https://thenextweb.com/worldofbanking/2018/06/05/now-that-everything-can-be-tokenized-banks-are-taking-notice/

There is an estimated $256 trillion worth of assets in existence. These include gold, oil, stocks, and real estate, among other things, which people are investing in all around the world. Notably, though, many of these assets are still illiquid, physically difficult to subdivide or transfer, and are transacted via a paper trail. Today, how people see and trade these assets is becoming outdated as a new form of managing assets takes shape.

With the advent of the blockchain, asset ownership is slowly beginning to move from analog to digital. Over the last year, the launch of countless initial coin offerings (ICOs) have proven how successful owning something on the blockchain can be. It has also shown that almost anything can be placed on the blockchain while everything of value can be tokenized; material items including homes, but also immaterial things such as knowledge, genetic data, and ideas.