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.
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.
Meanwhile, ownership of stocks, bonds, and funds clusters heavily in advanced economies, among already brokered households.
Why Coinbase Advocates for Permissionless Rails
Coinbase’s argument extends beyond the importance of tokenization; it emphasizes that permissionless tokenization is essential for the unbrokered 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.
Tokenization is Already a Reality
This report emerges as tokenization is transitioning from conceptual pitches to actual implementation across both the cryptocurrency and traditional finance sectors.
For instance, Franklin Templeton’s tokenized US money market fund shares, issued on public blockchains, provide investors with onchain fund units that can settle faster while remaining compliant with existing securities regulations.
In the banking sector, JPMorgan operates a live Tokenized Collateral Network on its Kinexys platform. This network utilizes blockchain-based tokens representing assets such as money market fund shares to facilitate more efficient collateral movement between institutional clients, while keeping the underlying assets recorded on the bank’s balance sheet.
Furthermore, the New York Stock Exchange announced a plan on Monday for a 24/7 trading venue dedicated to tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This venue will feature blockchain-based post-trade infrastructure and stablecoin settlement capabilities.
The release of the report coincides with the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated in a post on X that he intended to use these meetings to discuss market structure legislation, tokenization, and what he described as economic freedom through updated financial systems.