During a fireside chat at the Ondo Summit in New York on Tuesday, Jonathan Steinberg, CEO of WisdomTree, said the asset manager’s crypto business is no longer an experiment, but core to its strategy and is on the verge of turning profitable.
He noted that while the company is not currently making any money from its digital asset efforts, it is “in line of sight” of taking the business into profitability. The New York-based firm with $150 billion in assets under management and specializing in exchange-traded products (ETPs) has been investing heavily in digital asset solutions, such as launching tokenized funds and expanding to new blockchains like Solana.
WisdomTree CEO: Crypto Becomes Core Business Through Tokenization
Steinberg said the effort is driven by long-term conviction and is still in its “early days” but is no longer an experiment, as WisdomTree now has conviction and believes that eventually, everything will go on chain. He also highlighted that tokenization is going beyond the crypto community and entering traditional finance markets.
During its most recent earnings presentation, the company reported that its total tokenized AUM grew 25% from $30 million in 2024 to $770 million at the end of last year, with 3,500 active wallets holding WisdomTree tokenized products. Jarrett Lilien, the firm’s chief operating officer and president, said in a statement that it closed 2025 with strong momentum, registering $8.5 billion in net inflows, marking approximately 8% in organic growth and meaningful margin expansion.
WisdomTree has taken aggressive steps to become an early adopter and leader among traditional financial firms when it comes to handling digital assets, launching a suite of tokenized products, and expanding its distribution through WisdomTree Connect – a platform that provides seamless access to tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) like money market funds on the blockchain. It enables businesses and institutional investors to interact with digital funds issued by the company via their own crypto wallets, bridging the gap between TradFi and DeFi.
In January 2020, the Wall Street giant made a strategic bet on blockchain infrastructure by investing in compliance-focused tokenization firm Securrency, taking a lead role in its Series A funding. This move was part of WisdomTree’s broader strategy to integrate blockchain technology into its financial products, including ETFs. Securrency is a developer of institutional-grade blockchain-based financial and regulatory technology.
Steinberg called it a “foundational step” in understanding “compliance-aware tokens” and programmable finance, helping the company build a long-term, interoperable digital asset strategy.
Securrency was acquired by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) in October 2023 for $50 billion. Following the acquisition, it was rebranded as DTCC Digital Assets. WisdomTree later leveraged Securrency’s technology for the WisdomTree Prime digital wallet platform, which offers retail access to its tokenized funds.
“Really, this is bigger than asset management. This is really about financial services. Some of these banks go back a couple of centuries. So they built on legacy, on top of legacy, on top of legacy. There is that modernization that has to happen,” said Steinberg.
For the WisdomTree chief, crypto is more than a product opportunity, as he considers it a new financial infrastructure.
The company launched its first digital fund, WTGXX – a government money market fund – in 2023. Since then, it has added 14 more tokenized funds to its portfolio. In December, the asset manager launched the WisdomTree Equity Premium Income Digital Fund to both retail and institutional investors.
WisdomTree Tokenized Funds Now Available to Investors on Solana
On January 28, the New York Stock Exchange-listed asset manager announced that it has integrated the Solana network for its tokenized investment products. This gives both institutional and retail investors access to its full lineup of funds – spanning money markets, equities, fixed income, alternatives, and asset allocation strategies – via the WisdomTree Connect B2B/B2C and WisdomTree Prime platforms on Solana.
WisdomTree’s existing tokenized funds can now be minted directly on Solana. Additionally, institutional clients can purchase, hold, and manage tokenized positions directly on-chain via Solana wallets, and even interact with the blockchain’s native apps and protocols. The funds can be purchased by converting USD into USDC stablecoin on the company’s stablecoin service.
The move underscores Solana’s growing role as a venue for real-world asset tokenization – an area that is drawing growing interest from global asset managers seeking faster settlement, lower costs, programmable financial rails.
“As real-world assets on Solana surpass $1 billion, WisdomTree’s decision to expand its full suite of tokenized funds to Solana reflects the demand for expanded access to tokenized RWAs and Solana’s ability to support that demand at scale,” said Nick Ducoff, head of institutional growth at the Solana Foundation, in a press release.
At the time of writing, Solana (SOL) is trading at $96.94 – down 6.47% in 24 hours.
