# Real Finance Tokenizes $33T RWA Market

**Podcast:** The Milk Road Show
**Published:** 2026-06-26

## Transcript

My personal opinion is that five years from now, the majority of any kind of asset cash flow generating is going to transition onto the blockchain.
What's up, everybody?
It's LGD said here and welcome to the Milk Road Show, the daily crypto show that really needs tokenization to accelerate so I can start leverage betting my vehicles and furniture too.
I don't know who wrote that.
Today is June 26, 2026, recording on June 25th.
Everybody in crypto says real world assets are the next trillion dollar opportunity and they're...
definitely right.
But tokenizing an asset is the easy part.
The hard part is custody, settlement, compliance, liquidity, servicing, and convincing actual institutions to use the thing.
So today we're breaking down what's real, what's still kind of like maybe fluff narrative that you're hearing out there, and what it actually takes to bring serious assets on chain with Ivo Grigorov, co-founder of Real Finance.
Today's episode is brought to you by BitGet, Stocks 2.0 with Real Liquidity, Real Dividends, and Nexo, Earn Interest, Borrow, and Trade Crypto.
Ivo, what's going on, man?
Welcome to Milk Road.
Well, hey, thanks for having me and thanks for the invite.
And it's a pleasure to be here.
Great intro, by the way.
And yeah, indeed, you know, pecanization is a topic which is a very hot topic, to be honest.
And just a quick correction, it's not a trillion dollar industry.
It's a 33 trillion dollar industry.
So, you know, huge topic, to be honest.
And I'm excited to...
you know, deep dive into it.
And yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
What, you know, I feel like we hear a lot about tokenization and especially given these days that the market is, you know, Bitcoin prices is struggling, right?
It's kind of hot.
It's hard for people to understand, you know, what is, what is actually being built in the tokenization space.
So I feel like you guys are a good, are a good example of that.
So maybe you can tell us like, like, you know, what is the kind of current status of RWAs?
Like, where are we at right now with actually bringing a lot of this stuff on chain?
Actually, currently, I think we're in the stage where, you know, we have passed the theoretical possibilities of the blockchain and we have moved on to the practical terms.
You know, we had the NFT seasons, the DeFi season, et cetera, et cetera.
Now I think it's, you know, actual, tangible.
asset season you know it's uh something which uh you know people have been to be honest waiting for especially institutions like serious businesses have been waiting uh for this you know okay on theory it's nice uh how do we use it now uh you know stable coins have kind of like shown the past but stable coins are you know just a small fraction of what can actually be achieved with technology and you know that's how we started with the real finance just to give you know some background to myself and to my other co-founder valentin like we both come from um basically traditional financial sector we were actually we met like eight years ago uh at the fund of funds we were in charge of a portfolio of 1.5 billion of different financial instruments, which we were designing.
So that's where we met.
We did guarantee schemes, letters of credit on a wholesale level, a settlement with banks, etc.
And then we found out about blockchain, right?
And Bitcoin and this whole concept of some strange technology, which does amazing settlement, no T plus three plus two.
And we were like, hey, you know, this could be useful for financial instruments.
How can we do it?
And we started exploring.
And about like three years, we started, you know, like basically digging into it, very hardcore.
And what we found out, to be honest, is that the technology is cool, practical use.
That's where we need to focus.
And, you know, business cases.
Basically, when you go to a bank, when you go to a financial institution, What is the business case you're offering?
Why are you offering it?
And this is kind of like the key here.
And I think that we have managed to solve it to quite a big extent so far.
We're still pre-mainnet.
So, you know, in September we're launching mainnet and there's going to be a lot of news coming up to September.
Yeah, I'll let you, you know, I can speak for hours here.
So I'll let you have a couple of questions.
Just like you do have some.
Well, yeah, what kind of RWAs is Real Finance focusing on?
Because I think we've had a few people, we obviously talk about this pretty often.
We do look at a lot of different assets that are coming on chain, but I want to know, like, what, of everything that's available, right?
You're saying there's $33 trillion worth of assets that can come on chain here.
Which area are you guys focusing on at Real Finance?
Basically, we're focusing on what we know.
We're focusing on what the team is good at.
And 33 trillion is a huge number.
But those are, to be honest, only financial instruments.
Those are financial assets which we're talking about.
And we are aiming to get basically a market share from that.
equities, debt instruments, treasuries, private credit as well.
But what we are very good at is different, let's say, financial instruments and putting them in different baskets.
And that's, I think, what to a certain extent was missing from the market.
So, you know, you have like some assets which are...
liquid you have others which are liquid of course you know the liquid ones are going towards stable coins but there isn't like this fine mixture where you know actually institutions can settle between each other or where you know they can exchange those assets between each other and i mean a lot of people are figuring it out how we figured it out and i think you know we're one of the first is that We do not only utilize the technology on our consensus layer, we actually have a dual validator system.
