2026: The Year of Change for the Global Tokenized Capital Market

In the effort to understand the future of the global capital markets, institutions are now focused on a critical moment. The arrival of 2026 marks a transition from discrete cycle strategies to continuous, liquid operations spanning the entire world and all asset classes. Just like an international flight landing at a newly opened airport terminal, the market is undergoing a major reboot—and your institution needs to be ready to take off with it.

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Tokenization: From Theory to the Global Market Hype

Capital markets continue to operate on a century-old foundation: price discovery driven by access, batch settlement, and collateral that remains static. But that premise is now breaking down.

As the speed of tokenization increases and settlement cycles accelerate from days to seconds, 2026 becomes a critical point where theory turns into reality worldwide. Forecasts suggest this is unavoidable—the tokenized market is projected to expand to $18.9 trillion by 2033 based on calculations by BCG and Ripple, representing a 53% CAGR. This is a logical milestone after three decades of industry efforts to reduce transaction friction.

A more significant projection: by 2040, up to 80% of global assets could be tokenized. The adoption S-curve is not just rising at 50% per year—consider the evolution of mobile phones or the growth of international aviation and logistics networks. The shift to a 24/7 market is not just about time; it’s about capital efficiency.

Currently, institutions prepare new assets days in advance. The onboarding process, including collateral positioning, can take five to seven days. Pre-funding requirements and settlement risk management involve capital in T+2 and T+1 cycles, creating bottlenecks across the system.

Tokenization will remove those barriers. When collateral becomes fungible and settlement occurs within seconds instead of days, institutions can continuously reallocate portfolios. Equity, bonds, and digital assets become interchangeable parts of a unified, always-active capital allocation strategy.

Innovative Regulation and Global Adoption: The Key to a 24/7 Market

Last week brought a mix of regulatory signals from around the world, showing faster adoption despite local hurdles.

The US Challenge: A large part of US crypto legislation focused on stablecoin yields in the Senate Banking Committee, a controversy blending traditional banking and non-bank issuers. Coinbase and other firms voiced concerns about the bill’s quality—but the strategy should be a compromise to push the critical regulatory clarity the industry needs.

Global Momentum Builds: Conversely, progress is rapid elsewhere. Interactive Brokers (IBKR), a giant in electronic trading, launched a feature allowing clients to deposit USDC—and soon Ripple’s RLUSD and PayPal’s PYUSD—to fund brokerage accounts instantly, 24/7. This is a direct service connecting stablecoins to retail brokerage infrastructure.

South Korea Removes Barriers: South Korean regulators lifted nearly a decade-old ban on crypto holdings by public companies. Firms can now hold up to 5% of their equity capital in crypto assets, focusing on top tokens like BTC and ETH. This is a significant signal that institutions are ready to join the digital asset class.

Regulatory Framework Solidifies: The SEC approved the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) to develop a securities tokenization program tracking stock, ETF, and treasury ownership on blockchain. This move indicates regulators are serious about integrating traditional and digital markets.

Bitcoin and Ethereum in a Time of Change: Technical Analysis and Market Dynamics

Leading digital assets show mixed signals as they reach new technical junctures.

Bitcoin’s Current State: As of January 29, 2026, BTC is trading at $88,000, down 2.52% in the past 24 hours from a higher level. Its all-time high was $126,080. From a technical perspective, BTC failed to regain the 50-week exponential moving average (EMA) after a 1% weekly decline, indicating short-term weakness despite a positive long-term trajectory.

Ethereum’s Position: ETH is priced at $2,930, down 3.33% over 24 hours. Its correlation with other assets continues to evolve as market structure adjusts.

Gold-Bitcoin Correlation Shift: For the first time in 2026, the 30-day rolling correlation of Bitcoin with gold turned positive at 0.40, even as gold reached new highs. This data is important: it may suggest BTC is beginning to move alongside traditional safe-haven assets, or it could indicate a temporary diversification pattern. The key question is whether the ongoing rise in gold prices will support Bitcoin, or if sustained BTC weakness will confirm divergence from traditional markets.

Toward a Bright Crypto Year: Avoiding the Sophomore Slump

2025 was the first year for crypto at major US academic and financial institutions. It started with election euphoria, followed by tariff tantrums, then rebounded on IPO catalysts and stablecoin adoption, but ended with a tough Q4 marked by auto-deleveraging and market stress.

2026 will be the sophomore year—a time to build, grow, and deepen expertise after meeting the first-year requirements. The challenge is clear:

Legislative Clarity Needed: The CLARITY Act must continue through the Senate despite stablecoin controversy. Focus should be on core innovations, not peripheral debates. The regulatory framework needs to be sufficiently clear to give institutions confidence to invest in infrastructure.

Distribution Channels Beyond Self-Directed: The most critical challenge is developing meaningful distribution channels toward retail, mass affluent, wealth, and institutional segments. Financial products must be actively marketed, not just exist on digital platforms. Until crypto reaches all investment segments with incentives comparable to other asset classes, institutional adoption will not be a performance driver.

Quality Over Speculation: The relative performance of the CoinDesk 20 (major assets) versus the CoinDesk 80 (mid-cap) over the past year clearly shows: larger, higher-quality digital assets continue to lead. The top twenty projects—money, smart contract platforms, DeFi protocols, infrastructure—provide enough diversity for institutional allocation without information overload.

The sophomore year can be daunting, but it can also be a productive and transformative period. The critical window is now: to declare a major and start contributing to multi-asset portfolios and global capital markets management.

Pudgy Penguins and the New Paradigm of NFTs: From Luxury Goods to Consumer IP

Pudgy Penguins are emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands in this cycle, transitioning from speculative “digital luxury goods” to a multi-vertical consumer IP platform.

Their strategy is unique: acquire users through mainstream channels first—toys, retail partnerships, viral media—and then onboard them into Web3 via games, NFTs, and the PENGU token.

The ecosystem now encompasses:

• Phygital products: Over $13M in retail sales and more than 1M units sold
• Games and experiences: Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in just two weeks
• Widely distributed token: PENGU was airdropped to over 6M wallets

While the market currently prices Pudgy at a premium compared to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution in retail expansion, gaming adoption, and deeper token utility.

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