Tokenization has become a strategic priority for 84% of financial firms

On Wednesday, DTCC completed its first live production trades involving tokenized securities, marking a major step toward bringing blockchain technology into traditional financial markets.

Broadridge's findings suggest those efforts are influencing the broader industry. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said tokenization will at least partially reshape financial markets within the next three to five years, while nearly one-third plan to increase investment in tokenization projects by 26% to 50% or more over the next two years.

The survey also found firms are not preparing for an all-onchain future. Instead, 92% expect digital and traditional assets to coexist for the foreseeable future, and 69% plan to integrate tokenization into existing infrastructure rather than build separate blockchain-native systems.

That mirrors the approach taken by many large financial institutions, which have generally focused on connecting blockchain networks to existing trading, custody and settlement systems instead of replacing them.

Adoption remains uneven across the industry. Forty-four percent of capital markets firms said they already have tokenization initiatives in production or operating at scale, compared with 20% of asset managers and 9% of wealth managers.

The survey also pointed to where firms expect tokenization to gain traction first. About 80% of respondents believe tokenized mutual funds and money market funds will play a meaningful role within five years, reflecting the rapid growth of tokenized Treasury products. By comparison, only about half expect tokenized equities to achieve similar adoption over that period.