CoinList expands into tokenized asset distribution with 'Passage' as token sales slow

CoinList is expanding into the distribution of tokenized assets as it looks to move beyond token sales, which have slowed across the crypto industry in recent years.

CoinList's new platform, called Passage, aims to improve access to onchain financial products as more assets get tokenized. CoinList CEO and president Scott Keto told The Block that the market for tokenized real-world assets is "highly fragmented," meaning different assets and platforms each have their own compliance rules, eligibility requirements, transfer restrictions, settlement models, and investor onboarding flows. That makes it difficult for applications to offer a broad range of tokenized assets to users.

"Passage is designed to sit in the middle as the orchestration layer that helps issuers distribute assets and helps platforms embed access to those assets," Keto said.

The move comes as the tokenization market continues to grow. Tokenization refers to turning traditional financial or real-world assets, such as stocks, bonds, commodities, and funds, into blockchain-based digital assets. Supporters argue this can improve settlement speeds, global accessibility, and interoperability with decentralized finance applications.

Major financial firms, including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and others, have increasingly pushed into tokenized assets over the past year, helping drive broader institutional interest in the sector.

Keto also pointed to recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission guidance around self-custody platforms and securities access as a potential catalyst for the market.

"That is massive!" he said, adding that it is "entirely feasible (and likely) that any application with users, for example Reddit/WallStreetBets, to enable stock trading on crypto rails without the requirement to register as a broker-dealer."

Passage also comes at a time when token sales, CoinList's core business for years, have slowed across the crypto industry.

"The industry lost a lot of trust because too many tokens had weak to no utility, unclear economics, poor disclosure — generally speaking, little reason for long-term holders to participate," Keto said. "The era of tokens reaching massive valuations overnight based only on narrative is largely over. That is probably healthy for the market."

Keto said he still expects token sales to return, though in a different form than the previous cycle.

"We are not interested in simply bringing back the old ICO [initial coin offering] market. We want to help create a better version of token sales: more transparent, more accountable, more compliant, and more useful to the networks and applications being launched," he said.

As for Passage itself, the platform is built on the same infrastructure CoinList developed over the years for token sales, including identity verification, investor eligibility checks, compliance workflows, and asset distribution. CoinList migrated those systems onchain last year under a non-custodial model.

"Those same primitives apply far beyond token sales," CoinList said.

The company said Passage is essentially designed to help issuers distribute assets compliantly, help platforms integrate onchain financial products more easily, and help investors access new types of opportunities directly through apps they already use.

CoinList recently integrated with Superstate’s Opening Bell platform, which enables companies to tokenize stock and raise capital through onchain direct issuance programs. Through Passage, CoinList users and connected distribution partners will be able to access supported Superstate offerings.

CoinList said it is also working with Peaq and Dualmint to offer tokenized yield opportunities, adding that more details about the first available asset will be announced later.