BlackRock, Goldman Push Tokenized Assets as Treasuries, Office Towers Reach Small Investors
Summary
- Hong Eun-pyo said putting real-world assets (RWAs) on-chain is a financial infrastructure revolution that can reshape capital markets.
- He said the RWA market size recorded on blockchain has surged from $5 billion to $50 billion, and that BlackRock and Goldman Sachs are moving into tokenized U.S. Treasuries to maximize capital efficiency.
- He said individual investors can diversify into U.S. Treasuries or prime office buildings with small sums, while the US and Germany are moving early to capture the market by establishing rules on tokenized assets regulation and legal ownership.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
Korea Investment Week
Hong Eun-pyo, Attorney at Lee & Ko
"Putting real-world assets, or RWAs, on-chain is more than a technical experiment. It is a financial infrastructure revolution that can reshape capital markets."
Hong Eun-pyo, an attorney at Lee & Ko and chairman of the Korean Society of Blockchain Law, made the remarks at Korea Investment Week 2026 at the Shilla Seoul in Seoul's Jangchung-dong on May 14. The trust infrastructure for digital assets will determine the future of finance, he said.
Hong identified on-chainization as a key concept for investors to watch. The term refers to the process of recording real-world assets on blockchain networks and tokenizing them. Ownership and transaction records are stored transparently on distributed ledgers, making it possible to divide large office buildings or bonds into small units and trade them in real time, 24 hours a day, from anywhere in the world.
The growth of the RWA market has been dramatic. According to Hong, the market for RWAs recorded on blockchain has surged tenfold to $50 billion from about $5 billion just two years ago. That helps explain why global financial giants such as BlackRock and Goldman Sachs are racing to issue tokenized U.S. Treasuries. With blockchain infrastructure carrying almost no intermediation costs, capital efficiency can be maximized. For individual investors, that opens the door to diversified investments in U.S. Treasuries or prime office buildings with small sums.
Countries are also racing to seize the lead in global regulation. The US has increased institutional clarity by classifying Bitcoin as a commodity and placing tokenized securities under the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Germany has also moved to capture the market early. Through its Electronic Securities Act, it introduced a single-ledger framework that recognizes legal ownership on blockchain registries themselves.
Park Ju-yeon, Korea Economic Daily reporter grumpy_cat@hankyung.com
Korea Economic Daily
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