WisdomTree Pushes Further Into Tokenization With New Platform

• The WisdomTree Connect platform will be accessible to businesses and institutions, and will allow retail-facing applications to connect.
• The platform will start by using the Ethereum blockchain for tokenization, and investors can purchase fund tokens with dollars or the USDC stablecoin.

WisdomTree is making another push into real-world asset (RWA) tokenization with the introduction of WisdomTree Connect for businesses and institutions.

The platform will complement the New York-based company's recently launched retail-facing digital app, WisdomTree Prime, to "offer complementary digital assets solutions across the entire customer spectrum," the company said in a press release.

Users will be able to hold WisdomTree tokenized funds in their own digital wallets, which can be self-hosted or kept at a third-party custodian. Investors can purchase the fund tokens with U.S. dollars or Circle's USDC stablecoin.

WisdomTree Connect will initially mint tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, but additional blockchains will be added over time, the company said.

The asset manager said that the platform solves a key obstacle in the integration of traditional and decentralized finance (DeFi) in that it allows crypto-native institutions to purchase traditional financial products such as money market funds through yield-generating products using the blockchain.

"With increasing interest in tokenized real world assets, WisdomTree Connect opens up additional business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) opportunities for WisdomTree to provide access to digital funds to on-chain firms without leaving the ecosystem,” Will Peck, head of digital assets at WisdomTree, said in a statement.

Tokenized RWAs are among the fastest growing applications for blockchain technology, with global financial institutions and digital asset firms racing to bring traditional instruments such as bonds, credit and funds onto distributed ledgers.