Tokenization involves recording ownership on digital ledgers. It makes it possible for almost any asset, from real estate to corporate debt or currency, to exist on a single digital record that participants can independently verify. At first it was hard for the financial world—including us—to see the big idea. Tokenisation was tangled up in the crypto boom, which often looked like speculation. But in recent years traditional finance has seen what was hiding beneath the hype: tokenisation can greatly expand the world of investable assets beyond the listed stocks and bonds that dominate markets today.