from the “unbrokeraged” to the universally invested

In today’s newsletter, Nick Ducoff, head of institutional growth at the Solana Foundation, draws a parallel between tokenization’s ability to democratize investment access and how the Internet facilitated access to banking over fifteen years ago.

Then, in Ask an Expert, the CoinDesk Research Team answers questions about stablecoin and tokenization trends from their February 2026 Stablecoins & Tokenization Assets Report. Read the full report here.

– Sarah Morton

Internet capital markets: from the “unbrokeraged” to the universally invested

Fifteen years ago, over 60 million Americans were “unbanked,” shut out of basic financial services because traditional banks found them unprofitable. Then Chime, Revolut, and other fintech pioneers brought banking to smartphones, eliminating legacy barriers like minimum balances and penalty fees. Today, we face an even larger exclusion problem: billions of people are effectively “unbrokeraged,” with no access to capital markets and the investing opportunities to build generational wealth.

Enter Internet Capital Markets: global, always-on infrastructure where assets are born digital, traded mobile-first and available to anyone with a smartphone 24/7. With blockchain technology, Internet Capital Markets are poised to do for investing what fintech did for banking. And the opportunity is immense.

The scale of financial exclusion

The “unbrokeraged” encompasses two distinct but overlapping populations: those who lack brokerage accounts entirely, and international investors who can’t efficiently access high-quality U.S. dollar-denominated assets. Consider Pakistan, where, according to Bilal Bin Saqib, Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) and CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council, only 300,000 people hold brokerage accounts while 40 million have cryptocurrency wallets. The infrastructure exists, but financial products remain overwhelmingly inaccessible.

Even when access to U.S. markets exists through local brokers, international investors often pay significant premiums, to mention nothing of the large minimums and investor accreditation that the private markets require. These aren’t products accessible for the global middle class — they are built to serve the already-wealthy.

Tokenization expands the playing field

Blockchain tokenization transforms these dynamics by enabling fractional ownership, eliminating intermediary costs and operating 24/7 with instant settlement. The result: dramatically lower minimums and global accessibility. Consider Hamilton Lane, a leading alternative asset manager. Through Republic Crypto, investors can now access Hamilton Lane private market exposure for as little as $500. That’s a thousand-fold reduction in the entry barrier compared to traditional private fund minimums, and a signal of how internet-native market infrastructure can finally make fractional access more readily available.

The recent BitGo IPO also shows tokenization’s democratizing potential. When BitGo went public on the New York Stock Exchange, tokenized representation of BitGo stock was simultaneously tradable on Solana, allowing anyone globally with a Solana wallet to purchase BitGo stock immediately. This evolution toward real-time, global accessibility is now being validated by the world’s largest asset managers: BlackRock and Franklin Templeton have launched tokenized money market funds on public blockchains, allowing for 24/7 liquidity and transparency.

Why this infrastructure matters

Tokenization expands access rather than competing with traditional markets. The blockchain operates continuously, enabling investors in Jakarta, São Paulo, or Lagos to buy assets the moment they become available, not when their local markets open. Settlement happens instantly against stablecoins, eliminating the multi-day clearing processes and currency conversion fees that hinder retail investors outside of the U.S.

Speed and cost matter. High-performance blockchains like Solana, along with Layer 2 scaling solutions on Ethereum, can process thousands of transactions per second for fractions of a penny, making the economics of fractional ownership actually work. This is the foundation of “universal basic ownership,” where anyone with a phone can now have a stake in the global economy’s growth, even across asset classes like pre-IPO stocks and private credit, once strictly gatekept to institutions and the ultra-wealthy.

The advisor’s edge: strategy and accessibility

For financial advisors, this transition represents a strategic exposure play. Accessibility is now streamlined through regulated vehicles like spot Solana ETFs (e.g., SOEZ, QSOL, BSOL) and European ETPs, alongside user-friendly digital custody tools such as Phantom or Ledger wallets. Now, advisors can utilize sub-cent transaction costs to offer sophisticated, fractionalized portfolios to a much broader client base. This infrastructure lowers the “cost to serve,” making institutional-grade diversification available to the middle-class “mom and pop” investors through their financial advisers.

From unbrokeraged to universally invested

The fintech wave of the 2010s proved that financial exclusion is a design problem. Tokenization represents the next chapter in this story. A software developer in South Korea shouldn’t face barriers to investing in U.S. equities or accessing private credit returns. A small business owner in Argentina shouldn’t pay premium prices for the same stocks available cheaply to American investors. Sophisticated investment strategies shouldn’t remain exclusively in wealth management channels serving the top 1%.

The technology rails have been built, and regulatory pathways are becoming clearer. What remains is scaling this infrastructure and ensuring it serves its highest purpose of extending wealth-building opportunities to the billions currently locked out. While the work of banking the unbanked is far from done, it offers a blueprint for what we’re about to see: transforming the unbrokeraged into the universally invested.

– Nick Ducoff, head of institutional growth, Solana Foundation

Ask an Expert

Q: What are stablecoins and why are they important?

Stablecoins are a type of digital currency designed to maintain a stable value. This is usually achieved by “pegging” the stablecoin to a traditional asset, such as the U.S. dollar. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin or ether, which may experience wide fluctuations in price, stablecoins are designed to allow users to hold or trade digital assets without exposure to price swings. Other use cases of stablecoins include serving as primary trading pairs, cross-border payments, decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and borrowing, and inflation hedging. The GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act), enacted in July 2025, creates a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for U.S. dollar-backed payment stablecoins.

Q: What is the current stablecoin landscape?

After rising for twenty-five consecutive months, the growth of the total stablecoin market capitalization has slowed over the past four months, though it continues to hover near its all-time high of $310 billion. CoinDesk’s latest research report indicates that as digital asset prices generally trend lower, the market dominance of stablecoins has surged. In February, Stablecoin market dominance surged to 13.3% (up from 11.2% in January), driven by the decline in price action of digital assets. Tether’s USDT continues to lead the sector with a 59.1% market share, while Circle’s USDC ranks second with 24.6%.

Q: What is the current traction for tokenized assets, and how quickly is the market for tokenized real-world assets growing?

Tokenized real-world assets are continuing to gain meaningful traction in global financial markets, with the total tokenized market capitalization reaching a new all-time high of $23.4 billion by the end of February. This represents a 22.9% month-over-month increase from $19 billion in January, underscoring the accelerating pace of adoption across multiple asset classes. Much of this growth has been driven by tokenized Treasuries, which expanded 15.1% to $10.5 billion and now account for roughly 45% of the entire tokenized market. Meanwhile, tokenized commodities have emerged as a major secondary growth engine, surging 27% to $6.6 billion and representing 28.4% of the market. Other segments are also steadily developing. The Stocks & ETFs sector reached $804.7 million by late February, marking a 3.1% monthly increase and maintaining a 3.4% share of the overall tokenized ecosystem.

– Jacob Joseph, Specialist, Research, CoinDesk

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