Choosing your role in RWA

At the foot of a face, the guide asks himself which summit to reach, and even more which route suits his party, its strength, its equipment and the day’s conditions. The same mountain offers an easy ridge for beginners and a demanding couloir for seasoned climbers. The summit matters less than the route chosen to reach it.

This sixth part is addressed to those who want to start a business in RWA. It begins with the most important and most often neglected question, that of the role to play. Chapter 10 showed that the value chain of a tokenised asset has six links, and that nobody, not even BlackRock, performs them all alone. Choosing your link means choosing your regulatory status, your capital, your team, your partners, your business model and your risks. Everything else follows from it.

Seven possible roles

The first role is that of the originator who tokenises his own assets. A developer, a property company, a property dealer, a hotel operator or a company wanting to finance its equipment chooses to raise funds by issuing tokenised securities backed by its assets. He knows the asset better than anyone. He entrusts structuring, technology, distribution and custody to partners. It is the most natural entry point for a professional in real estate or in a real asset sector.