A new Coinbase Institute report argues that the most important divide in global finance is no longer rich versus poor, but between those who have direct access to capital markets and those who do not, which it describes as the “brokered” versus the “unbrokered.”
The report estimates that traditional intermediated rails exclude roughly four billion unbrokered individuals from owning productive assets or raising capital at scale. Closing this gap, it argues, will require rebuilding core market infrastructure so smaller investors and issuers can participate directly rather than through layers of intermediaries.
According to the report, over the last 40 years in the United States alone, capital income grew 136% while labor income lagged at just 57%.
The paper’s central claim is that access to capital markets, not just basic banking, has become the real gatekeeper of wealth creation.
Capital income vs labor income. Source: Coinbase Institute
Traditional systems rely on layers of brokers, custodians and clearing houses, making it uneconomical to serve smaller investors or issuers and leaving a “capital chasm” between the brokered minority and everyone else.
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Meanwhile, ownership of stocks, bonds and funds clusters heavily in advanced economies, among already brokered households.
US stock ownership by family percentile. Source: Coinbase Institute
Why Coinbase wants permissionless rails
Coinbase’s argument is not just that tokenization matters, but that permissionless tokenization is essential if the unbrokered are to benefit.
The report claims that permissioned consortia and closed enterprise blockchain models tend to replicate existing power dynamics, with a few gatekeepers deciding who can issue, list or access tokenized assets.
By contrast, it likens an open, permissionless architecture to internet protocols like TCP/IP, where anyone can build on the same rails and interoperability cannot be quietly revoked later.
Related: Sygnum sees tokenization and state Bitcoin reserves taking off in 2026
Tokenization is already happening
The report arrives as tokenization is already moving from pitch decks into production across both crypto and traditional finance.
Franklin Templeton’s tokenized US money market fund shares, issued on public blockchains, for example, give investors onchain fund units that can settle faster while remaining within existing securities rules.
In banking, JPMorgan runs a live Tokenized Collateral Network on its Kinexys platform, using blockchain‑based tokens representing assets like money market fund shares to move collateral between institutional clients more efficiently while keeping the underlying assets on the bank’s balance sheet.
Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange unveiled a plan on Monday for a 24/7 trading venue for tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with blockchain‑based post‑trade infrastructure and stablecoin settlement.
The release of the report coincides with the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a post on X that he planned to use meetings to discuss market structure legislation, tokenization, and what he described as economic freedom through updated financial systems.
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