial advisors can offer tokenized real-world assets.

A tokenization platform issues the token, keeps the register of who holds it, and checks that each transfer follows the issuer's rules, such as investor eligibility. Some platforms add custody, trading or settlement on top of these core functions.

There is no single largest platform across every asset class. Securitize administers the largest tokenized money market fund by assets, BlackRock's BUIDL; DTCC is the largest market infrastructure moving into tokenization by the volume of securities it already custodies.

Yes, when it keeps a crypto securities register under the eWpG or runs a trading venue: both need a BaFin license, under section 32 of the Banking Act for a register keeper and under the EU DLT Pilot Regime for a venue such as 21X.