Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley are viewing tokenization as an opportunity rather than a threat to their legacy businesses. The three US-based banks discussed how blockchain technology could benefit their trading operations, international settlements and ability to provide advisory services to clients during their third-quarter earnings calls this week.
While all three have so far only engaged in a limited capacity with the idea of digital assets, they each expect it to become a significant business in the future. However, none of the executives gave an estimate of potential revenues related to the technology.
Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley. Wells Fargo.
All looking at tokenization. 👀
Wall Street sees the potential.
#Toobit #RWA
— Toobit (@Toobit_official) October 19, 2026
Tokenization poses a challenge to traditional finance as it enables the creation of digital copies of financial assets on a blockchain, which can be traded more freely and quickly than traditional instruments.
Goldman Sachs is focussed on the potential of tokenization to facilitate increased trading volumes and has built an internal platform for issuing tokenized assets, GS DAP, which it launched in 2022.
“The technology will create new products, drive volume and enhance accessibility for clients,” Chief Executive Officer David Solomon noted when discussing the potential for this innovation.
ICYMI: 🏦 Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon says tokenization is expanding the bank’s addressable market, noting the firm joined DTCC’s tokenization service in July and is assessing scalable use cases. https://t.co/jsCMB1UPGt
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) October 19, 2026
Meanwhile, some analysts believe that tokenization, along with the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi) and prediction markets, could disrupt traditional trading markets, but Mr. Solomon expects tokenization to lead to a similar disruption to the markets for stocks and bonds as the transition to electronic trading in recent decades.
Goldman Sachs is already capitalizing on the trend, having invested in developing its own software for tokenized assets and participated in a tokenization trial in July with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, an industry utility that supports the US financial markets.
Mr. Solomon noted the potential for the technology to reduce costs and automate transactions while facilitating faster settlement of trades and increased liquidity of assets.
“Costs are lower and processes are more efficient, but this is still a small business for us,” he added.
Wells Fargo is already leveraging tokenization for faster international payments as it seeks to meet demand for faster settlement of cross-border transactions.
“There are certain deposits in our international payment business where funds are now being deposited in the beneficiary’s account in two minutes or less,” said Chief Financial Officer Michael Santomassimo.
The bank is also considering the potential of tokenization for its securities settlement business as well as its real-world assets and crypto custody services for wealth management clients, to enable more transactions to settle instantly.
However, the bank has not yet stated when any of these additional services would launch. Morgan Stanley is considering the implications of tokenization for its advisory services for institutional investors.
“The faster it becomes to execute trades electronically, the more challenging it may be for investors to make decisions about where to place their money,” noted Chief Financial Officer Sharon Yeshaya.
As such, she believes clients will need guidance from Morgan Stanley in a world where assets can change hands almost instantly. The bank has been investing heavily in digital innovation across its wealth management and institutional securities businesses.
All three banks are set to benefit from the growth in demand for tokenization services and each sees significant potential in being able to provide enhanced services to clients by leveraging this new technology.
However, as each has only invested limited resources in the space so far, their comments suggest that they are focussed on exploring how blockchain-based assets could complement their existing offerings, rather than disrupt them.
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