The next wave of wealth creation may not stem from stocks or property, but from assets Australians have rarely viewed as investable such as art collections or intellectual property, available via tokenisation.
Blockchain tokenisation is already reshaping these markets overseas, and local operators say Australia is on the cusp of the same shift, provided regulation keeps pace.
Industry leaders at CloudTech Group argue that tokenisation could open markets previously inaccessible to everyday investors, transforming how Australians allocate capital.
“We’re talking to a lot of asset providers who would love to tokenise their assets – but we need to be able to connect to these platforms so that people can access them,” general manager, custody, Lucia Uen told InvestorDaily.
“It will open up an entire market of different assets that [investors] can access if the plumbing’s all there – between investors logging onto a platform and being able to access everything … not just the ASX, a couple of bonds, and some fund managers.”
Uen, a former NAB executive and traditional banker of 20+ years, says banks remain unfriendly to blockchain businesses, restricting payment access and slowing innovation. “We do think, going forward, they do need to build the infrastructure for the future,” she said.
“For the last five years or so, we’ve been pushing for government to regulate the sector so that, particularly traditional financial institutions, know how they can play in the space. Internationally, global institutions are going into the space .. all the JP Morgans and BlackRocks of the world are doing it.”
This comes as new digital asset laws designed to “unlock innovation and safeguard investment” were introduced to Parliament on 26 November. The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 sets out clear, enforceable rules for businesses holding digital assets on behalf of consumers, aligning them with the transparency and consumer-protection standards of the broader financial system.
CloudTech – one of only two AFSL-authorised digital-asset custodians, and the only one currently live – argues that fine-tuning the legislation is essential for the industry’s success, and that education remains a major gap.
“I think we’re still a little bit behind with regulation … I do think the area that will be particularly behind will be the wealth segment,” Uen said.
The firm points to a significant structural issue: advisers are legally barred from providing crypto advice, leaving investors unassisted and platforms unable to integrate. “Advisers can’t advise on crypto, because legislation doesn’t allow them to do that and they don’t have insurance to cover it,” she said.
“I think a lot of investors who are going into the crypto space are doing it un-advised and doing it on their own. A lot of the mass affluent, high-net-worth individuals are professionals, they don’t really have the time to build portfolios or investigate how to invest in this space.”
CloudTech Group chief financial officer and executive director, Mandy Jiang, said the firm stands out in its approach to risk management and its practical focus on protecting digital assets.
“We don’t play like our peers, pursuing the very short-term returns,” she told InvestorDaily. “The majority of the executives in this companies are actual bankers. We have risk management in our DNA. We have been trying our best to make the company in compliance with all the regulations, we walk very closely with the regulators.”
Fractionalisation will be a gamechanger, Uen said. “Bonds are in parcels of $500k – if you can fractionalise them into $1,000 or $10,000 fractions.. with fractionalisation, a 24/7 market – you will have deeper liquidity for these assets. You’ll have a better price discovery. It will actually be a much more efficient market,” she told InvestorDaily.
Jiang believes property will quickly emerge as a leading tokenised asset in Australia and said a number of large real estate companies or asset holders are talking with the firm about organising their assets.
She also flagged receivables as one to watch. “Receivables is a big one already and people are tokenising receivables because its much like private credit – it’s very difficult to access.” She added, “Income streams, domain names, revenues from movies, recordings – that would really boost the arts industry.”
Jiang noted rising offshore interest in Australia – but also hesitation. “They are very keen into this market, but the regulation is unclear. They’re very hesitant to put the money into these specifics for this jurisdiction. If the country is very clear regulations on crypto or friendly to the companies, the crypto world, I think the money will come in,” she said.
On stablecoins, Uen argues their use cases are compelling. “You need a form of currency on the blockchain to be able to transfer out of. You don’t want to use a bitcoin to buy something. You want something that represents stable currency.
“International payments is one. Stablecoins will make affect transactions, particularly cross-border payments, much more efficient .. secondly, as a unit of exchange on the blockchain, it will enable the emergence of a lot more different assets being tokenised in exchange on the blockchain,” she said.
Without swift action, Australia risks falling behind its peers in digital finance. “If Australia can have clear, legislation here .. I do believe will attract a lot of money coming to invest into the country,” Jiang told InvestorDaily.
Uen added: “As a country, we talk about lifting productivity. So we often talk about blockchain as a financial services, limited to financial services sector, but actually blockchain can be leveraged by a lot of industries.”
The pair say ASIC’s recent guidance on stablecoins is an important step forward “because that’s tokenising money”. Uen noted: “We need a representation of currency on the blockchain to be able to settle transactions. Now we’ve got something that we can use to settle transactions with – and then we can move on to tokenising assets, which can then be transferred and settled with stablecoins much more efficiently.”
Meanwhile, CloudTech has launched CobWeb Pay Mastercard, enabling everyday Australians to use their cryptocurrency for ordinary purchases – a direct response to rising demand from younger clients.
“We know that about one-in-three Australians now hold some form of cryptocurrency and as this increases, so too will the need for efficient and effective ways of turning that investment into cash, so that they can purchase everyday goods and services either in-person or online,” Jiang said.
