Toyota explores the application of blockchain technology to achieve the digitization of vehicle ownership
Toyota Motor Corporation is actively applying blockchain technology to promote the digitization of vehicle ownership. The white paper on the "Mobile Mobility Coordination Network (MON)" released by its blockchain lab last year proposed the construction of an innovative network based on blockchain to transform physical vehicles into tokenizable digital assets.
The core of this plan is to create a unique NFT for each car to record its entire lifecycle history and establish a verifiable digital identity. This not only helps potential buyers accurately assess the value of the vehicle but also lays the foundation for digital vehicle transactions.
From a technical architecture perspective, the MON network chooses a multi-chain architecture based on Avalanche. This framework utilizes dedicated blockchains to separately handle securitized assets, ownership, mobile services, and payment revenues, and achieves inter-chain cooperation through cross-chain communication protocols. This design aims to address issues such as data fragmentation in mobile mobility, lack of unified industry standards, and differences in cross-border regulations.
On the application layer, Toyota has also planned multiple innovative application scenarios for this network. These include packaging automotive NFTs into funds to provide financing opportunities and fleet operators reducing financing costs through securitization. It is expected that new energy vehicles, shared mobility, and logistics transportation will be among the first beneficiaries.
Toyota's innovative attempt aligns with trends in the automotive blockchain market. According to industry forecasts, the market size is expected to grow from $380 million in 2025 to $3.77 billion in 2034, with a compound annual growth rate of 29%. The demand for this market is driven by factors such as supply chain transparency, fraud prevention, and data sharing for autonomous vehicles.
Additionally, the MON project introduces the innovative concept of "fungibility ladder," allowing vehicle ownership to gradually transform from non-standardized NFTs to semi-fungible portfolios, and ultimately to fully fungible security tokens. This design significantly enhances the liquidity of assets and capital efficiency.
Currently, the MON project is still in the proof-of-concept stage. If successfully implemented, it will not only reshape the management model of vehicle ownership but may also provide an important template for the large-scale on-chain of physical assets and the digital transformation of traditional manufacturing industries.
