This article introduces digital asset tokenization in financial services, explaining core concepts and business use cases for building tokenization platforms on AWS using Amazon Managed Blockchain.

• Digital assets are digital representations of financial assets, typically implemented on blockchain or distributed ledger technology
• Market research shows 76% see tokenization as significant long-term opportunity; $4-5 trillion TAM estimated by Citibank
• Key use cases: cross-border payments, regulated DeFi, CBDCs, delivery-versus-payment, bond transactions on DLT
• Tokenization enables fractional ownership, reduced intermediaries, improved liquidity, and automated smart contract execution
• Traditional asset lifecycles (origination, trading, settlement, servicing) are automated and decentralized on tokenization platforms
• Not all assets suitable for tokenization; fixed income and private equity more constrained than public equities
• Amazon Managed Blockchain Query and Access provide real-time blockchain data and node infrastructure for tokenization architectures

This foundational post establishes tokenization concepts; subsequent posts will cover AWS architectural considerations and reference solutions.