SmartCon 2025 featured presentations from more than 100 web3 pioneers and financial leaders, who gathered to highlight the theme,“From Crypto to Capitol Hill.” To delve deeper into the most groundbreaking topics from this year’s event, Nasdaq TradeTalks’ Jill Malandrino interviewed some of the most influential speakers on-site at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Pavilion.
Carlos Domingo is co-founder and CEO of Securitize, a leading tokenization platform with over $4 billion in tokenized securities. He sat down with Malandrino to discuss the importance of reliability, compliance, and interoperability in scaling tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).
Last year, BlackRock launched its first tokenized fund, BUIDL, on Ethereum with Securitize as its transfer agent, tokenization platform, and placement agent.
“I think that when we released the product with BlackRock, it was eye-opening for the industry that the largest asset manager in the world was embracing tokenization and starting to actively participate,” Domingo told Malandrino.
Securitize also recently adopted the Chainlink data standard to price Securitize tokenized funds used as collateral on Aave’s RWA market, Horizon. The initial integration will price VBILL, the first tokenized fund from VanEck, a global asset manager with over $130 billion in assets under management.
Domingo believes these initiatives, alongside regulation such as the GENIUS Act, which creates a federal framework for fully collateralized stablecoins in the U.S., is driving momentum for tokenized asset adoption. As an SEC-registered transfer agent, Securitize aims to provide institutions with the peace of mind needed to accelerate the move onchain.
“There are a number of market participants that are still not fully integrated with tokenization, but it’s happening,” Domingo said.
“It’s coming online and more regulated institutions are adopting the technology. It’s just a matter of time.”
Earlier this month, Securitize announced plans to go public via a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners II at a $1.25 billion valuation.
“We’re going to tokenize our own equity, but we also want to tap traditional capital markets,” Domingo explained.
“We think that onchain offers other advantages and eventually will be bigger, but that’s not where we are today. So tapping the best of both worlds is an ideal situation for us.”
In his view, tokenization’s success has never been about TradFi versus crypto. Securitize’s goal is to be the bridge that allows TradFi to advance by adopting crypto’s innovation.
“I think these two industries will coexist and you will see more people moving across them with regular intermediaries like us,” he said.
“Now we see real adoption, real assets being put onchain, real institutions coming into the space, real investors adopting this technology and that’s a good thing. It’s going to help the industry mature and become 10 times bigger.”
Watch Jill Malandrino’s full interview with Carlos Domingo.