Digital Ownership: The Tokenization of Real-World Assets

Gilles Chemla and Katrin Tinn

No 21512, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We study conditions under which tokenization creates value for indivisible real-world assets (RWAs). We show that tokenization does not create value merely by making an asset transferable, fractional, or digitally scarce. Value arises only when digital ownership records change the economics of ownership by leveraging on asset characteristics and past ownership records on the blockchain. This may generate retained value for past owners, create provenance value for later buyers, separate usage and financial rights, support membership benefits through fractional ownership, or strengthen post-sale incentives through royalties. These forces determine whether tokenized markets are inactive, thin but informative, lemons-like, or liquid but uninformative. We discuss implications for art and luxury tokens, private-equity and venture-capital tokens, real-estate tokens, tokenized claims on a social enterprise, and sustainable-firm tokens.

JEL-codes: D82 D86 G23 G32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05
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