So, you know, business entities, they're not excluded from the whole validation aspect of the blockchain itself.
So that's why we're an L1, right?
So we have our own consensus layer, we have our own rewards, we have our own proof of stake.
And we include business entities, so asset issuers, credit scores, insurance.
Everything is included within the blockchain itself.
So on a very basic consensus layer, the businesses are involved not only on the traditional RWAs, but they're involved within the network as well.
And once we explain all of the mechanics to them, It kind of just clicks, you know, like people start, okay, yeah, this makes sense.
You know, we can settle instantly.
That's good.
We can do it 24-7.
That's even better.
And, you know, we can basically tokenize portions of our portfolios.
We can tokenize our treasuries and actually leverage upon them or exchange upon them.
This is where institutions get interested.
You know, I don't know how familiar you are with...
Clearing houses.
Clearing houses is basically a third party which guarantees the settlement between the other two parties on a financial, like, for financial institutions.
It's kind of like the middleman.
And there, you know, few people know about them, but, you know, they're making quite a decent amount of money out of, you know, a very simple task.
which can be replaced with two smart contracts on the right chain, let's put it that way.
And this is kind of like the origination not only of the idea, but the next step for us, to be honest, to have these institutions actually adopt and settle and trade between each other, not only to make it available for retail, of course, but also to have it as a tool for them.
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So your strategy or basically your thesis for launching Real Finance was to – step one was to basically become an on-chain clearinghouse so that you could massively – I'm assuming kind of reduce the price of that and make it better for both parties but also simultaneously be the kind of middleman that will help bring both sides on chain.
Is that kind of what I'm understanding or at least that was the original idea?
Yeah, I mean it's – It might sound a bit overambitious, let's say, but it's a whole financial ecosystem, you know, like a secondary financial ecosystem away from the traditional way to go.
You know, you have like swifts, you have, you know, clearinghouses and all of those different, let's say, depositories.
You know, you have all of those fragments across the board.
And what we try to achieve is like, bring them all together and work in one network, which is transparent, which is instant, which is cheap.
Yeah, indeed.
But also on the other side, accessibility for us is very important as well.
You know, I know how a corporate bond, which is quoted for, let's say, 250,000 ticket, you cannot get access to that.
Not as a retail person, you know.
Through tokenization, though, and the functionalization, let's say, of that amount and that ticket, you can.
So it's not only about institutions.
It's also about access to normal retail investors who actually want to participate in those markets, who want to have something secure, tangible.
Something which is, you know, you don't need the Bloomberg terminal for 20, 50K.
You don't need, let's say, a brokerage company with a license to trade on, et cetera, et cetera.
Of course, we are the infrastructure.
So, you know, whoever is offering it, there is different, let's say, regulations depending on the country they're based on.
And that's on the asset issuers.
But if you structure it together, you know, You have the rails, you have the infrastructure, and we have already guaranteed more than 3.5 billion of such assets to be able and to be able to actually access them through real.
Tell me a little bit more about that, because I know that you guys have tokenization agreements with a few companies.
You have a partnership with Anchorage Digital.
Tell me a little bit more about...
some of those deals and kind of like how those came about and how, I mean, how big they are, if you can share, because I think that one of your agreements is over $100 million of tokenized assets, right?
Yeah, actually, it was our first, you know, MVP.
We did want to, you know, already showcase what we're, you know, what we're capable of before even the mainnet.
So, yeah, we just released the news.
It's 100 million euros, by the way.
So, you know, get hired.
I'm in Canada too, so that's like, you know, it's an insane amount of money.
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, it just showcases directly how serious we are and how well we can perform on the network through actually...
offering something which is stock traded, like it's listed on the stock exchange, is held in custody with a licensed brokerage.
We tokenized the assets and we held those assets, the tokens, within Anchorage Digital for custody.
So, you know, we have covered the custody of the real world assets and then we have covered also the custody of the actual tokenized assets.
So everyone is safe.
safe sound and secure uh further than furthermore uh you know we have several different agreements how they came about to a large extent it was in the beginning through our personal networks and through our you know traditional financial experience so far and then through our partners and backers uh we have two very big equity investors one is alpha fund it's also a publicly traded fund Currently, it's valued at around 200 million.
The other one is Weiner Bank.
It's bank based in Austria.
So, you know, we're backed by them.
Of course, their network and their clients are going to utilize our services.
Then we got approached by others as well.
Again, when you define clearly the business case and, you know, why institutions can trust, this and why it is safe and secure, it's kind of like easier to adopt them.
Is there, I guess, and you guys, and the goal for you guys, and you said, because you mentioned mainnet, you are building your own L1 to basically run all of these assets, correct?
