The financial world is witnessing a remarkable transformation as traditional finance (TradFi) and crypto gradually converge, ushering in a completely new era. Major financial corporations are eagerly bringing crypto products to customers, while crypto exchanges are racing to tokenize stocks and other traditional assets. The pace of innovation is astonishing, happening in just the last few weeks.

Breakthrough advancements

We are witnessing a series of notable advancements:

Kraken has launched xStocks, allowing U.S. stocks to be turned into tokens and traded on the Solana blockchain.

Robinhood is not to be outdone, allowing European users to buy U.S. stocks in token form on Arbitrum (a Layer 2 solution of Ethereum) and is also planning to build its own blockchain called Robinhood Chain.

Gemini has also launched tokenized U.S. stock trading in the European Union, using the Arbitrum network.

Coinbase has filed for approval from the U.S. SEC to issue shares on the blockchain, likely leveraging its Base network (Layer 2 of Ethereum).

These practical applications of blockchain and crypto are proving that they go far beyond the simple concept of 'store of value' like Bitcoin. This is just the starting point for a new wave: asset tokenization. Starting with bonds, then stocks, real estate, legal documents, and countless other types of assets will be 'digitized' on the blockchain.

The future has begun

We often struggle to recognize a major transformation while it is happening. Just like the Internet originated in the 1960s, but it wasn't until the early 2000s that email became an essential tool and then proliferated into personal life. Or how people once laughed at Bill Gates when he listened to baseball over the internet instead of the radio, or mocked Netflix for its slow video loading speeds.

Similarly, the initial efforts and sometimes failures of blockchain technology may leave us unclear. But looking at the bigger picture, the convergence between TradFi and crypto, along with the wave of tokenization, is reshaping how we interact with assets and finance. We are on the brink of an undeniable financial revolution, and these are just the first chapters.