Why Most Tokenized Assets Don't Trade?

​Tokenization has made it easier than ever to issue a digital asset. What it has not solved is what happens after issuance.

​Across the tokenization industry, the gap between a successful raise and a functioning secondary market remains wide. On-chain assets are accumulating in value, but secondary trading volumes tell a different story: thin participation, limited price discovery, and investors with no reliable path to exit.

​The root cause is rarely the platform or the market. It is the structure. Decisions made during the legal design, token architecture, and compliance setup phase of a project often determine its secondary market fate long before it goes live.

​This DigiShares Connect session examines the structural causes of illiquidity in tokenized markets and what issuers can do differently from the start.

​SESSION AGENDA

​• Reading the data: what secondary trading volumes in tokenized markets actually look like today • Legal structure and liquidity: how SPV, fund, and direct issuance models each shape the secondary market differently • Token standard selection: how the choice of standard defines your eligible investor universe before you launch • Market maker economics in RWA markets: why they are hard to attract and what changes that calculus • Settlement infrastructure: the fiat offramp problem and why it keeps institutional participants on the sidelines • Designing for liquidity from day one: what issuers should be asking before the first token is minted

​WHO THIS IS FOR

​Asset issuers at any stage of a tokenization project, platform operators building or assessing secondary market infrastructure, fund managers evaluating tokenized products, and investors who want a realistic picture of liquidity in this market.