Citrini says fee-earning platforms may outperform bitcoin and ether in tokenisation wave

Citrini Research, a firm best known for its artificial intelligence coverage and a Substack newsletter with more than 263,000 followers, published a 79-page report on 8 October titled “Breaking the Wall” arguing that the tokenisation of stocks, bonds and loans is poised to create entirely new markets for trading, lending and payments. The central claim is that the companies and crypto protocols collecting fees from that activity may prove better investments than bitcoin or ether, even if both major tokens also rise. The report explicitly cautioned that growing on-chain activity does not automatically translate into higher token prices for the largest assets.

For equities exposure, the report proposed a basket centred on fee-earning intermediaries. Securitize (SECZ) was highlighted for maintaining the legal link between blockchain tokens and the securities they represent. Coinbase and Robinhood were cited for their trading platforms and blockchain infrastructure, while Circle was identified as a potential beneficiary through greater demand for its USDC stablecoin in transaction settlement. Figure Technology Solutions was flagged for tokenised lending, SoFi for stablecoin payments, and institutionally focused exchange operator Bullish for its acquisition of share registrar Equiniti.

Citrini expressed even greater enthusiasm for its separate crypto-token basket, reasoning that if equities, commodities and other financial assets migrate on-chain, the financial products built around those assets should follow. Tokens named in that basket include Aerodrome, Maple, Ondo, Pendle and Derive. The underlying thesis frames tokenisation not as a catalyst for broad crypto market appreciation but as a structural shift that rewards specific infrastructure layers and fee-generating protocols over general-purpose reserve assets.