Tokenization push faces Wall Street infrastructure gap, 21Shares co-founder says

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Tokenization faces Wall St. gap

Highlights

21Shares co-founder Ophelia Snyder said operational gaps persist as financial firms and crypto companies remain misaligned on institutional tokenization requirements beyond trade execution.
Snyder highlighted unresolved issues such as integration with books and records systems, compliance processes, regulatory reporting, and risk management for 24/7 trading of tokenized assets.
She projected institutional adoption of blockchain infrastructure will be slow, with significant hurdles as firms either build new connective software or await updates from third-party vendors.

Operational barriers beyond pilot programs

As reported by CoinDesk, Snyder said tokenization addresses real problems in settlement rails and asset transfers, but financial firms and crypto companies are still misaligned on what institutional adoption requires. She said much of the discussion focuses on trade execution while overlooking the operational steps between a transaction and final settlement.

Snyder said blockchain firms have made progress on transaction throughput, yet broader institutional requirements remain unresolved. She pointed to questions around how tokenized assets fit into books and records systems, compliance processes and regulatory reporting, while adding that around-the-clock trading also forces firms to rethink risk management frameworks.

She also said many institutions depend on third-party software providers whose systems are not yet adapted for blockchain-native transactions. In her view, projects that work on a limited basis may still struggle to handle the scale of U.S. capital markets, where volumes far exceed early tokenization pilots.

Adoption timeline likely to be lengthy

Snyder outlined two main paths for the industry, either financial institutions build new software that connects blockchain infrastructure with existing controls, or incumbent software vendors modify their products to support new transaction methods. She said both routes are likely to require extended implementation periods, especially as many firms are still completing cloud migration efforts.

She expects the hardest tests to emerge when institutions move beyond pilot programs and try to place tokenized infrastructure in the critical path of major financial operations. If current momentum continues, more meaningful implementation efforts are likely over the next several years, but Snyder said the pace depends on how aggressively institutions pursue adoption.

In our earlier article on Accenture’s sharp stock drop after its fiscal Q3 results, we noted that a revenue miss and a reduced full-year growth outlook triggered heavy selling and reinforced a bearish technical setup. We also highlighted weakening client bookings and softer consulting demand, with uncertainty around how AI adoption could reshape traditional IT services and pressure sentiment despite ongoing buybacks and dividend growth.

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