The International Monetary Fund identifies four concerns regarding the tokenization of finance., 2026/04/03 16:58:32

Financial advisor at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Tobias Adrian, identified four reasons to consider tokenized assets a risk to the global financial system.

According to the expert, the first risk lies in the incompatibility of tokenization platforms operating on different standards. Such fragmentation has the potential to divide liquidity among isolated digital repositories, reduce the efficiency of settlements, and impair the convertibility of assets at their nominal value.

The second risk pertains to the threat to financial stability. The expert believes that automatically generated requirements for additional collateral, real-time settlements, and automated operations—where one action triggers a series of subsequent actions based on predetermined rules—significantly reduce the time available for regulatory intervention in unforeseen circumstances. Adrian expresses concern that regulators and companies may not be able to intervene in the payment process before the situation spirals out of control.

The third risk: tokenized settlements may occur across multiple jurisdictions and be conducted through shared ledgers. However, in the event of any issues, the freezing of assets or enforcement actions must be carried out according to the laws of each individual country, states the financial consultant. When international regulators need to act swiftly, they may face disagreements in resolving the issue, or the situation could become stalled, he warns.

The fourth problem of tokenization, according to Adrian, involves dollar-pegged stablecoins, which are deemed particularly hazardous for developing nations. The financial consultant believes that dollar-linked stablecoins could replace local currencies and undermine the monetary sovereignty of countries with weak economies, as central banks would be unable to regulate private tokens.

Previously, the IMF has expressed concerns that stablecoins could supplant traditional money and hinder central banks’ ability to manage capital flows.

According to data from the RWA.xyz platform, the total value of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) increased by 4% over the past month, reaching $26.7 billion. The overall nominal value of RWA, including assets not distributed among investors, rose by 31% in a month to $441.3 billion. The number of holders of tokenized assets grew by 5.5% over the month, totaling 710,792.

Last year, IMF Director Kristalina Georgieva urged central banks to test and launch their own central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as soon as possible to prevent stablecoins from becoming a threat to bank lending.