On Oct. 16, Nelson Chu was in Los Angeles for the Crypto Invest Summit (CIS), one of the largest blockchain conferences in the world. The event focuses on blockchain investing, building, and mainstream adoption. Previous speakers include tech titans such as Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple.
Nelson was there as part of a panel to discuss the important topic, “Should I Tokenize?”. The topic was part of a track dedicated to security tokens that showcased several of the leading projects and players in the space.
The panelists were in agreement that only certain asset classes should be tokenized, and that we’re still in the early stages of adoption. But, they argued, a technology foundation does exist to give rise to a new asset class with significant potential for secondary markets to emerge.
Nelson then went into some depth on that point, emphasizing that while the technology is in place and markets can be made, the data isn’t quite there yet. There also needs to be an ability to provide data around performance before a secondary market can truly become a possibility, he said.
He went on to explain that the reason public markets are so liquid is because there’s an ability to trade back and forth off of available information, and investors have the ability to mark to market their investment. Until that is possible, there can’t be a secondary market.
Finally, they discussed possible regulatory issues for tokens, with Nelson adding that it will take guidance from the SEC before any of these markets will start to perform as expected.