Tokenisation 2026

Open finance and its enemies: Must tokenisers choose progress over revolution?

14 October 2026

1 Day Event: 09.00 to 20.30 London Time

The Aon Centre, The Leadenhall Building, 122 Leadenhall Street, London EC3V 4AN

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68d 19h remaining

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About the Event

This event brings together leading voices from across global markets to examine why tokenisation has yet to scale and what is required to unlock its full potential. The litany of benefits – 24/7 trading, faster, cheaper settlement, reduced intermediation, smaller ticket sizes, programmability, composability, a greater choice of asset classes - has grown stale with repetition. The currently dominant mode of tokenisation can never deliver such benefits, prompting questions about who the enemies of tokenisation are and what motivates them. The killer app for token markets is network effects, now being sought through links with the cryptocurrency markets, but they refuse stubbornly to gain momentum. Whether a cryptocurrency industry tainted by financial crime can ever be a positive influence over token markets is contested passionately. Retail investors are seen as the key to scale, while advocates of institutional money argue the opposite. Despite the liberalisation of laws and regulations, there is no agreement on what pro-tokenisation regulations look like. What is clear is that the tokenisation models which will succeed exist already and have only to master the secret of scale.

Order of the Day

09.00 to 09.45: Registration Opens with Coffee and Biscuits

09.45 to 10.00: Welcome Address: Future of Finance and Gold Sponsor

10.00 to 11.00: Keynote Address – Dr Ian Hunt on ‘Replicating Legacy is Squandering the Promise of Tokenisation: We are Building a Faster Horse’ with Bank of England, the FCA and an Asset Manager (invited not confirmed)

11.00 to 12.00: Panel 1 - Where is the killer app in tokenisation?

12.00 to 12.45: Panel 2 - Is the future of tokenisation retail or institutional?

12.45 to 14.00: Lunch and Networking

14.00 to 15.00: Panel 3 - Is the cryptocurrency industry helpful or unhelpful for tokenisation?

15.00 to 16.00: Panel 4 - What do pro-tokenisation regulations look like?

16.00 to 17.00: Coffee Break and Networking

17.00 to 17.45: Panel 5 - Who are the enemies of tokenisation and what motivates them?

18.00 to 20.30: Networking Drinks and Canapés

Audience

Asset managers, asset owners, issuers, custodians, exchanges (digital asset, stock and cryptocurrency), brokers and broker-dealers, tokenisation providers, blockchain protocols, fund platforms, private banks, FMIs (CSDs, CCPs, ICSDs), regulators and policymakers, and legal and compliance professionals.

All tickets are subject to approval. If your purchase is not approved, you will receive a full refund with no deductions. Refund requests may be made up to seven days before the event date. By purchasing a ticket, you agree to these terms.

Chatham House Policy

All panels are held under the Chatham House Rule to encourage open and candid discussion. All participants are free to use the information shared, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of speakers or attendees may be revealed.

To maintain this environment, sessions are not officially recorded or filmed, and no official event recordings are provided. Following each event, we will share key takeaways on our website and social media.

Panels & Key Discussion Topics

Keynote Address by Dr Ian Hunt on ‘Replicating Legacy is Squandering the Promise of Tokenisation: We are Building a Faster Horse’

Dr Ian Hunt

Independent

10.00 to 11.00

AS MODERATOR

Where is the killer app in tokenisation?

John Willock

Blue Ocean Technologies

Nick Magliocchetti

ST0x

1. Tokenisation is manifestly not scaling. What single thing would do most to increase activity? 2. Why don't successful pilot tests lead to greater commercial succcess? 3. Is tokenisation trapped in a chicken-and-egg paradox, in which you can't have liquidity without issuance (assets to trade) but you can't have isssuance without liquidity (ability to exit to cash)? 4. The efficiency gains of tokenisation are clear, so is the lack of adoption a deadlock paradox, in which issuers, investors and intermediaries are waiting for one of their number to make a major commitment before they follow suit? 5. Have the benefits of fractionalisation, programmability, composability and atomicity been demonstrated in practice as opposed to theory? 6. Are the traditional stock exchanges building tokenisation platforms defending existing franchises, expediting the integration of token and security markets, or galvanising the tokenisation of traditional securities markets? 7. Could the killer app for tokenisation be providing a cheaper, better alternative to the traditional IPO? 8. Might non-native tokens scale more quickly than native tokens because they do not need the permission of the issuer or regulatory clarity? 9. Is convergence between traditional and tokenised markets a delusion because it requires users to support two separate market infrastructures?

