Centrifuge CEO Says Tokenizing Assets Is Easy – Using Them Is Harder

Switzerland-based Centrifuge, founded in 2017, is a tokenization platform that helps asset managers bring funds and other assets onchain and connect them with DeFi. The protocol had $1.63bn in total value locked (TVL) as of 20 Aug, according to DefiLlama, with $76.3mn in active loans. Its native token, CFG, had a market capitalization of about $51.7mn.

"Tokenizing an asset is the easy part. What's the hard part now is what happens then?" Illuminati told Sandmark in an interview at SALT Wyoming, an investment conference run by Anthony Scaramucci's SkyBridge. Tokenization refers to the process of putting traditional assets, such as stocks or bonds, onchain.

The comments come as tokenization grows, with banks and asset managers moving more traditional financial products onto blockchains. But as the market expands, the focus is now shifting to creating more demand, liquidity and uses for those assets.

The value of distributed tokenized assets reached $38.4bn as of 20 Aug, up about 45% over the past year, according to RWA.xyz, a data provider that tracks tokenized assets.

"It's not just about tokenizing that asset, but it's about actually growing that asset," Illuminati said. That could mean making tokenized assets easier to trade or allowing investors to use them as collateral, borrow against them or put them into DeFi strategies.

Buyers are showing up

Illuminati said one of the biggest changes over the past year is that tokenized assets are starting to see more demand – though from a low base. In the past, asset managers could put funds onchain without investors actually using them. 

"So it is just cost with no benefit," Illuminati said. However, that has started to shift as stablecoins, lending markets and DeFi vaults create more uses for tokenized assets, including as sources of yield and diversification. 

RWA.xyz found a similar trend, noting in a February research report that demand for tokenized Treasuries grew as onchain investors looked for higher yields, while tokenized private credit gained more uses by being connected to DeFi lending markets.

"There's actual distribution for these products onchain," she said. Illuminati explained that this means assets are not simply represented on a blockchain, but are actually bought and used by onchain investors.

Tokenized US Treasuries have been one of the biggest winners of growing demand for tokenized assets, reaching $16.15bn in distributed value as of 20 Aug, according to RWA.xyz. The sector had 65,660 holders, up 4.5% over the previous week.

That emerging demand is now attracting larger institutions – though not always for the reasons Illuminati thinks matter most.

Wall Street focused on efficiency

Illuminati said banks and other traditional financial (TradFi) firms have come to understand the benefits of tokenization, but many are still focused on using blockchain to make existing processes more efficient.

"BNY, JPMorgan, DTCC and a lot of these institutions that are embracing tokenization, they're just using it for operational efficiencies," Illuminati said. BNY, formerly Bank of New York Mellon, is the largest US custody bank; DTCC clears and settles the bulk of US securities trades.

Blockchain can make settlement faster and allow assets to move around the clock. But Illuminati said some firms are missing the broader uses that come from connecting tokenized assets with DeFi. 

For example, tokenized assets can be used as collateral, borrowed against or put into other investment strategies. Centrifuge is already testing this. In February, it partnered with stablecoin protocol Resolv to use up to $100mn of tokenized AAA-rated collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) – pooled corporate loans repackaged as tradable securities – as collateral. The assets were deployed on Aave Horizon, the institutional arm of DeFi lending protocol Aave (AAVE).

Illuminati said the gap between tokenizing assets and putting them to use in DeFi is partly due to TradFi firms having limited experience. "There's so much more opportunity to innovate beyond just tokenizing the asset," she said.

The stablecoin flywheel

While Wall Street is the cautious adopter, Illuminati points to a less obvious source of future demand: machines. She discussed how artificial intelligence (AI) could shape the tokenization market, arguing that AI agents could become a new source of demand for onchain assets.

"AI needs stablecoins and stablecoins need tokenized assets," she said. 

AI agents are already gaining traction among businesses, with about 53% of organizations surveyed by KPMG in June saying they had deployed AI agents in the second quarter of 2026. Those deployments are not evidence of demand for onchain assets, and Illuminati's argument is that the link runs through stablecoins. Meanwhile, 18% were using multiple agents across workflows.

Still, Illuminati said AI agents cannot easily use traditional financial services, but stablecoins could give them a way to hold and move money onchain. "An AI agent can't create a bank account, they don't interact with a broker dealer, they can't hold a US dollar, they can't get a credit card," she added.

Stablecoin issuers, meanwhile, need assets to back their tokens. Most stablecoins today are backed by cash and short-term Treasuries held in conventional accounts. Illuminati's argument is that moving that backing onchain, in tokenized form, would let reserves settle and move as fast as the tokens they support. Illuminati explained this could create an "incredible flywheel" between AI agents, stablecoins and tokenized assets.

For now, Centrifuge is not waiting. It is already building its technology so AI agents could eventually interact with it, Illuminati said – "in a way that doesn't lock us into a specific timeline, because I don't know when that's going to happen."