Singapore’s wealthiest and most experienced investors are not waiting for regulators to catch up. New research from digital asset bank Sygnum shows that three in four of the city-state’s high-net-worth and professional investors already own tokenized assets, at the same time as the country’s financial regulator is asking the public whether ordinary retail investors should get access to some of these same products.
The survey, part of Sygnum’s 2026 APAC Tokenization Report, asked already-invested respondents which tokenized products they hold or are targeting. Alternative investments led the responses: 48% pointed to tokenized private equity and venture capital, 47% to private credit, and 45% to commodities such as gold. These happen to be the exact fund categories the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is currently consulting on, as it considers whether to widen retail investors’ access to them.
Tokenization means taking ownership of something, such as a share, a bond, a piece of real estate, gold, etc. and representing that ownership as a digital token that can be traded on a blockchain. If you’re new to the concept, PaySpace Magazine Global has a plain-language explainer on what tokenized money actually is.
Private equity, private credit, and commodity funds have traditionally been reserved for institutions and the wealthy, partly because they’re illiquid and hard to buy or sell in small pieces. Tokenization is often pitched as a way around that problem, letting investors buy fractional, tradable slices instead. Sygnum’s data suggests the demand for that kind of access already exists among sophisticated investors, well ahead of any regulatory green light for the retail market.
The single most in-demand category, though, wasn’t one of those alternative strategies. Across the wider region, 68% of already-invested respondents hold or are targeting tokenized equities, more than any other asset type. That is also the category where regulators are furthest from agreement on the rules.
The core question is what a tokenized share actually entitles its owner to. In the US, the SEC is expected to permit tokenized stock trading under a comparatively light regulatory framework. At the same time, one commissioner has warned that only tokens carrying the same rights as the underlying shares should qualify. Here’s a recent real-world example of what can go wrong. In June, subscribers to certain tokenized shares tied to SpaceX’s listing on popular crypto platforms were refunded after the underlying stock couldn’t be secured. Owning a token isn’t automatically the same as owning the asset it’s supposed to represent. What rights does it provide? That’s something regulation must clearly define. PaySpace Magazine Global also covered a related story on how tokenized stock trading hit a record in July, even as fee-free promotions raised questions about how much of that volume reflects real demand and which share was triggered by special conditions offered.
Among investors who already hold tokenized assets, two barriers stood out when Sygnum asked what’s stopping them from allocating more: legal clarity, cited by 58%, and secondary-market liquidity, i.e. how easily a token can be resold. The latter reason was cited by 63%.
Gerald Goh, Co-Founder and APAC CEO of Sygnum, said: “Investor demand is no longer the question. Asia’s professional and high-net-worth investors already hold tokenized assets and want to hold more. What determines whether that demand converts into serious allocation is expanding access to regulated, institutional-grade financial market infrastructure, greater legal clarity and deeper secondary liquidity. That is the standard this market has to reach, and it is where regulation and industry now need to move in step. The jurisdictions that get it right will capture what comes next.”
