While stablecoins dominate the headlines and tokenization moves closer to institutional reality, the real work of bringing traditional assets on-chain is happening quietly in the background.
Dave Hendricks, founder and CEO of Vertalo, has been building that infrastructure for years. Hendricks is a serial entrepreneur with previous exits including LiveIntent and CheetahMail, and experience at Oracle and Arthur Andersen. Hendricks leads Vertalo’s effort to modernize transfer agencies and tokenization for real assets at scale.
In this Q&A, he cuts through the noise around crypto policy, explains why stablecoins were on the rise in 2025, and outlines what it will take for tokenized securities and private assets to reach their next phase.
When we first spoke in 2023you offered a response to PayPal’s launch of a new stablecoin built on the Ethereum blockchain. Fast forward to this month, and Visa launches stablecoin advisory. What is your opinion on how far we have come when it comes to RWAs, tokenized securities, stablecoins, etc.?
Hendriks: It’s clear that we’ve come a long way since the start of 2023. Three years ago, the commentary about stablecoins was still rooted in the previous cycle’s usage model within the DeFi lending/borrowing protocol, while now of late Stablecoins have emerged as the most controversial issue in crypto, especially in the wake of the Genius actwhich prohibits banks from paying interest on Stablecoins.
RWAs have come a long way, but are still a small part of the markets that can be accessed, with robust activity in the shoulder categories, which I classify as Institutional (Treasuries and private REPOs by consent and other similar activities) and Marginal (L1s issues non-recourse tokens without underlying collateral).
Institutional RWA is leading the way, but most of this is largely federal and privately authorized and not accessible or investable to the vast majority of the market for RWAs, i.e. RIAs or individual investors. I would argue that most of the Marginal RWA is accessible to anyone who understands wallets, but I don’t think these products are investable for anyone looking to protect principal or secure stable returns.
While tokenized equity will likely be a much bigger story in 2026 (thanks for the SEC and the upcoming Clarity Act), stablecoins have become the main story in 2025 as the easiest way for large institutions – banks and non-banks – to enter the so-called crypto market thanks to Genius. Since banks focus on deposits and payments, their attraction to stablecoins is not very surprising, but strangely they now find that they can no longer issue interest-bearing stablecoins. Ironic considering so many believed the Genius Act was a gift to banks and their lobbyists.
Vertalo maintains an ETH store for paying fees associated with creating tokenized stock ledgers on Ethereum. What has changed for the company in the past year?
Hendriks: As one of, if not the only, true software company focused on digital transfer agencies and integrated tokenization, Vertalo continues to pursue a different approach to the market than most so-called tokenization companies. Because Vertalo is not a broker-dealer and we do not produce investment vehicles for our own account – only for our clients – we have seen a huge influx of inbound interest who do not want to partner with a company that could trade against them. Customers come to Vertalo with specific problems that third-party websites and consultancies can’t solve, and when customers work with us, they can trust that we – as a software company – won’t cut into their costs by charging BPS on every transaction.
Since we started our Enterprise Software focus in mid-2022, we have not deviated from this approach.
What current trends interest you heading into 2026?
Hendriks: The most interesting trend is the renewed interest in tokenizing and packaging private equity. As a company primarily focused on transforming illiquid investments into tradable and transferable (and fractional) instruments, we are pleased that the market is finally seeing what we saw almost a decade ago, namely that Distributed Ledger Technology is a game-changer in improving the function of asset and wealth management, and specifically for the transfer and distribution of these new financial instruments.
This year, the White House’s crypto-related announcements are –a federal Bitcoin reserve (that led nowhere), a end to SEC supervision of crypto, digital assets in 401(k)s– have nothing to do with the core mission of Bitcoin or other blockchain networks. Has the sector lost its way?
Hendriks: Every few years the ‘crypto’ industry loses its collective mind on something new, everyone drops what they were doing, the monkey-in, the room gets crowded, some people get stretched, some names get called, and people complain that things are different than when they started, so they’re unhappy. This happens in every cycle, and this one is no different. The government will help normalize normal activities, and shadowy players will continue to rise and fall. Nothing new!
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