Tokenized Assets Stay Restricted by Investor Rules, Tessera CEO Says

Tokenizing a financial asset does not, by itself, expand who may own it. That is the core argument from Chan Ahn, founder and chief executive of Tessera and a former Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan executive, who told Crypto Briefing in written responses that securities regulation, issuer restrictions and platform controls still determine access to tokenized instruments.

"The ledger doesn't decide who may hold the asset; the legal route it is sold under does," Ahn said. The statement cuts against a common industry claim — that moving securities onto public blockchains democratizes ownership. On Ahn's reading, the blockchain is plumbing; the legal wrapper remains the gatekeeper.

What do the holder numbers show?

Ahn pointed to two flagship tokenized money market funds as evidence: Franklin Templeton's BENJI and BlackRock's BUIDL. BENJI, open to eligible US investors with a $20 minimum for most accounts, counted 1,139 holder addresses as of November 7, according to RWA.xyz figures he cited. BUIDL, which requires investors to meet additional qualification thresholds, showed 101 holder addresses — roughly one-ninth the count.

Ahn attached two caveats to those figures, and they matter. Blockchain addresses do not necessarily map to individual investors; a single institution may hold through several addresses, or many investors may sit behind one. The differences between the funds also extend beyond eligibility rules, he said, which limits how much the raw comparison can prove.

The takeaway: address counts are a rough proxy at best for investor access, not a census.

How do transfer restrictions work in practice?

Eligibility rules also shape how tokenized assets move across networks. Many funds maintain approved wallet lists that control which addresses may receive transfers. Trading platforms can additionally restrict which applications and smart contracts may interact with their infrastructure.

The Bank for International Settlements reached a similar conclusion in a November 2025 report, noting that wallet restrictions constrain direct ownership of tokenized money market funds. When a central bank body and an industry founder agree on a limitation, the limitation is probably real.

Why are 67 companies objecting to tokenization?

Ahn's comments arrive amid a broader dispute over who controls tokenization. Sixty-seven companies, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and SpaceX, have objected to having their shares tokenized on the planned OKXICE trading venue. Their resistance signals that issuers do not view third-party tokenization as a neutral technical act; they see it as a challenge to control over their shareholder registers.

Issuer-led tokenization offers an alternative, Ahn said. It could give investors ownership recorded directly on a company's shareholder register rather than an entitlement through an intermediary. The trade-off is stark, however: the same structure would hand issuers greater control over who holds and transfers the assets. Direct ownership and issuer discretion arrive together.

For broader adoption, Ahn argued, the industry may need shared wallet identity systems — mechanisms that let verified investors access multiple tokenized funds without repeating a compliance process at every platform. No such standard yet exists at scale, and he did not name one in deployment.

What is Tessera actually selling?

Tessera's own products illustrate the structural workarounds. Its T Tokens provide economic exposure through tokenized loan participation rights rather than direct shareholder ownership. The instruments settle on Solana and can move between wallets. The company's terms, however, exclude US investors and certain other jurisdictions — a restriction worth weighing against any access-broadening rhetoric.

Ahn acknowledged that Tessera holds a commercial interest in these structures. He said the firm is exploring permissionless tokens referencing permissioned funds, a design that would widen transferability while preserving the underlying access controls.

He expects tokenization to keep growing along two tracks: within regulated investment products, and through offshore instruments offering economic exposure without direct shareholder rights. The second track raises its own questions about investor protections, which his comments did not address.

The sector's near-term direction now rests on whether shared identity standards emerge — and on how regulators treat instruments that deliver exposure without ownership.