Tokenization Leaves Compliance Infrastructure in the Dust
The GENIUS Act, signed by President Trump in July 2025, marked a significant milestone for institutional digital asset adoption. However, it also exposed a compliance gap that many firms have yet to address: their existing infrastructure was not designed for the unique challenges of tokenization.
Institutional investors expect their exposure to digital assets to double within three years, with tokenized assets projected to reach $16 trillion by 2030. This volume is enough to make transaction surveillance a market-wide issue rather than a firm-by-firm problem.
Compliance teams can no longer treat digital assets as an external curiosity. They need to integrate tokenized activity into their core market abuse and conduct surveillance programs, extending restricted lists and preclearance systems to cover smart contract addresses and token identifiers.