State Street, which is one of the world’s largest asset managers and custodian banks, has made history by becoming the first external custodian on JPMorgan’s tokenized debt platform.
The relationship allows State Street to gain custody in blockchain-based debt securities for institutional investors, and further closes the gap between traditional finance and blockchain technology.
The JPMorgan platform is part of the firm’s broader ambition to expand digital financial services and allows clients to trade and settle tokenized debt instruments, which are essentially bonds issued by governments or corporations represented on a blockchain.
First Transaction of $100 Million in Tokenized Debt
State Street celebrated its first transaction by purchasing $100 million in tokenized commercial debt from Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), one of the oldest and largest banks in Southeast Asia.
This transaction is an early indicator that tokenized debt markets can help facilitate institutional investment at scale through greater efficiencies and transparency.
Notably, State Street, which has operated as a financial institution for more than a century, has confirmed that tokenized assets will soon transition from pilot projects into real-world solutions.
State Street’s Expanding Role in Tokenized Real-World Assets
State Street is one of the “big three” asset managers, alongside BlackRock and Vanguard, and was founded in 1792.
It manages $5.1 trillion in assets and has more than $49 trillion in assets under custody.
By offering custody services on tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), State Street is showing that blockchain-based financial instruments are gaining buy-in from traditional markets.
This also shows a greater realization by institutions that tokenization brings liquidity, faster settlements, and accessibility to traditional illiquid assets.
Also Read: Chinese Broker GF Securities Teams With HashKey To Offer Tokenized USD, HKD & Yuan Securities
JPMorgan’s Kinexys Platform and RWA Market Growth
JPMorgan is recognized as the pioneer of RWA tokenization, having first launched Onyx blockchain services in 2020 before rebranding the operations into Kinexys in 2024.
Kinexys, in the past few months, has partnered alongside Chainlink to develop infrastructural payments for the tokenized asset market across institutions.
Further, it helped Ondo Finance in carrying out a cross-chain transfer of tokenized U.S. Treasurys, continuing the trend towards development in tokenized finance.
Excluding stablecoins, the tokenized RWA market that is seeing a 65% growth alone in 2025 stepped to a market capitalization of $26.4 billion, said RWA.xyz.
The explosive growth indicates an increasing need for secure, scalable, and regulated blockchain-based financial products.
Also Read: Ondo Finance’s Tokenized Treasury Product OUSG Now Live on XRPL, Powered by Ripple’s RLUSD
Global Tokenization Developments in Hong Kong and Singapore
Developments from State Street and JPMorgan come as global momentum continues toward tokenized financial products. UnoCrypto reported various updates.
In Hong Kong on July 5th, regulators announced they are planning to issue tokenized green bonds in 2023 and 2025.
The Hong Kong government announced it would also remove stamp duties on transfers of exchange-traded funds in line with its plans to bring digital finance products to market.
The region is aiming to tokenize a range of products, including renewable energy assets such as solar panels and even commodities such as precious metals, to broaden access for a larger pool of investors.
In a similar fashion, Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, announced on the 21st of July that it plans to sell tokenized structured notes on the Ethereum blockchain.
Notably, in same course it is breaking the financial instruments into $1,000 unit sizes to make them more accessible and widely available, beyond their current private clients.
Having traded more than $1 billion in just the first half of 2025, these developments are an indication that Asia is positioning itself to quickly become a crypto hub.
These developemnts aim to soon impact the global rate of adoption of blockchain technology in capital markets.
Also Read: Robinhood to Launch Blockchain Platform for Tokenized U.S. Stocks in Europe