Asian firms need to get ready for digital assets and currencies

Whether it’s for retail or corporate customers, what banks can offer is not simply execution but preparation. 

“If you build it, they will come,” goes the famous line from the film Field of Dreams. As regards the infrastructure of digital financial markets, whilst it is being built at pace, much work remains on educating clients on and transitioning them to tokenisation. 

It is not a case of lacking awareness. A recent survey shows that an overwhelming majority of businesses and investors in Asia – more than nine in 10 – believe that the adoption of digital assets and currencies will accelerate materially over the next five years, becoming standard in treasury operations and fundamentally reshaping capital markets. 

The infrastructure of digital finance has been coming into shape. The GENIUS and CLARITY Acts in the US have provided regulatory clarity for stablecoins and digital assets, respectively, whilst Hong Kong has implemented a regulatory regime for stablecoin issuers, granting two inaugural licenses in April.  

The direction of travel is clear. But how to get there? Less so. 

According to a survey, roughly half of the respondents do not yet understand digital assets and currencies well enough to assess how their businesses will be impacted, whilst one quarter either do not currently view them as a priority or are waiting for clearer standards and regulation before acting. 

Tokenisation is no longer a niche market sitting at the outskirts of finance. It is already a significant part of the system – and growing. According to CoinGecko, the global digital asset market stood at approximately US$2.6t ($3.20t) as of April 2026, with Asia accounting for an estimated US$1.1t ($1.4t), or more than 40% of global exchange activity. 

Whilst Asia is convinced that tokenisation will take flight, too many decision-makers are, in effect, waiting and seeing while the infrastructure around them changes. The risk is not that they misunderstand where markets are headed; it is that they are unprepared when the opportunity arrives.

The debate about whether tokenisation matters has been settled. Tokenisation will expand the range of investable assets and improve market efficiency over time. As more asset classes become available in tokenised form, the range of instruments that investors can access, and the efficiency with which they can access them, will change materially. 

The question that has not been answered, for many organisations, is what to do about tokenisation and when to start. The role that falls to industry players such as banks is to move clients from awareness to action: Not simply waiting for readiness to develop on its own, but actively building it through education, product development, and the kind of practical integration that makes digital finance tangible rather than theoretical. 

Whether it’s for retail or corporate customers, what banks can offer is not simply execution but preparation: Helping clients understand what digital asset markets will require of them, building the internal capability to participate, and navigating the regulatory frameworks that are still taking shape across the region. 

The gap between conviction and readiness is not a permanent state. It is a moment in the development of a market, and moments like this tend to close faster than expected. 

For businesses and investors across Asia, the priority is to build the understanding and internal capability that will determine who captures the opportunity when the market moves. Those that invest in closing that gap now, for themselves and for their clients, will be the ones best placed to innovate and scale when tokenisation moves into the mainstream.