Solana Executive Nick Ducoff: Wall Street Has Stopped Using the Term Crypto, Industry is in a Tokenization Super Cycle
Nick Ducoff, Head of Institutional Growth at the Solana Foundation, stated at Sibos 2026 that Wall Street has stopped using the term crypto, instead discussing digital finance, stablecoins, tokenization, and tokenized deposits, indicating that the industry is in a tokenization super cycle.
Global real-world assets have surpassed $30 billion, with stablecoins exceeding $250 billion; Solana ranks second or third in both asset categories, with real-world assets nearing $5 billion and 3,000 different tokenized assets on-chain, the largest single asset being the BlackRock BUIDL money market fund at approximately $1 billion.
Ducoff noted that funding and asset preferences favor fast, low-cost, and scalable solutions. Since its mainnet launch in 2020, Solana has aimed to be the on-chain Nasdaq, evolving into a vision for an internet capital market that connects global internet users with all valuable assets.
The advantage of a single chain lies in liquidity breeding liquidity, requiring the coexistence of market makers and takers; currently, seven global systemically important banks are building on Solana, with retail, corporate, and institutional participants coexisting without fragmentation, creating deep liquidity and interoperable tracks.
Tokenized stocks are performing well on Solana, with supply nearing $1 billion and trading volumes several times that; the lending ecosystem is undervalued, including Camino's new CEO Michael Weitz, Jupiter's Juplend, and Loopscale, which was acquired by Orca and focuses on permissioned pools.
Three models of tokenized stocks are emerging: the wrapping model (Ondo and Kraken's xStocks), the transfer agent model (Superstate and Equiniti, which is being acquired by Bullish for $4.2 billion), and the equity model led by DTCC; Ducoff believes these may coexist, with platforms needing to connect all models with traditional finance and on-chain ecosystems.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Nick Ducoff joined the Solana Foundation in the summer of 2023 and has repeatedly emphasized Solana's leading position in real-world assets and tokenized stocks, including that seven global systemically important banks are building on its platform, and that the spot trading volume of tokenized stocks once exceeded 95%. He views meme coin activity as a stress test for network capacity and institutional availability.
The capital pathway focuses on channeling real-world assets and tokenized stocks into lending and market-making protocols, attracting both retail liquidity and institutional order flow through a single high-performance chain, leveraging SEC innovation exemptions and the entry of major funds like BlackRock to transform the narrative of internet capital markets into executable asset migration pathways.
This is similar to the early rise of internet capital markets or electronic trading, with Solana currently transitioning from meme coin proof-of-concept to institutional-level tokenized stocks and lending expansion, akin to early Canton or private chain attempts being squeezed by the liquidity advantages of public chains.
Essentially, this represents a restructuring of the industry chain and a transfer of pricing power: asset issuance, trading, and lending are shifting from decentralized traditional intermediaries and multi-chain fragmentation to a single high-performance public chain, with liquidity network effects giving Solana a first-mover execution advantage in tokenized stocks and long-tail assets, while traditional exchanges and wrapping issuances face pressure from on-chain price discovery erosion.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Liquidity breeds liquidity; a single market outperforms fragmented tracks
Casinos fund laboratories, speculation validates infrastructure
Wrapping, agency, and equity models coexist; platform connectors will prevail