Indeed, yeah.
Yeah.
Why, I mean, we just, I feel like we just discussed, I mean, we were talking about tokenized equities earlier this week.
um and and how well they're doing on solana obviously we've discussed like rwas across all the chains why go and build your own chain when there's already so many so many options well that's the thing like there are options but they're not tailored for our assets they're not tailored for financial instruments you know i mean you have okay you do have so now you have also mean coins there you know like this is not like the late As I said, you need to include business entities and institutions into the space.
Not only guys come and use our services, but guys, you are an integral part.
You are validating those assets.
You are validating the security of that system.
And this is where the key is.
That's why we built our own chain, you know, because we don't want just to put something.
on chain and say, hey, we just tokenized, I don't know, a billion of assets.
Who's we?
Who's holding custody?
Who has evaluated those assets?
Who is behind them?
Is the asset issuer regulated?
Is he recognizable?
What are those assets?
And those are the questions which we try to fix and answer.
I guess what does maybe from my understanding, like what does what is your chain going to look like?
Is it going to be largely like centralized?
Like maybe you can tell us a little bit more about the infrastructure, because I know that then in and if you're able to speak to it, because in the last year, as we've been in the bear market in crypto, obviously, we've had this massive like L1 versus L2 debate.
There's a general idea that it's like.
making new chains and stuff is not necessarily needed, but I feel like you guys have a really strong case for doing that and probably a good reason.
And I know that there's probably a lot that we don't know that institutions are looking for when they want to see the infrastructure that they're going to put their assets on, right?
So maybe tell us a little bit more, if you can, about what's going on behind the scenes.
Again, the chain on itself is, I mean, the technology is one thing.
The assets which are on that chain, who is utilizing them, the validators, the actual business partners, that's where I think the big difference is because we didn't start with, okay, we will build something cool and new.
We started with, hey, guys, there is this technology.
We're planning to utilize it in this and this manner.
Would you be interested?
And they said, okay, yeah, why not?
As long as we're also part of it.
Because to be honest, again, you don't put, I don't know, like 500 million of your portfolio somewhere where you don't know what's going to happen to it.
You have absolutely no, let's say, voting powers, no governance, nothing regarding it.
You just put like...
This is basically giving 500 million to somebody who you basically do not know.
So, yeah, we're not centralized.
We are permissionless, but we guarantee that you want to integrate with us.
You can become a validator, whether it's on the technical side, whether it's on the business side.
It doesn't really matter.
But the fact is, you put your money and...
You know, your trust in something which you are a part of.
Let's put it that way.
When it comes to institutions, at least.
That makes sense.
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I guess my question for you, my next question for you is, Ivo, from a retail perspective, how is this going to change, at least from your perspective, like what you guys are building, how does this change their experience when they're using these assets?
Is it even a retail product or is it largely an institutional product?
But even for the end user, for either retail or institutions, how does this actually change their experience?
Is this going to feel genuinely better for them?
It's designed for both, to be honest.
It gives the bigger players an entry point and several technological and time efficiencies, which they do not have in the traditional system.
But as I said, it gives also access to the retail sector as well.
Of course, you know, how to put it, you know, there are certain companies, let's say even Revolut is offering stocks, right?
So you can trade stocks there.
Do you actually hold those stocks?
Like, do you have, where are those stocks?
Do you have an account within a brokerage, within somewhere?
Like, also the crypto which you buy with Revolut, is it yours?
Like, do you have the keys, the private keys?
See, it's, you know, I don't know, like accessibility and ownership and transparency.
Probably these are the key benefits for retail as well.
You know who has tokenized the asset, who the asset issuer is, where the custody is.
It is within financial institutions.
At the end of the day, you buy the token and at some point you want the asset, you just go to the custodian and say, listen, I have this token and I want, let's say, to transfer the shares or this corporate bond to my brokerage account within another broker halfway across the world.
Or you can just go that.
directly and swap the token.
I mean, it depends also on the asset issuer, but the thing is you actually have access to instruments which have never been so easily accessible before.
You have your stable coins and you just buy an asset which is, let's say, listed in the European market or in Asia.
And, you know, you know that this token not only represents it, it's actual ownership of it as well.
Do you feel like how far away are we from going beyond just traditional finance instruments actually coming on chain?
And this is something that even real is interested in.
And I kind of put this in the teaser and we've featured companies on the crypto side like figure, right, that are doing tokenizing basically real estate.
Is this is is that kind of stuff?
going to start to develop?
Is that something you guys are even interested in working on?
Are you strictly focused on the finance side?
Well, initially, we're focusing on the financial side, because as I said, like, that's where, you know, our, let's say personal expertise lies.
And that's where, you know, the project is a bit more, let's, how to put it, could be defined as a bit more centralized initially.
