The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has emphasized that tokenization has already settled in the financial system and is gaining weight steadily. Therefore, it calls on governments and organizations to accelerate the implementation of regulatory frameworks that provide legal certainty and assurance to tokenized assets, in order to facilitate their development, taking as a reference the motto of "same activity, same risk, same rules" that underpins technological neutrality.
According to the organization, tokenization allows for reducing reconciliation tasks, increasing transparency, and promoting greater automation and programmability by decreasing the number of intermediaries. However, it can also increase technological and infrastructure risks, as well as amplify already known vulnerabilities, such as liquidity, interconnection, or leverage risks.
Currently, the public market for tokenized assets, excluding repurchase operations, has "rapidly" increased to about 65 billion dollars (58.136 billion euros), to which 8 billion dollars (7.155 billion euros) corresponding to private markets are added. Additionally, the average daily volume over 30 days of tokenized repurchase operations stands at 371 billion dollars (331.830 billion euros), although it continues to be below traditional repurchases.
In this scenario, the IMF concludes that legal certainty, regulatory clarity, interoperability, and the existence of available settlement assets constitute the four pillars that will mark the evolution of tokenized finance.
As a central element, the international institution urges national authorities to promote technological neutrality, which implies reviewing their legal frameworks and ensuring that laws provide full legal certainty to tokenized assets.
In this neutral approach, the regulation should not favor a specific technology, but rather address the nature of the tokenized asset, whether it is a sovereign bond, a stock, or a private debt instrument, under the criterion of "same activity, same risk, same rules."
In the same way, regulatory clarity must reinforce this principle, so that tokenized values are subject to securities regulation, tokenized deposits to banking regulations, and tokenized payment agreements to payment regulation. In the short and medium term, while this market continues its expansion, countries will need to adjust their frameworks to technological and market advances.
Furthermore, the IMF considers it essential not to hinder operations between different platforms, systems, or networks managing tokenized assets, to avoid excessive market fragmentation and ensure interoperability, which will help improve liquidity and contain risks.
Present risks, but not yet systemic
The expansion of tokenized finance carries risks for financial stability, linked to the high interconnection between participants, the potential contagion in episodes of tension, and its impact on liquidity. Therefore, the IMF calls for a strengthening of supervision and controls, although it considers that, at the current point, these risks do not yet reach a concerning systemic dimension.
"Supervisors need to have the necessary skills, tools, and resources to supervise tokenized asset markets safely and effectively. This will require developing capabilities in areas such as custody, smart contracts, intraday liquidity, third-party dependencies, privacy technologies, and the notification of exposures to tokenized assets," the international financial institution has indicated.