Key points

  • Tokenized repurchase agreements now process about $300 billion to $350 billion a day, still a fraction of the roughly $13 trillion U.S. repo market.
  • Tokenized equities show more trading outside traditional hours and smaller order sizes, but remain less liquid and more volatile than conventional shares.
  • The IMF calls for legal clarity, technology-neutral oversight, interoperable platforms and safe settlement assets before the market becomes systemic.

The IMF measures a market moving beyond pilots

The International Monetary Fund has published a new assessment of tokenized financial markets, finding that the technology is beginning to support meaningful activity while remaining small relative to conventional markets. The October 8 analysis is drawn from Chapter 3 of the IMF’s October 2026 Global Financial Stability Report. It examines how representing securities and other claims on programmable ledgers could improve access, automate transactions and shorten settlement, but also create new channels for stress if adoption accelerates without adequate safeguards.

Repo activity provides the clearest evidence of scale

Tokenized repurchase agreements are the largest current use case identified by the IMF. Daily volume has reached roughly $300 billion to $350 billion, according to the Fund, although that remains modest beside the approximately $13 trillion U.S. repo market. The contrast captures the report’s central point: tokenization is no longer confined to demonstrations, yet it has not reached a scale that changes the structure of global finance. Other tokenized markets remain fragmented across platforms and legal arrangements, which limits liquidity and complicates transfers between systems.

Related reporting: IMF Flags Hedge-Fund Leverage as Treasury Market Risk

Extended hours and fractional trading widen access

The IMF found signs that tokenized shares are reaching investors and trading patterns not fully served by traditional venues. More than half of tokenized equity trading occurs outside established market hours, and about 80% of trades involve less than one full share. Those figures suggest demand for round-the-clock dealing and fractional ownership. Programmable infrastructure could also combine issuance, trading, settlement and servicing more efficiently, reducing reconciliation work and making some transactions faster. The Fund nevertheless treats these gains as potential benefits rather than guaranteed outcomes.

Liquidity remains the main weakness

Independent reporting by Cointelegraph on the IMF chapter said tokenized equities were less liquid than their conventional counterparts and showed about 1.5 times their realized volatility. Thin markets can produce wider price moves when participants need to sell quickly. If tokenized assets become more connected to banks, funds or leveraged trading strategies, the IMF said pressure could spread through fire sales, liquidity runs and common exposures. Those vulnerabilities are currently constrained by the sector’s limited size, but the analysis argues that supervisors should address them before they become systemically important.

Settlement assets and interoperability matter

The report highlights fragmentation as both an operational obstacle and a source of risk. Separate ledgers, inconsistent technical standards and uncertain claims on underlying assets can prevent markets from functioning as a unified pool of liquidity. The IMF recommends interoperable platforms and safe, broadly accepted settlement assets so that transactions do not depend on weak links or unstable forms of money. Clear rules are also needed to establish who legally owns a tokenized claim and what happens if an issuer, custodian or platform fails.

Policy should follow the activity, not the label

The IMF’s proposed approach is technology-neutral: activities that create the same economic risks should face comparable oversight whether they occur on a ledger or in conventional infrastructure. That includes protections for investors, operational resilience, governance and controls around leverage and liquidity. The full October 2026 Global Financial Stability Report is scheduled for release on October 13. Its tokenization chapter positions the market between promise and maturity—large enough to warrant preparation, but still early enough for legal, technical and supervisory standards to shape how it develops.

Sources

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