Broadridge said in a survey released on July 18 that 84% of North American financial services firms now rank tokenization as a strategic priority.
CoinDesk, citing the Broadridge report, said the survey covered 200 senior executives in North American financial services across capital markets, asset management, and wealth management.
Most respondents expect market structure to shift within three to five years
The survey's central finding was that 68% of respondents believe tokenization will at least partly reshape financial market structure within three to five years.
Another 92% said digital assets and traditional assets are likely to coexist over the long term rather than one displacing the other. Meanwhile, 69% of institutions said they plan to integrate tokenization into existing infrastructure instead of building a separate parallel system.
Capital markets firms are moving first
Adoption is not advancing at the same speed across business lines.
Among capital markets firms, 44% already have tokenization projects in production. The figure was 20% for asset managers and 9% for wealth management firms.
The report indicates that capital markets participants, including investment banks, market makers, and custodian banks, are currently leading adoption, while wealth management remains in a wait-and-see phase.
Money market funds and mutual funds lead asset class expectations
On expected adoption by asset class, about 80% of respondents said tokenized money market funds and mutual funds could reach meaningful adoption within five years. The comparable figure for tokenized equities was about 50%.
The most frequently cited use cases were tokenized Treasuries, tokenized money market funds, tokenized securities trading, and blockchain-native settlement systems.
Regulatory uncertainty remains the top obstacle
The survey also ranked the main barriers to institutional adoption of tokenization. Regulatory uncertainty came first, followed by the operational complexity of integrating blockchain into existing systems.
The article said this lines up with the recent delay around the CLARITY Act in the United States and the European Union's move into MiCA 2.0 revisions, with broader market-structure legislation still not yet in place. In the report, a clearer regulatory framework remained a key condition for institutions to fully commit.