New York —The next evolution of asset management will be “wallet-native,” not just digital, according to Franklin Templeton's head of innovation, Sandy Kaul.
Speaking at the Ondo Summit in New York on Tuesday, Kaul said she envisions a future where all financial assets — stocks, bonds, funds, and more — are held and managed through tokenized digital wallets.
“The totality of people’s assets is going to be represented in these wallets,” she said.
The panel, which included Cynthia Lo Bessette of Fidelity, Kim Hochfeld of State Street, and Will Peck of WisdomTree, agreed that tokenization is no longer a theoretical concept. After years of slow progress, real infrastructure is now in place, and use cases are expanding beyond early experiments. But panelists also cautioned that building utility and trust is now the industry’s biggest challenge.
“The idea of bringing an asset and representing it onchain with a token is the easiest part,” said Lo Bessette, head of digital asset management at Fidelity. “The hardest part is building the ecosystem for utility.”
Despite recent growth, adoption remains early. Hochfeld, State Street’s global head of digital and cash, said much of the current work is focused on internal and client education.
“We’re not yet seeing a rush to the door,” Hochfeld said. “We’ve got to experiment… and see what works.”
That includes explaining tokenization’s systemic benefits. Hochfeld pointed to the 2022 UK mini-budget crisis, when traditional fund redemptions created a liquidity spiral. She argued tokenized funds could have served as instant collateral, easing the disruption.
“Here’s your perfect use case,” she said. “It suits money fund managers, collateral pledgers, regulators — everyone.”
Will Peck of WisdomTree said client interest is growing, particularly from crypto-native firms managing stablecoin treasuries or seeking yield-bearing assets that stay on-chain. He compared today’s tokenization wave to the launch of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) 30 years ago.
“No one at the time was like, ‘I want an ETF,’” Peck said. “The ETF just worked better.”
That same pattern may now apply to tokenized products. With new “universal liquidity layers” forming on blockchain rails, asset managers are preparing for a future of seamless, global access, and hyper-personalized portfolios.
“You’re not even going to notice it,” said Kaul. “It’s going to be so seamless and smooth.”