Tokens are a new financial wrapper, akin to the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that debuted on US exchanges in 1993, Christopher Perkins said.

Real-world asset (RWA) tokens can democratize access to investments previously inaccessible to retail traders, similar to how exchange-traded funds (ETFs) expanded retail access to financial instruments when they debuted in 1993, according to Christopher Perkins, president and managing partner of investment firm CoinFund.

“I believe tokens are the new ETFs,” Perkins told Cointelegraph in an interview. The executive said tokenized RWAs, which trade 24/7 on globally accessible markets, reduce the information asymmetry that has typically kept retail investors out of private placements under existing accreditation laws. He added:

“Ordinary people cannot access private markets. They're private by their nature. And if you look in the US today, about 81% of companies — this is a BlackRock stat — with $100 million in revenue are private.

Essentially, that leaves ordinary people, normal people, very little access to what are the most exciting, the most innovative companies,” he continued.