Global Tokenized Securities Market Could Surge to $5.5 Trillion by 2030 -Citi Forecast
Citibank has released a sweeping new report forecasting that the global tokenized securities market will grow from just $17 billion today to $5.5 trillion by 2030, and the bank says the machinery to get there is already being put in place.
The report, titled Tokenization 2030: Wall Street On-Chain, was shared with CoinDesk ahead of the Proof of Talk conference in Paris. Citi sets out a base forecast of $5.5 trillion, but depending on the speed of adoption, estimates range from a low of $2.7 trillion to a bullish ceiling of $8.2 trillion. Either way, the message is clear: the tokenized securities market is no longer a fringe experiment.
“You’re seeing the full weight of American financial power and the global reserve currency moving onchain at scale,” Citi writes in the report. “When DTCC and the NYSE embed tokenization into capital markets, this marks a tipping point.”
Three forces are accelerating this shift. The first is that traditional market infrastructure is going digital in a serious way. Wall Street’s Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced it would begin limited production trades of tokenized securities in July, with a broader platform launch set for October. Nasdaq is developing a framework that would allow companies to issue blockchain-based shares, with a potential launch as early as 2027, while Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, has also announced plans for tokenized stocks. Nasdaq has even received SEC regulatory approval to allow certain stocks to be issued and traded in this digital onchain form.
The second driver is the rise of digital cash as a settlement layer. Stablecoins are projected to grow to a $1.9 trillion market by 2030, creating around $1 trillion in fresh demand for U.S. government bonds, since stablecoin issuers back their digital currency with real Treasury bills. Combined with digital bank deposits, this infrastructure makes it possible for assets and cash to swap hands in the same instant, a long-standing ambition of financial markets.
The third catalyst is regulatory clarity. The U.S. Senate Banking Committee advanced the Clarity Act in a 15-9 bipartisan vote on May 14, breaking a four-month stall and moving key digital asset legislation closer to a full Senate vote.
Citi’s forecast for the tokenized securities market leans heavily on public markets rather than private ones. The bank assumes 10% of the U.S. Treasury bill market and 3% of the U.S. public stock market will be tokenized by 2030. If 10% of everyday U.S. investors switch to digital trading platforms, that alone would generate $2.6 trillion in demand for tokenized stocks. By contrast, private credit and private equity are each expected to reach only around $100 billion globally by 2030.
The transition won’t be instant. Citi compares it to the rollout of electronic highway toll systems, old and new systems will run in parallel for years, adding cost and complexity before a full switchover occurs. In that window, the report predicts a competitive edge for what it calls “Structural Orchestrators”, large banks and investment firms that control both the real assets and the digital payment rails, allowing them to settle entire trades within their own networks.
The tokenized securities market, in Citi’s view, is not a question of if but when, and the institutions that build now will be the ones writing the rules later.
