In the latest episode of Cointelegraph’s Hashing It Out podcast, host Elisha Owusu Akyaw welcomes John Mullin, the CEO of Mantra Chain, for a deep dive into real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. Mullin breaks down the hype, explores the true potential for investors, and discusses the challenges faced by the emerging technology.

Mullin explains what tokenization means for Web3 adoption and its potential to increase institutional investments, as well as highlighting the state of regulations in the RWA space and what that means for Web3 projects. 

The CEO says that the hype around real-world assets is not new to the blockchain industry and is similar to the popularity of security token offerings (STO) during the 2018–2019 cycle.

Mullin says RWA tokenization is taking off because there is more interest from institutions, and projects are finding ways around regulatory issues, which previously impeded the STO sector.

Mullin takes a more nuanced approach to whether everything needs to be tokenized or not. He explains that anyone can tokenize almost anything, but whether that token grants real-world rights is a separate issue.

To create a truly transferable token, projects must merge the technology and token creation with real-world ownership, corporate actions and legal status, Mullins states. This allows projects to mirror and grant the transferable rights of the real-world product in token form.

Mullin quickly points out that this is a challenge because every asset class has different real-world rules, which vary by jurisdiction. Depending on where the project operates, it must consider different things, making it a challenging yet rewarding industry and product suite.

“And I think that in the longer term, tokenization, everything will be tokenized, in my opinion. I think the whole world will be tokenized. My personal perspective is if Web2 was bringing the world online, Web3 is bringing the world on-chain.”

Mullin adds that the tokenization of real-world assets will likely attract more institutional interest than the space has experienced. He adds that RWA tokenization allows institutions to invest on-chain without dealing with unfamiliar and more volatile assets, such as those in decentralized finance.

To hear more from John Mullin, listen to the full episode of Hashing It Out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or TuneIn, and remember to check out Cointelegraph’s full catalog of Web3 podcasts.