With BlackRock announcing its first digital fund last week, it’s game on for asset managers and tokenization. A handful of incumbent asset managers have led the way, and none more so than WisdomTree (AUM $100 billion). Now it announced it was granted a trust company charter by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
Not only does this mean it can offer its WisdomTree Prime digital asset wallet to New Yorkers, but it also allows it to launch a stablecoin, the WisdomTree Dollar Token. WisdomTree Prime enables access to a variety of digital assets. This includes WisdomTree’s digital funds, crypto and tokenized gold held in custody by HSBC. The asset manager launched the Prime app in the middle of last year, starting with 21 states. Subsequently, it unveiled a Visa card that lets investors pay for coffee with digital gold tokens.
With the new license, WisdomTree is also an authorized custodian for cryptocurrency.
Will Peck, Head of Digital Assets at WisdomTree and CEO of WisdomTree Digital Trust Company said, “we have a robust initial product offering and a strong plan to grow in a responsible manner with this charter in New York and through our other licenses across the nation.”
As previously reported, during a recent earnings call WisdomTree CEO Jonathan Steinberg enthusiastically discussed tokenization. While the benefits include liquidity, transparency, and standardization, in his view it’s about usability. He believes that tokenization will make investments more accessible and have a similar impact to the launch of ETFs three decades ago.
Talking about ETFs he said, “they thought it might be a niche structure, but the user experience was so much better that it’s actually conquered every single liquid asset that exists. And I believe that the trend line long term for tokenization will be the same.”
