Stock tokenization opens a new chapter in the Blockchain devouring the world.

In 2011, an article titled "Software Is Eating the World" was published in The Wall Street Journal, asserting that software is changing the world at an unprecedented speed and scale. This assertion came from a well-known technology investor.

More than a decade has passed, and we have witnessed the rapid development of the internet, giving birth to a batch of companies with a market value exceeding hundreds of billions. Even today, this viewpoint still holds, as artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape the world in new ways. Some argue that AI is consuming software, but it all seems to have started in 2011, after all, many of the social platforms we commonly use today experienced their explosion that year.

Today, more than a decade after the emergence of blockchain technology, we have finally ushered in the beginning of "blockchain devouring the world," and this starting point is the actual implementation of tokenization in the US stock market.

Although tokenization of US stocks is not a new phenomenon, and has even been partially implemented in some now-defunct crypto exchanges, the companies entering this field are no longer limited to purely crypto firms, but also include some well-known internet finance companies.

Recently, a well-known online trading platform announced the launch of stock token trading services based on a certain blockchain network in Europe, and will tokenize the equity of some unlisted companies, including several highly watched tech companies. This news has caused a huge stir in the financial world and has driven the company's stock price to a historic high.

Currently, the total market capitalization of the global cryptocurrency market is approximately $3.4 trillion, while the total market capitalization of the global stock market is about $135 trillion, which is nearly 40 times greater. In other words, the final market size for tokenized stocks could reach $135 trillion, and as this market capitalization continues to grow, the potential space will further expand.

However, the current market share of stock tokenization may be less than 0.1%. It can only be said that the industry has ushered in a true explosive growth when this ratio exceeds 3%. This is precisely the future market that emerging trading companies are targeting, and it is also the real growth point of blockchain technology.

If this trend is realized, the impact brought by blockchain and cryptocurrency may be no less than the shock of "software eating the world."

The next 1-2 years are expected to be a rapid development period in this field, with more companies joining and forcing some traditional financial service companies to transform. The door to this trend has already been opened.

However, stock tokenization is not the end point of blockchain technology, but just an important step in it. At the end of last year, a well-known entrepreneur released a proposal on the development of digital assets in the United States. He predicted that the global digital capital market is expected to grow from $20 trillion to $280 trillion, while the digital asset market (excluding Bitcoin) could grow from $1 trillion to $59 trillion.

Currently, we are facing three important turning points: First is the global demand for stablecoins; second is the continued growth of on-chain government bonds and money market funds, known as the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA); and third is the beginning of stock tokenization.

The ultimate scale mentioned by this entrepreneur refers to the market after all these assets are put on-chain, as well as the potential arrival of true "everything on-chain". Although this concept has been mentioned for years, from the bustling security token offerings (STO) in 2018 to the current RWA and stock tokenization, we have finally reached a critical point. Although the road ahead is still long and full of challenges, this process has already begun.

Although these data may seem a bit unrealistic now, it's just like saying ten years ago that Bitcoin would reach $100,000, which was equally dramatic and absurd. And now, Bitcoin has surpassed $110,000 and is still continuously setting new historical highs.

In the foreseeable future, we can see that blockchain is reshaping the presentation of assets and the way value is transferred, while whether it will reshape the way information is communicated remains to be seen. At the same time, AI is changing the way information is obtained and bringing about a productivity revolution. Today, these two technologies are on the eve of an explosion.

Interestingly, the backgrounds of these two technologies have been lurking for over 10 years, from being ignored to being filled with bubbles, and then to value reconstruction. Perhaps it is time to welcome a new technological revolution.

So, who will be the next big player to enter the field of tokenized stocks? We shall wait and see.