$65B Tokenized: IMF Warns Scaling Tokenization Can Amplify Risks

The International Monetary Fund on Oct. 8 released the tokenization chapter of its October Global Financial Stability Report, "Scaling Tokenization: New Efficiencies, New Vulnerabilities," together with a blog post by its authors. The headline numbers: tokenized credit, money market funds and equities total about $65 billion, while tokenized repurchase agreements average $300 billion to $350 billion in daily volume. The Fund's verdict is that these markets remain small, fragmented, less liquid and more volatile than their traditional counterparts, and that scaling them up could open new channels for fire sales and liquidity runs.

Details

According to chapter data cited by Cointelegraph, of the $65 billion outstanding at the end of July 2026, tokenized credit accounted for $30.4 billion, money market funds for $17.5 billion and equities for about $2.3 billion. The authors set that against a U.S. repo market of roughly $13 trillion a day and global capital markets of $300 trillion in assets. Tokenization, in other words, is still a niche, if a fast-growing one.

The IMF also took a close look at tokenized U.S. stocks. "More than half of trading occurs outside traditional market hours, indicating demand for continuous around-the-clock access," the blog says, and "around 80 percent of the tokenized equity trades analyzed were executed in sizes smaller than one share." Realized volatility of the tokenized products was about 1.5 times that of the underlying stocks, with the weakest liquidity found on decentralized exchanges, Seoul Economic Daily reported from the chapter. Overnight moves in the tokens, the authors note, show up in conventional stock prices shortly after the market opens.

The Fund lists four constraints on growth: legal certainty, regulatory clarity, interoperability and a secure settlement asset. "Settlement needs to rely on safe, widely accepted forms of money," the authors write, warning that scaling tokenized markets "can amplify risks, creating new channels for transmitting and amplifying traditional financial risks such as fire sales, liquidity runs, and contagion through greater interconnectedness and leverage." Using private deposit tokens or stablecoins for settlement, the chapter adds, can heighten contagion and concentration risks on top of the issuer's credit and liquidity risks. The policy advice is a technology-neutral approach that removes unnecessary barriers while clarifying the legal rights attached to tokens. The analytical chapters were published ahead of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, which open on Oct. 12.

What it means for the market

The report landed on the same day Securitize launched tokenized Apple and Nvidia shares on Solana and Europe's ESMA gave crypto firms three months to drop stablecoins without a MiCA license. The IMF is not calling for a slowdown, but it reinforces where regulators are heading: settlement in tokenized markets should run on regulated money rather than any stablecoin. For networks where tokenized assets are issued, such as Ethereum and Solana, that points to institutional demand growing alongside stricter infrastructure requirements.

Bitcoin, which the chapter does not address directly, trades near $80,900, down 3.1% over 24 hours as bond yields and oil climb. The latest market snapshot is on the front page.