The Tokenized Economy Is Here. Banks Are Writing the Playbook.

In my last article published for Consulting Magazine, I argued that Industrial Loan Company charters (ILCs) were creating a new advisory frontier where banking meets commerce. The tokenized economy is the next chapter in that same story, and the implications extend well beyond financial services.

Tokenization, the process of converting rights to an asset into a digital token on a blockchain, is no longer a crypto curiosity. In 2026, it is becoming infrastructure. Stablecoin transaction volumes reached $33 trillion in 2025, a 72% increase over the prior year and roughly double the volume processed by Visa. JPMorgan’s Kinexys platform processes more than $5 billion in daily transactions using tokenized deposits. Citigroup’s Token Services now enables institutional clients to move tokenized deposits across jurisdictions in near-real time. The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation is fully active, with its tokenized asset market projected to reach 2 trillion euros by 2028. And in the United States, the GENIUS Act has established the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, with the OCC and FDIC both issuing proposed rules in early 2026.

What Banks Are Actually Building

The financial services industry is the highest-fidelity laboratory for tokenization because it operates under the strictest regulatory, risk and compliance requirements. The lessons being learned right now are more rigorous and transferable than examples from less-regulated industries.

In the United States, the largest banks are building tokenized deposit platforms that convert traditional bank deposits into programmable digital instruments. These deposits settle on blockchain rails but remain within the regulated banking system, fully insured and fully compliant. The advantage over stablecoins issued by non-bank entities is that tokenized deposits maintain the bank’s balance sheet relationship with the depositor, preserving the funding model that underpins lending. For banks, this creates new fee-based revenue from programmable payment services, 24/7 settlement capabilities and smart-contract-enabled treasury management without ceding the customer relationship to a fintech intermediary.

Credit unions are approaching the same opportunity through a different lens. Their member-trust model and cooperative structure make them natural candidates for tokenized loyalty programs, micro-investment products and community-based digital asset strategies. The scale is smaller, but the strategic logic is identical: convert an existing relationship asset into a programmable, monetizable digital product. Several credit union service organizations are exploring tokenized member rewards that function across participating institutions, creating network effects that individual credit unions cannot achieve alone.

Globally, divergence is instructive. European banks under MiCA are already operating live tokenized securities platforms with regulatory passporting across the EU. Asian financial institutions, particularly in Singapore and Hong Kong, are embedding digital asset services into super-app ecosystems where banking, payments and commerce converge on a single platform. Both regions are further advanced in cross-border tokenized payments and central bank digital currency pilots than the United States, though the GENIUS Act is closing the regulatory gap rapidly.

The Cross-Industry Translation

The strategic question many clients are asking in 2026 takes some version of the same form: How do we create new revenue streams in a platform economy, and how do we turn existing assets, data or customer relationships into monetizable digital products?

Tokenization provides a concrete answer. The governance frameworks, monetization models and risk architectures that banks are building right now are directly applicable across industries.

A manufacturer can tokenize supply-chain invoices, enabling deep-tier financing that extends working capital to second- and third-tier suppliers while creating transparent, auditable payment trails. Supply-chain tokenization applications are projected to exceed $15 billion in value by the end of this year. An energy company can tokenize renewable energy credits or carbon offsets, embedding verified environmental metrics into each token and enabling peer-to-peer trading on transparent markets. A healthcare system can explore tokenized approaches to patient data rights, improving interoperability while maintaining privacy controls. A retailer can create tokenized loyalty instruments that operate across ecosystem partners, converting a closed-loop cost center into an open-network revenue generator.

In each case, the underlying pattern is the same one banks are pioneering: Take an existing asset or relationship, make it programmable and portable, settle it on infrastructure that operates continuously, and create new fee-based economics around the transaction. Government agencies represent another significant opportunity. Stablecoin-based benefits disbursement can reduce friction in aid distribution, lower administrative costs and provide auditable payment trails that traditional systems cannot match.

The consultants who will capture this work are the ones who can bridge the gap between the technical infrastructure and the business model transformation. Tokenization is not an IT project. It is a revenue model redesign that happens to require new technology. Framing it that way, rather than leading with blockchain, is the difference between a strategic engagement and a proof-of-concept that goes nowhere.

The Risk Framework Consultants Need

The reason banking provides the most useful case studies is precisely because it operates under constraints that other industries will eventually face. Every client exploring tokenization will encounter the same categories of risk that banks are navigating now.

Regulatory risk is the most visible. The GENIUS Act establishes reserve requirements, custody standards and supervisory oversight for payment stablecoins. MiCA imposes licensing, capital and disclosure obligations across the EU. Consultants advising clients on tokenization strategies need to understand that regulatory frameworks are converging globally toward bank-grade standards for any entity issuing or managing tokenized instruments. What is permissionless today will be regulated tomorrow.

Liquidity risk, while less apparent, is equally significant. Tokenized assets that cannot be redeemed at par value during periods of market stress pose systemic vulnerabilities similar to those revealed by money market fund disruptions in 2008 and 2023. Financial institutions mitigate this risk through reserve management and adherence to regulatory capital requirements. Non-financial platforms tokenizing assets without equivalent safeguards are accumulating risk their boards may not yet understand.

Custody and cybersecurity risk compound the challenge. Digital assets require fundamentally different custody infrastructure than traditional financial instruments. Key management, wallet security and smart-contract audit processes are not optional governance additions. They are foundational requirements that determine whether a tokenization initiative succeeds or becomes a liability.

Operational risk is the one most clients underestimate. Moving from pilot to production requires integration with existing enterprise systems, changes to accounting treatment, new compliance workflows and staff who understand both the technology and the regulatory obligations. Banks that have launched tokenized deposit products report that the technology build was the straightforward part. The operational transformation — changing how treasury, compliance and risk management functions interact with programmable instruments — was where the real complexity lived. Consultants who can manage that organizational change will differentiate themselves from firms that only understand the technology layer.

The Consultant’s Opportunity

The parallel to the ILC charter opportunity I described in my last article is direct. Companies moving into the tokenized economy are entering unfamiliar territory. They lack institutional knowledge of the regulatory, operational and risk management frameworks required to tokenize assets, issue or integrate stablecoins, or build programmable payment infrastructure. That knowledge gap is an advisory engagement.

Consultants who understand the platform economics playbook that banks are writing, and can translate it for manufacturing, healthcare, energy, retail and government clients, will find a durable and expanding practice area. The engagement types are already emerging: tokenization readiness assessments, regulatory gap analyses, platform economics modeling, custody and governance framework design, and pilot-to-production roadmaps. These are not speculative service lines. They are responses to client demand that is materializing now.

The institutions that moved first on cloud and AI built advisory franchises that lasted a decade. The tokenized economy is the next wave, and 2026 is the year it moves from pilots to production. The consultants who recognize this moment will be the ones positioned for the next cycle of strategic advisory growth. The ones who wait for their clients to explain it to them will not.

Paul Schaus is the Founder and Managing Partner of CCG Catalyst Consulting, a leading management consulting firm serving banks, credit unions, and fintechs. With over 30 years of experience as a banker, strategist, and consultant, he also serves as the Founder and Managing Partner of the Bankers Fintech Council.