Earthberries Briefings
Tokenization: regulatory and market reading
A short selection of public sources we find useful on how tokenized assets are classified, supervised and adopted. Each is a third-party document, and listing it does not imply any endorsement of Earthberries. This selection is for general information, not legal, investment, tax or financial advice. Documents reflect their publication dates.
Last reviewed:
EU: classification and infrastructure
1. Guidelines on the conditions and criteria for the qualification of crypto-assets as financial instruments.
ESMA, guidelines, 19 March 2025.
Criteria for assessing whether a crypto-asset qualifies as a financial instrument and is therefore outside MiCA's scope. Classification considers its rights and other characteristics, rather than technology alone.
2. Building the rails for Europe's tokenised financial markets.
Piero Cipollone, Member of the ECB Executive Board, speech, 23 March 2026.
An ECB perspective on two barriers to scaling Europe's tokenized markets: fragmented platforms and the lack of a common settlement asset in central bank money. On 21 September 2026 the Eurosystem launched Pontes, a first step towards settling wholesale tokenized transactions in central bank money (press release).
3. Just another crypto boom? Mind the blind spots.
ECB, Financial Stability Review special feature, 21 May 2025. Authors: Aerts, Born, Gati, Kochanska, Lambert, Reinhold, van der Kraaij.
Direct exposures alone do not capture all potential transmission channels. The article examines interconnections with traditional finance and data gaps that complicate risk assessment. Market figures are as of 2025.
Global: rights and supervision
4. Statement on Tokenized Securities.
US SEC, Divisions of Corporation Finance, Investment Management and Trading and Markets, staff statement, 28 January 2026.
How US securities law applies when securities are tokenized, by the issuer or by a third party, and why the holder's rights can differ between the two. A staff position, not a new rule.
5. Tokenization of Financial Assets.
IOSCO Board, final report (FR/17/25), 11 November 2025.
The global securities regulators' view of adoption, use cases and the risks to market integrity and investor protection.
Adoption and operations
6. Asset Tokenization in Financial Markets: The Next Generation of Value Exchange.
World Economic Forum, report, 21 May 2025.
Use cases across asset classes, and what they need to work in practice: standards, interoperability and safeguards.
7. From ripples to waves: The transformational power of tokenizing assets.
McKinsey & Company, article, 20 June 2024.
A strategic frame for which asset classes adopt first and why. Its market-size figures for 2030 are 2024 forecasts, not observed data.
8. How tokenization is changing capital markets.
S&P Global Market Intelligence, research commentary, 26 February 2026. Carl James, Christopher Fenske.
Market commentary on settlement, collateral management and infrastructure: the operational questions that follow once an asset is tokenized.
Japan
9. Report by the Working Group on Crypto-asset Systems of the Financial System Council.
Financial Services Agency of Japan, council report. Japanese original 10 December 2025, English translation 16 February 2026.
A council report recommending regulation of crypto-assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, tailored to them and including information disclosure and market-abuse controls. It distinguishes crypto-assets from securities: tokenized securities already have a separate framework under the same Act. The amending law was enacted on 15 July 2026 and promulgated on 23 July 2026 as Act No. 64 of 2026 (House of Representatives bill record, in Japanese).
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