The velvet rope around investing is starting to disappear

For decades, one of the biggest divides in investing has not been between stocks and bonds, or growth and value. It has been between the assets that ordinary investors can access and those they cannot. Through savings accounts, brokerage platforms, retirement plans, and public markets, investors have been able to let their capital grow in the background, earning returns on their investments rather than relying solely on income from wages.

But while public markets have broadened access to ownership, they still represent only part of the investment landscape. In the United States, a significant share of companies are privately held, placing a substantial portion of economic activity outside markets most investors can access. 

Some of the most valuable private companies created in recent years illustrate this gap. OpenAI and Anthropic have attracted billions of dollars in investment and reached valuations that rival some publicly traded corporations, but for most investors, their growth has been something to watch rather than own. The same pattern extends across private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and private credit, where many of the most attractive opportunities remain out of reach.

In late May, Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor captured this shift when he said that tokenization could allow investors to “shop” for yield. He claimed that in today’s financial system, banks and other institutions play an important role in allocating capital, assessing risk, and ensuring regulatory compliance. Yet they also influence which opportunities become available to different groups of investors and under what conditions. But with tokenization, banks no longer have the only say in who gets access and where investors can earn returns. 

Recent developments in the U.S. housing market illustrate how these gatekeeping mechanisms still take effect. Rising mortgage rates have pushed many borrowers beyond affordability thresholds used by lenders, contributing to higher denial rates even when their underlying credit profiles remain strong. For those who qualify, access to capital can still involve lengthy approval processes and multiple intermediaries before financing becomes available.

In many cases, higher monthly payments pushed borrowers outside the limits lenders use to determine affordability. Even for those who qualify, financing is rarely instant. Borrowers often face multiple layers of approval before capital becomes available. 

For Saylor, this is the type of structure that tokenization challenges. Bringing real-world assets onchain creates a more inclusive marketplace where investors can compare a broader range of opportunities and decide which best match their financial goals. This ultimately expands access to investments that have been historically limited to institutions or a select group of individuals. 

That shift is already taking shape through platforms building the infrastructure for the tokenized RWA market. Among them is Mavryk Network, a Layer-1 blockchain built for RWAs. Its infrastructure is designed to support the issuance, management, and exchange of tokenized assets, helping bring traditionally less accessible markets into an onchain environment. With Mavryk, users can live full-time in New York but purchase partial shares of a property in Dubai, accessing potential rental income or asset appreciation they might not have been able to achieve through traditional channels. 

The significance of tokenization extends beyond blockchain itself. At its core, it is about expanding the range of assets investors can access and creating additional ways for capital to move through the economy. Without technology that broadens participation, many of the most attractive opportunities will remain concentrated among those best positioned to access them.