Fintech & Digital Assets
PCI DSS v4: what changed for merchants and acquirers
The requirements that were "best practice" until March 2025 are now mandatory. Most of them land on payment pages, authentication and the way risk is documented.
Fintech & Digital Assets
Tokenizing real-world assets: what has to be true before the token
Minting a token takes an afternoon. Making it represent a real, enforceable claim on a building, a fund or a cargo takes legal, operational and technical work that comes first.
Tokenization promises faster settlement, smaller investment sizes and assets that trade around the clock. All of that depends on one thing the blockchain cannot provide: a legal link between the token and the asset.
The legal wrapper
A token holder needs a right that a court will recognise. In practice the asset usually sits in a special purpose vehicle, a trust or a fund, and the token represents a share, a unit or a note issued by it. The documents must say that the token register is the record of ownership, or explain how it relates to the official register kept elsewhere.
Who holds the asset
Somebody has to keep the building insured, the gold in the vault or the receivables collected. A custodian or administrator, independent of the issuer, should hold the underlying asset and report regularly, and token holders need to know what happens if the issuer fails.
Which register is the golden record
If the blockchain and a transfer agent's books disagree, one must win. Decide which one before launch, and reconcile them daily.
Rules that travel with the token
Most real-world asset tokens are securities, so transfers must be limited to verified investors. Permissioned token standards such as ERC-3643 enforce identity and transfer rules in the token contract itself, so a token cannot move to a wallet that has not passed KYC. Corporate actions, such as distributions, votes and redemptions, need to be designed into the contract and the operations behind it.
Choosing the network
- a public blockchain offers reach and liquidity, with privacy and fee questions to answer;
- a permissioned network gives control over validators and data, with less natural liquidity;
- either way, the choice should follow who needs to hold, trade and verify the token.
A note on liquidity
A token does not create buyers. Without a regulated venue, a market maker or a redemption mechanism, a tokenized asset can be as illiquid as the asset itself. Plan the secondary market with the same care as the issue.
Our fintech team works with issuers, custodians and their advisers on the technical side of tokenization, from token contracts to investor onboarding and reporting.