PANEL 1

11.00 to 12.00

Dominic Hobson

AS MODERATOR

Is the future of tokenisation retail or institutional?

James Finch

Mobius

1. The lesson of cryptocurrency is that retail pioneers and institutional follows, but retail continues to dominate. Why should security and fund tokens be different? 2. Will the propensity of tokenisation to democratise and disintermediate defeat institutions or be defeated by institutions? 3. Retail participation in Nasdaq stocks is increasing. Is the Nasdaq emphasis on equity tokens as a means of increasing issuer engagement with investors aimed at retail investors? 4. Is the “insumer” model, in which consumers double as investors in a corporate brand, a viable application of tokenisation? 5. Why is it difficult to tokenise alternative asset classes for retail distribution? 6. What additional benefits does tokenisation bring to fractionalisation of assets? 7. Could tokenising the earnings of successful popular artists and sports stars unlock scale in the token markets? 8. How useful is tokenisation as a tool for traditional asset managers to distribute products to Millennial and Gen Z investors? 9. Is tokenisation of flows of value the key to creating personalised investment portfolios for retail investors?

PANEL 2

12.00 to 12.45

AS MODERATOR

Is the cryptocurrency industry helpful or unhelpful for tokenisation?

Mac Mahalingam

Amazon Web Services

Mark D. Garabedian, CFA

Wellington Management

1. What can eradicate the popular confusion of security and fund tokens with cryptocurrencies? 2. Do tokenisation enthusiasts underestimate the barriers - as opposed to the benefits - created by the cryptocurrency-style user experience? 3. Lack of interoperability is a baleful legacy of the cryptocurrency industry. Could the security and fund token industries have avoided it? 4. Does the relative success of tokenised money market funds (TMMFs) mean the cryptocurrency markets are distorting the tokenisation of funds? 5. Corporate treasuries and spot cryptocurrency ETFs are a primary source of both stability and volatility in the cryptocurrency markets. Is their impact on the case for tokenising securities and funds positive or negative? 6. Is contagion risk from cryptocurrency markets inhibiting investment in security and fund tokens? 7. In terms of liquidity provision, do automated market makers represent an advance on central limit order books (CLOBs)? 8. How damaging to institutional engagement with tokenised securities is the use of cryptocurrency and Stablecoins by financial criminals? 9. Is it desirable - or even possible - for tokenisation to break the link with blockchain technology and the cryptocurrency industry?

PANEL 3

14.00 to 15.00

AS MODERATOR

What do pro-tokenisation regulations look like?

Matt Ong

Ctrl Alt

Hannah Meakin

Norton Rose Fulbright

1. Is the lack of "native" tokens a function of regulatory uncertainty, institutional timidity or lack of investment in adequate technology? 2. Would security and fund tokens be more successful if, instead of embracing regulation, they offered a path around regulation? 3. Global token businesses want global regulatory standards, but neither convergence nor competition between jurisdictions can deliver common regulatory standards. Must token entrepreneurs resign themselves to needing (and paying for) multiple regulatory licences? 4. Does the cost of securing a regulatory licence limit innovation by reducing competition? 5. In terms of their ability to promote innovation, are regulatory sandboxes useless ? 6. Should regulators eschew the pursuit of regulatory certainty in favour of more flexible, principles-based regulation? 7. Should tax authorities offer token issuers and investors incentives to issue and invest? 8. Does the combination of tokenisation and AI make existing regulatory techniques redundant? 9. Could tokenisation facilitate a drastic simplification of regulation that leads to a better balance between innovation and investor protection?

PANEL 4

15.00 to 16.00

AS MODERATOR

Who are the enemies of tokenisation and what motivates them?

1. Is the belief of tokenisation start-ups in winner-takes-all economics the main enemy of network effects in token markets? 2. Is investment in tokenisation technologies a misallocation of capital by venture capital firms? 3. Have the conventional public and private equity and debt markets outcompeted tokenisation? 4. Have the biggest banks in the world too much market power to bother with tokenisation? 5. Are wealth managers right to argue that others must ensure the security and fund token markets grow before they get involved? 6. Do lawyers and compliance consultants inhibit token market innovation and inflate its cost? 7. How can security and fund tokens shed their unhelpful association with cryptocurrencies? 8. Tokenisation offers corporates cheaper finance, more accurate valuations of their business, and tighter relationships with investors - and they now have the legal and regulatory certainty to issue security tokens. So why aren't they? 9. Are the benefits of tokenisation sufficient for incumbents to invest in it?

PANEL 5

17.00 to 17.45

AS MODERATOR