Depending on where you’re watching this from, you’re likely bound by laws from a government with a currency that’s widely accepted throughout the state.
Traditional financial systems force you to convert all value through government controlled currencies, limiting your financial freedom.
If you want to sell anything else you own, whether it’s your car, your artwork, or even your time and skills, you most likely must sell it in exchange for the state’s currency. This means that, regardless of how valuable your asset is to you or someone else, you ultimately have to translate that value into your local currency to participate in the economy. You cannot truly represent or transfer value freely in the form you want; it always has to pass through the lens of the government-approved money. In this setup, the state’s currency acts as the ultimate gatekeeper. It determines what is an “acceptable” value and restricts your ability to move wealth freely across borders or even within your community. Additionally, you are forced to rely on banks and financial intermediaries to store, move, and exchange this currency. Your access to your own money can be controlled or limited by third parties, whether through sanctions, account freezes, or withdrawal limits. Inflation can silently erode the purchasing power of your assets, and you have little to no say in monetary policy decisions.

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Tokenization is the Solution

With blockchain, you can represent almost any asset as a token on a decentralized network. This means you can “wrap” the value of a real-world asset (including real estate, art, stocks, loyalty points, or even your own future labor) into a digital token on the blockchain.
Tokenization allows you to represent any asset digitally, making it globally tradeable and programmable without intermediaries.
This is powerful because you no longer need to convert an asset into your local currency first. You can hold and trade value directly, peer-to-peer, in the form in which it naturally exists. Also, tokens are accessible and tradeable by anyone with an internet connection worldwide, not just those within your state or region. You can also embed rules and logic into these tokens (for example, automatic royalty payments to artists or dividends to shareholders) without needing middlemen. Instead of needing to sell an entire house or an expensive painting, you can split it into thousands of small tokens to make it accessible to more investors. You don’t need approval from a central authority or a broker to exchange or move tokens. You control when and how you interact with your assets.
Tokenization democratizes access to investments by allowing fractional ownership of expensive assets like real estate or art.
There are two types of tokens. Fungible tokens and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

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Fungible Tokens

Fungible tokens are like regular money. Each unit is interchangeable with every other unit. For example, 1 USDC is always equal to 1 USDC, just like how a 1billisequaltoanyother1 bill is equal to any other 1 bill.
Fungible tokens are perfect for representing currencies, shares, or any asset where each unit has identical value and properties.
These tokens are ideal for representing currencies, points, or any asset where each piece is identical and has the same value. Examples include stablecoins (like USDC or USDT), governance tokens, and the native token of a blockchain (like SUI on the Sui network).

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Stablecoins

Stablecoins are crypto tokens designed to maintain a stable value, usually pegged to a traditional currency like the US dollar (USD), euro (EUR), or a basket of other tokens. Most cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin or Ether) are very volatile such that their prices can swing. This makes them difficult to use for everyday payments or as a safe store of value. Stablecoins solve this by providing a digital token that stays (relatively) stable.

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Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs)

When you stake tokens in a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain (like Ethereum or Sui), you lock up your tokens to help secure the network and earn rewards. Traditionally, your tokens become illiquid, meaning you can’t use or trade them until you unstake (which can take days or weeks). LSTs solve this problem. When you stake, you receive a liquid staking token that represents your staked position. You can freely trade, lend, or use this token in DeFi protocols while still earning staking rewards in the background.

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Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

Non-fungible tokens represent unique assets. Each token has distinct properties and cannot be directly exchanged one-to-one with another NFT. NFTs are commonly used for various purposes, including digital art, collectibles, in-game items, tickets, and even proofs of ownership for real-world assets. On Sui, NFTs can go beyond static images — they can represent dynamic or evolving objects and carry complex logic, thanks to Sui’s object-centric design. Tokens are one of the backbones of DeFi. No more monopoly with the state’s currency as the store of value. You can own and express value on your terms, in whatever form you choose, with anyone, anywhere.