Why Tokenize? Fidelity on Onchain Assets and the Next Phase of Adoption

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Andreessen Horowitz

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4.4 • 66 Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2026

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cynthia Lo Bessette, Head of Digital Asset Management at Fidelity Investments, explains what it really means to bring assets onchain, and why tokenization matters to investors beyond the hype. She walks through Fidelity’s framework for digital asset adoption (Hold, Use, Build), how tokenized money market funds can combine payments and yield, and why real-world assets are accelerating onchain.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We like to think about our product roadmap and really the strategy for how we continue to build this business
0:06.0	through the lens of what does the pathway to the adoption of digital markets look like.
0:11.0	The next phase of adoption we see as being able to use these assets on chain, making these tokenized assets useful to investors.
0:19.0	What is the advantage of doing that?
0:21.5	That is actually the most important question that I think anybody who is looking at tokenization
0:25.9	has to start with, why are you bringing that asset on chain?
0:29.1	What does it get to do on chain that it can't do today?
0:32.4	Who are you doing it for?
0:33.5	And how is that person going to be able to use that asset on chain?
0:41.1	Cynthia. And how is that person going to be able to use that asset on chain? Cynthia, thanks so much for being here.
0:42.7	Thank you so much for having me.
0:43.8	This is a great location and fantastic weather.
0:47.0	We're glad you could make it.
0:48.1	So you're in charge of digital asset management at Fidelity.
0:51.2	Tell us what are you responsible for?
0:54.1	What are you doing? What is going on inside of Fidelity
0:56.2	when it comes to bridging TradFi and Defi? The division that I'm in sits within our asset
1:04.3	management business at Fidelity. This unit was really dedicated and stood up within asset management
1:09.6	only a few years ago with the intention
1:11.7	that from an asset manager's lens, understanding not just how to think about crypto assets
1:19.8	as a new investable asset class, but also what does this technology and the evolution
1:26.5	of our capital markets being driven by this technology mean for an asset manager?
	...

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