6. The Regulatory Imperative
Sections 1 to 4 described what tokenized real-world assets are, why they matter, and who builds them; Section 5, still to come, will cover what can break. Earlier sections left the regulatory questions to this one. Section 3.2 left whether access rules widen as "a question for securities regulators," and Section 3.4 framed the live question as being "about how these markets are supervised rather than whether." Section 1.1 already recorded the regimes that went live between 2021 and 2024. Section 6 asks what those rules actually do for a tokenized asset, and where they still fall short.
Every figure and status in the pages that follow is stated as of 27 September 2026, and none of it is a legal opinion for any particular transaction (Section 1.4).
The Premise
A token that represents a real-world asset is a claim, and the claim is worth only what the law behind it will enforce. UNIDROIT's 2023 principles leave the link between a digital asset and the asset it represents to "other law," including "its regulatory law"1. Law is not something a blockchain can write for itself: European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said in March 2026 that "there is no substitute for legislative work"2.
So this section treats regulation as part of the product for a tokenized real-world asset, asking whether the rules that exist are clear, consistent and calibrated to the risk, rather than whether rules should exist at all: the case comes first, in Section 6.1, then the map of today's patchwork in Section 6.2, the jurisdictions already moving in Section 6.3, and why the regulatory question sits at the center of the rest of this paper in Section 6.4.
What This Section Covers
6.1 Why Regulation Is Not the Enemy of RWAs sets out what the law supplies that code cannot, traces what happened to tokenized stock exposure sold through crypto platforms, from Mirror to FTX and Binance, names the legal wrappers that hold the largest tokenized Treasury products, states the one condition behind the openings regulators made in 2026, and records where rules have slowed, fragmented or unsettled tokenization.
6.2 The Patchwork That Exists Today sets out, layer by layer, the rules in force on 27 September 2026 in eight jurisdictions, where they agree, and where they do not meet.
6.3 Key Jurisdictions Already Moving follows the same eight jurisdictions one by one through the reforms and official programs in motion on 27 September 2026, and closes with a calendar of the dates already set.
6.4 Why the Regulatory Question Is the Central Question, and What Paper 2 Covers traces seven questions the paper leaves open to the legal or regulatory decisions they wait on, weighs the evidence for and against the claim that the regulatory question decides the rest, and outlines what a second paper covers.