TOKENIZATION OF MONETARY ASSETS: FEATURES AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the process of tokenization of monetary assets, consideration of its features, relationship with decentralized finance (DeFi) and development prospects. It is noted that tokenization of monetary assets is the process of creating digital tokens based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain and is currently a technology that contributes to the transformation of the financial services market infrastructure and allows to significantly reduce costs, increase the speed and improve the security of transactions, while maintaining the controlling role of the state in conducting operations and payments. It is substantiated that tokenization of monetary assets is a logical evolutionary process of changing the forms of money, in particular the transition from physical (fiat) to digital assets. Based on the consideration of the characteristics of the forms of money, the conclusion is made that the transition from their paper form to tokenized is accompanied not only by the transformation of the forms of money and information networks for transmitting financial messages, but also by innovative changes (decentralization) in their provision. This led to the conclusion that a feature of the tokenization process of monetary assets is its relationship with decentralized finance (DeFi) and that both processes are interdependent elements of the new digital economy. The advantages of decentralized finance over centralized finance are analyzed. It was determined that a feature of the tokenization of monetary assets is that this process does not apply equally to all forms of money in circulation. Only electronic (non-cash) money held in short-term and deposit accounts in banks, as well as digital currencies of central banks, can be tokenized. The features of the tokenization of non-cash and digital money are considered. It is noted that most countries in the world are working on projects to create and implement CBDCs and the possibilities of their tokenization. Ukraine is also working on a project to introduce the digital currency e-hryvnia into monetary circulation, but this process is currently paused due to the war. It is substantiated that the tokenization of monetary assets is a promising direction for the development of digital technologies, increasing the efficiency of the banking sector and forming a qualitatively new innovative infrastructure of the financial services market due to the presence of a large number of advantages.