IMF says tokenisation could reshape markets

• The International Monetary Fund said tokenisation could significantly improve financial market settlement and infrastructure efficiency.
• The IMF warned that inconsistent standards and regulation could create new systemic risks across tokenised financial markets.
• The organisation said policymakers have a limited opportunity to establish rules that support interoperability and financial stability.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said tokenisation could transform financial markets by moving assets, settlement and recordkeeping onto shared digital ledgers, reducing settlement times from days to near-instant transactions.

The IMF said tokenisation is moving beyond cryptocurrency applications as financial institutions increasingly adopt blockchain-based infrastructure, while warning that risks are shifting from traditional intermediaries to smart contracts, distributed ledgers and service providers.

“Without common standards and coordinated regulation, tokenised financial markets could become fragmented across incompatible platforms,” said IMF Financial Counsellor and Monetary and Capital Markets Department Director Tobias Adrian.

The IMF said policymakers must establish clear rules covering settlement assets, governance, interoperability and the role of central banks to reduce systemic risks, while noting that fragmented regulatory approaches could undermine the benefits of tokenisation.

The IMF said tokenisation has the potential to improve market efficiency if supported by appropriate regulatory frameworks, and there was no direct market reaction following the publication of the report.

The report follows plans by The Clearing House, whose owners include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Barclays, to launch a tokenised deposit network in early 2027, alongside research from PwC and Moody's highlighting growing institutional adoption of tokenised finance.

The IMF also noted that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is clarifying how existing securities laws apply to tokenised assets and is considering an innovation exemption that would allow blockchain-based trading platforms to operate while a broader regulatory framework is developed.