Tokenizing the World: Arbitrum, VeChain, DWF Labs & UAE Officials Speak at Blockchain Life Dubai 2025
Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization has turn into one among the most credible bridges from crypto to conventional finance. Once seen as an experimental area of interest, it now instructions severe institutional curiosity, with over $32 billion in tokenized belongings reside on-chain, based on knowledge from rwa.xyz.
At Blockchain Life 2025 in Dubai, a panel titled “Tokenization of Real-World Assets: A New Era of Investing” examined how blockchain is reshaping conventional finance.
The session was moderated by Alevtina Labyuk, Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer at BeInCrypto.
The panel featured Brendan Ma, Head of Investment Strategy at Arbitrum Foundation; Antonio Senatore, CTO at VeChain; Andrei Grachev, Managing Partner at DWF Labs; and Khalifa AlShehhi, Chairman at the Metaverse Committee at the UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism.
Institutions Lead the March Toward Tokenization
At the starting of the dialogue, Brendan Ma, Head of Investment Strategy at the Arbitrum Foundation, framed tokenization as greater than a passing development. He described it as the pure development of worldwide markets towards open rails. He defined:
“Over the final 12 months, we’ve seen multi-billion greenback corporations go public. We’ve seen Wall Street embrace digital belongings, cryptocurrency. We’ve seen tokens or tokenization performs by a few of the greatest establishments in the world on blockchains that everyone knows and love. It’s necessary as a result of the institutional market is extraordinarily vital. And I feel we’re nonetheless very early.”
Ma referred to Arbitrum’s inside knowledge. The community secures greater than $18 billion in worth throughout DeFi, funds, and RWA purposes, with round $1 billion already tokenized on-chain. Yet, in contrast with the $100 trillion international fairness market, this stays a fraction of the potential.
He added:
“And I feel we’re shifting in the direction of a section the place virtually each single asset that may be extra composable, that may unlock liquidity, that may be accessible throughout totally different markets, will go on this march in the direction of tokenization. It’s a phenomenally vital alternative, and it’s one thing that mainly each establishment in the world is attempting to know with each arms.”
Ma used Robinhood’s growth in the EU for example of early milestones. Through Arbitrum, Robinhood prospects can now commerce roughly 644 tokenized equities immediately inside their present app.
More than 10,000 transactions have been processed, with cumulative gasoline prices of solely $130. Ma continued:
“When we take into consideration the alternative in relation to tokenizing belongings, it’s about rising inclusion, rising accessibility, rising the kinds of use circumstances which can be seamless. Customers don’t have to know the technical complexity. They can merely commerce and use know-how that works.”
When Liquidity Becomes the Story
From there, the dialog turned to how tokenization is shifting into a company technique. Andrei Grachev of DWF Labs approached it from the investor’s angle.
He defined that two forces are shaping the market’s momentum. The first is the rise of tokenized shares, which create arbitrage alternatives for merchants and improve general market exercise.
Meanwhile, the second is the emergence of crypto-native yields. Grachev identified that a number of banks, together with Société Générale, at the moment are tokenizing fixed-income merchandise and working looping methods on-chain. He argued:
“This is the distribution that by no means occurred earlier than. With a tokenized nature of reward belongings, these merchandise are going to be obtainable for twenty-four/7 buying and selling and settlement. From my perspective, in the close to future, these two markets ought to merge and unlock 24/7 weekend settlement and looping methods and DeFi transparency for trade-free belongings.”
However, Grachev cautioned that yield and liquidity solely matter if holders can exit. According to him, with out dependable secondary markets or enforceable redemption, tokenized belongings drift towards hypothesis moderately than finance.
Grachev confused:
“If we don’t have belief to the tokenization framework, this market might be developed very, very slowly as a result of individuals might be afraid to present this cash, individuals might be afraid to lend this cash or purchase this belongings. And this framework could be very, essential half.”
Regulation as a Runway for Tokenized Assets
Representing the authorities’s view, Mr. Khalifa AlShehhi, Chairman at the Metaverse Committee at the UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism, spoke about coverage as an enabler moderately than a constraint.
“We contemplate the regulation really is a runway, which implies we’d like to verify we path the manner for the know-how to be accepted. Because, as we’re all conscious, that growth is far sooner than the regulation maturity or the regulation growth.”
— Khalifa AlShehhi
He illustrated this strategy via Dubai’s real-estate tokenization sandbox, developed collectively with the Central Bank. In one trial, a complete property that may usually take months to promote was totally subscribed inside minutes. The queue numbers reached 20,000–30,000 members, with a minimal entry of AED 2,000 per investor.
Phase 1 restricted gross sales to UAE residents, whereas Phase 2 will broaden entry to international buyers. A 3rd section will even enable tokenization from architectural plans. To scale back threat, ticket sizes stay small.
Ownership is tracked via a dual-token mannequin, the place one token represents person rights and one other, held by the authorities, secures custody on official ledgers.
Building the Infrastructure of Trust
The session additionally touched on the technical aspect. Antonio Senatore, CTO at VeChain, defined that the sector’s sturdiness is dependent upon infrastructure that customers can belief and simply work together with.
He described blockchain as a “reality machine,” a system constructed on verifiable information that protect the provenance of belongings.
“That’s why real-world belongings are pushing now, as a result of you’ll be able to tokenize US {dollars} or anything on-chain shortly,” Senatore stated.
For him, real-world tokenization succeeds solely when the 4 pillars advance in sync. These pillars are regulation, custody, verification, and requirements.
Senatore additionally highlighted that usability is now as necessary as safety. The best programs, he stated, make blockchain operations invisible to customers whereas sustaining each transaction’s verifiability. This steadiness of simplicity and integrity will decide whether or not tokenized belongings transition from pilot tasks to mass adoption.
For occasion, he cited VeChain’s work in tokenizing sustainability knowledge, the place measurable, real-world outcomes, akin to carbon reductions, turn into auditable digital belongings. It illustrates how clear infrastructure and intuitive design can coexist, turning complicated programs into accessible instruments for each establishments and people.
Three Words for the Future of RWAs
As the session drew to an in depth, moderator Alevtina Labyuk invited the panelists to sum up the way forward for real-world belongings in simply three phrases.
Brendan Ma didn’t hesitate. He selected entry, collaboration, and in every single place. His reply mirrored a imaginative and prescient of RWA adoption that reaches past establishments and borders. Khalifa AlShehhi adopted with belief, entry, and integration, displaying that regulation and inclusion should advance collectively.
Meanwhile, Andrei Grachev stored his reply temporary however daring. “Everything, liquid, tokenized,” he stated. For him, the line between conventional and digital belongings will quickly disappear.
Finally, Antonio Senatore of VeChain took a extra forward-looking flip, specializing in alternate options, customers, and AI, hinting at a future the place tokenized worth and clever programs converge.
The submit Tokenizing the World: Arbitrum, VeChain, DWF Labs & UAE Officials Speak at Blockchain Life Dubai 2025 appeared first on BeInCrypto.
