Tokenization of private credit could unlock transparency and growth, says Kadena exec

Tokenization is one of the hottest trends in digital assets today, but not every asset class benefits equally from the shift. Cesar Pereira, who serves as VP of Business Development for Kadena Labs, says tokenized stocks are unlikely to gain traction, while private credit could be the breakout use case that defines the next wave of adoption.

“When we talk about tokenized stocks, or what I call equities, that's a very mature marketplace today,” Pereira said in an interview with TheStreet Roundtable's Alp Gasimov. “Just because you can tokenize something doesn't mean you should tokenize something."

Why equities are not the best asset to tokenize

Regulators have recently flagged concerns that many tokenized stocks fail to confer real shareholder rights. Pereira said the ownership issue underscores why equities are poorly suited for tokenization.

“Typically, when you're representing an asset in its digital form, depending on how the token has been constructed, the legal ownership of that stock still resides off chain,” he explained. “So I can see where there's a legal debate there, but for the most part I just don't see that as being a viable good use of tokenization.”

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Instead, Pereira believes private credit represents the real opportunity. Unlike equities, the private credit market has long suffered from slow processes, opacity, and heavy friction. “Imagine the ability to take a loan agreement and digitize that as part of a smart contract on a blockchain,” Pereira said. “Now you have transparency into repayment, into interest payments. So the full life cycle of that private credit is now on blockchain in real time.”

He described this shift as an “inflection point” for tokenization, with adoption increasing significantly as institutions search for more efficient ways to manage credit. Treasuries and other real world assets have already gained momentum on chain, but Pereira sees private credit as the category most likely to accelerate next.

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Sep 8, 2025, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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