But as the project grows, you know, our idea is, you know, to be, again, decentralized and managed by the actual business validators and the technical validators.
So, you know, we want to meet both of the worlds together.
And, you know, basically they become an independent financial system where, you know, I wouldn't be the sole decision maker.
I wouldn't actually, you know, unless I...
I put my tokens into our proof of stake and the governance.
I wouldn't be even the ones you need to speak to.
We're just focusing on the initial steps and the initial assets to be brought.
That's why I mentioned we have more than 3.5 billion currently, but this is the ones which we have kind of made the pathway through.
But the market is insanely...
big tokenization can be applied to not only financial instruments but as you mentioned real estate as well uh we know a lot of projects some of them are actually already part of our ecosystem uh who are focusing on real estate tokenization and you know they're gonna be basically integrating with real and putting uh you know value there so my personal opinion is that five years from now basically the majority of any kind of asset, which is, let's say, cash flow generating, which can be to a certain extent traded and which can keep value, is going to transition onto the blockchain.
Definitely.
Tell me about asset, your token.
Well, asset is, of course, you know, as with any other chain, it's an integral part of our project.
Basically, it's a utility token, but it's mainly used for transaction fees, for minting of smart contracts, minting of tokens, bringing the assets on chain.
All of those steps require assets.
So the more the value and the more assets which come onto our chain, the more demand there would be for asset in order to basically facilitate those transactions, facilitate that value which is coming on chain.
And yeah, we're starting with 100 million, but by the end of the year, it's going to be 3.5 billion.
You can imagine, you know, like all of the different rotations and different transactions which are going to be, you know, included into that.
But again, this is just scratching the surface.
The important actually segment of the token is the proof of stake and that, you know, institutions, asset issuers, insurers, credit scorers.
all of them will be required to have a proof of stake in order to be validators and in order to be network decision makers as well.
So, again, given the vastness of the market, I think that asset is just basically the first step towards, let's say, enabling this financial, this alternative financial system, basically.
And where can people find that token right now, Ibo, if they want to get in?
Yeah, actually, you know, like we have a pretty big pool on Uniswap.
We do want to insert confidence into the community.
But also we're very, as we have spoken for the whole time period, we're very institutional as well.
So, you know, we listed on Kraken.
First exchange to get banking license.
And then we listed also on Qcoin MXC.
So, you know, there's several different pathways, OKEx as well.
So people can easily get it from anywhere in the world.
Companies as well.
And they do prefer central exchanges, to be honest.
So, you know, that's we have.
kind of like made it easy for both parties institutions financial institutions but also uh retail as well and also of course crypto native uh people as well great and any any plans to put it on other exchanges or anywhere anywhere else they can find it oh yeah okay that's uh that's a great question i don't want to spill too much beans or you know too much alpha but uh yes indeed you know like uh We do want to be a global network.
We do want access and give access to people around the world to our network.
So indeed, yes, there's a couple of more exchanges coming as well with already opened, let's say, conversations and confirmations.
But I don't want to say too much.
There is a US one, a Korea one, etc.
So, you know, different regions we want to take basically have global access and global venues to be traded.
Got it.
Great.
Well, sounds like you guys have pretty ambitious plans.
My last question for you, Ivo, is, you know, of those $33 trillion of assets, how much do you guys want to capture?
I think around 10% would be.
would be probably enough for the network to be called a complete success.
And I actually think it's even, you know, it is even possible, to be honest.
E-trading, all of those, you know, early, early stage companies back in before, like...
let's say, Amazon, Google, etc., all of them were very ambitious in the beginning and everybody thought, look, you know, this is impossible for you, but look where they are.
I'm not comparing ourselves to it, but it's just, you know, again, it's not a revolution because people are often referring to revolution.
For me, Rio is the evolution, evolution of finance.
It's not something completely drastical.
which never before has been used, but it's a mixture between the two worlds.
So it's the natural evolution of the financial system.
So I think adoption would be great here.
Great, right on.
Well, best of luck to you, man.
I think it's very ambitious, but clearly you guys have a lot of great deals in place.
You've got a token out there for people to get interested in the token if they want to check it out more.
Where can people find the project?
Of course, our socials.
So we're very active on X.
We're active on Telegram as well.
But even if you just Google real finance, you'll find tons of information regarding us.
And you'll see my face quite a bit, which I don't know if it's a good thing or not.
But, yeah.
I mean, it's...
We're institutional and we want to be doxxed.
We want to be visible in the space.
And it's very important for our partners as well.
That's why they're entrusting us basically in the next couple of months with a couple of billions.
So yeah, this is something big.
That's amazing.
Great.
Well, thank you, Ivo.
Thank you for your thoughts and best of luck to you guys with Real Finance.
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