Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky has backed real-world asset tokenization as a way to widen access to buildings, bonds and investment funds.
The technology becomes significant when fractional ownership can move as easily as a message, Chesky wrote in a two-post thread on X. He described tokens and blockchains as the underlying infrastructure rather than the main attraction.
“The internet made information liquid. This makes ownership liquid,” Chesky wrote. “This is just the beginning.”
He predicted that adoption would initially feel slow before users begin treating ownership and transfers across different asset classes as routine. The posts did not announce an Airbnb tokenization product, investment or blockchain integration.
Tokenized Asset Value Holds Near $31 Billion
Distributed tokenized assets carried about $30.9 billion in value, with more than 889,000 holders across products tied to government debt, private credit, commodities, equities, funds and real estate.
Tokenized U.S. Treasury products accounted for about $15.5 billion, making government debt the largest established asset class outside stablecoins. The wider market also included nearly $399 billion in represented assets, where blockchain records track ownership or settlement while the underlying instruments remain inside traditional financial structures.
Onchain use has expanded beyond issuance. RWA deposits in DeFi reached $7.44 billion during the second quarter, up from $2.33 billion a year earlier, as tokenized funds and credit products moved into lending and collateral markets.
Solana processed $5.7 billion in tokenized asset spot volume during the same quarter, more than double its first-quarter total.
Tech Executives Expand Tokenization Push
Chesky joins a growing group of technology and brokerage executives promoting blockchain rails for assets traditionally held through banks, fund administrators and transfer agents.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev recently placed real-world assets at the center of crypto’s next expansion after the brokerage launched stock tokens and an Ethereum Layer 2 built for tokenized financial products.
