The internet made information liquid. Tokens make ownership liquid, says Brian Chesky.

Brian Chesky says the tokenization trend is only going to increase.

Brian Chesky is the co-founder and chief executive of Airbnb and one of the world's richest people. While he's extremely bullish on the tokenization of real-world assets, he says the key will be trust in the system that hosts it.

In a posting on X Tuesday, Chesky outlined his thoughts on the adoption of real-world assets - "a piece of a building, a bond, or a fund" - on the blockchain. Tokenization allows investors to own fractions of an asset, rather than the whole thing and blockchain hosting - theoretically, at least - enables the payment, settlement, change of ownership and custody on a digital ledger.

Chesky reckons that the tokens and the blockchain eliminates most of what he calls "friction" from ownership and investment by making settlement immediate, fractional investments feasible and round-the-clock markets that are, crucially, decentralized. The analogy he draws is this: "The internet made information liquid. This makes ownership liquid."

Tokenized outstanding capital over time (excluding stablecoins)

However, for the technology to really develop momentum and take-up, it will require that investors trust the system behind the token and the blockchain. Chesky cites the example of founding Airbnb $(ABNB)$; for people to commit to sharing their homes, Airbnb had to convince them with governance and a trustworthy support system.

Similarly, with the tokenization of real-world assets, be they property, art, commodities and so on, trusting the management and custodianship is what will drive adoption and usage.

Chesky's thoughts follow on from an appearance by Robinhood (HOOD) chief executive Vlad Tenev on CNBC recently in which he insisted that his company's long-term objective was to develop tokenized assets on the Robinhood chain. Tenev disappointed some retail crypto enthusiasts by insisting these tokens offered more potential than "assets without underlying utility," which was interpreted as meaning memecoins.

Chesky's aim is to facilitate token ownership and make it the most straightforward way to invest to the point at which, eventually, it becomes the default method.

-Jules Rimmer

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July 14, 2026 07:27 ET (11:27 GMT)

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