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World desk6 min

What Are the Risks of Tokenized Real-World Assets?

A token linked to a real-world asset does not automatically confer ownership or guaranteed redemption. Understand the legal, liquidity, operational and systemic risks before evaluating an offering.

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Tokenized real-world assets can carry the risks of the asset they refer to plus additional risks from legal structure, custody, software, platforms and settlement. A token’s connection to a house, bond or other asset does not by itself prove that you own it, can redeem it, or can recover it if a company or service fails. The details that matter are the rights in the governing documents, who holds the backing asset, how redemption works and which parties and systems must keep working.

What does a tokenized real-world asset represent?

“Tokenized real-world asset” is an umbrella term, not a single legal structure. A token may represent a traditional financial asset, relate to a physical asset, or give its holder a claim against an issuer. The token might be issued by the owner of the asset or by a third party that holds securities or related entitlements. These arrangements can give holders different rights.

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The important distinction is between a token’s digital record and the legal right it is meant to represent. A record on a blockchain or other network does not, on its own, establish title to a physical asset or direct access to it. The governing documents and applicable local law determine what a holder can claim and which records control ownership.

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In the United States, SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce’s 9 July 2025 statement says tokenization does not change the nature of an underlying security and that tokenized securities remain subject to federal securities laws. A separate SEC staff statement dated 28 January 2026 describes different tokenized-security structures and rights. These are U.S.-specific statements; they do not settle the treatment of every token or jurisdiction.

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What are the main risks?

Legal rights may be weaker or different than the label suggests

Start by identifying what the token legally represents: ownership of an asset, a security, a security entitlement, or a contractual claim against an issuer or another party. Find out which records establish the holder’s rights, who is obligated to perform, and what recourse is available if that party defaults. A token transfer may update a network record without automatically transferring legal title to the underlying property.

Rights can depend on the issuer’s structure, the custodian, the platform’s terms and the governing jurisdiction. For physical assets in particular, do not assume that holding the token entitles you to take possession of, sell or directly enforce a claim over the asset. Those rights must be established by the relevant documents and local law.

Redemption and liquidity may not match the token’s trading hours

A token can appear easy to trade while its backing asset is difficult to sell or takes time to mature. If holders expect quick redemption but the issuer cannot sell or pay out the backing assets quickly, heavy redemption requests can create pressure, delay payments or force asset sales. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) identifies liquidity and maturity mismatch as vulnerabilities of tokenization.

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Check the actual redemption conditions rather than treating continuous token trading as continuous access to the underlying asset. Relevant terms include who must honor a redemption, its cutoff times, any gates or restrictions, the settlement asset and how long payment takes. A market price for the token can also differ from the value of the referenced asset.

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Leverage and collateral reuse can make exposures harder to see

Token programmability can make it easier to use an asset as collateral in connected arrangements. If the same token or claim is reused to support additional borrowing, leverage can build and create chains of exposures among holders, lenders and platforms. Stress in one part of that chain may affect others, especially where limits and reporting do not make those links clear. This is a possible risk mechanism, not a claim that every tokenized asset is leveraged.

Valuation, asset quality and the token price are separate questions

A token’s price does not automatically verify the quality or value of the asset it refers to. Opaque contracts, weak information or unreliable data feeds can make it difficult to assess the backing or determine a fair price. For physical assets, storage, custody, verification and valuation are additional considerations. Market or legal frictions can cause a token to trade at a different price from its reference asset.

Ask what information supports valuation, how often it is updated and who supplies it. If a smart contract relies on an oracle—a service that provides external information to software—the oracle’s accuracy and availability can affect operations or valuation. The risks depend on the specific asset and design; a general description of tokenization cannot establish whether a particular asset has been independently verified or is fairly priced.

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Software, keys and service providers can fail

Token operation can depend on smart contracts, developers, governance processes, custodians, oracles, bridges between networks, wallet controls and legacy systems. A software defect, compromised or lost key, provider outage or governance failure may disrupt transfers, valuations or access. Transactions recorded on a network may be difficult to reverse.

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Self-custody changes who controls the wallet key, but it does not establish ownership of the backing asset, redemption rights, issuer solvency or platform integrity. A hardware wallet may help protect keys in some self-custody arrangements; it cannot resolve those other risks.

Settlement brings its own counterparty and infrastructure risks

To complete a transaction, a tokenized asset may settle against stablecoins, tokenized bank deposits or central-bank money. These are different settlement arrangements: identify what you must deliver or expect to receive, who stands behind it and when settlement is final. Traditional financial-market-infrastructure risks still apply, although they may arise differently in token arrangements. Governance and risk management remain necessary.

Connections can transmit stress across platforms

Platforms that connect institutions and activities can create new dependencies. Shared service providers or infrastructure may concentrate exposures, while global, continuous operation can make risk flows faster or oversight more complicated. The significance of these channels depends on how widely a system is adopted and how it is designed; their existence does not mean that every tokenized asset presents a systemic threat.

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What happens if an issuer, custodian or platform fails?

The outcome depends on which party fails and on the legal structure. An issuer failure may affect a direct claim against that issuer; a custodian failure may complicate access to assets it holds; and a platform or software outage may interrupt transfers or redemption. These are different failure scenarios, and a token’s presence on a network does not by itself guarantee recovery in any of them.

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Before relying on a token, establish who holds the backing asset, whose records evidence the claim, which party owes you performance and what process applies if that party becomes insolvent or stops operating. Look for the governing documents’ treatment of custody, segregation, redemption, disputes and recovery. The available general sources do not establish a universal outcome: it depends on the product documents and the law that applies to that product.

How should you compare tokenized-asset offerings?

Use the same questions for each offering, and verify answers in its governing documents and disclosures rather than relying on the token label or a trading interface.

  • Legal right and controlling record: What does the token represent, and which record determines ownership?
  • Obligations and counterparties: Who must honor the claim or redemption, and what happens if that party fails?
  • Backing and valuation: Who holds the asset, how is it verified and valued, and what information supports that valuation?
  • Liquidity and redemption: Can the token be redeemed, by whom, under what restrictions, and on what timeline?
  • Settlement: What asset is used to settle, who stands behind it, and when is settlement final?
  • Leverage and reuse: Can the token be pledged or reused as collateral, and are those exposures visible?
  • Operational controls: How are keys, software, governance, outages and third-party dependencies managed? What recovery arrangements exist?
  • Jurisdiction and recourse: Which laws and oversight arrangements apply, what disclosures are provided, and where can a holder pursue a claim?

What does the systemic-risk assessment say?

The FSB’s 22 October 2024 report described adoption of financial-asset tokenization as “very low” but apparently growing, based on publicly available data at that time. It said the sector’s small scale then did not pose a material financial-stability risk, while warning that greater scale, complexity, opacity or inadequate oversight could make vulnerabilities more consequential. That system-wide assessment is not a finding that any particular token or offering is safe.

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The report covers distributed-ledger-based tokenization of financial assets and expressly excludes central bank digital currency and crypto-asset tokenization initiatives. Its conclusion should not be extended to every product described as an RWA token. The BIS Financial Stability Institute’s 2025 summary also described adoption as small-scale and growing, noted possible benefits such as efficiency, cost reduction, transparency and fractional access, and cautioned that many benefits remain unproven and can involve trade-offs.

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