Michael Tannenbaum (CEO, Figure): Most tokenization projects are solving the wrong problem

Everyone talks about tokenization as if it’s inevitable. But what actually needs to change for markets to move on-chain?

In this episode, I sit down with Michael Tannenbaum, the CEO of Figure, to break down what’s real and what’s misunderstood. We go beyond the headlines and get into how tokenization actually works in practice, starting with credit markets and expanding into equities.

We unpack why most tokenization efforts fail, what Figure is doing differently, and where the real bottlenecks sit today: not in technology, but in market structure, incentives, and fragmentation.

We also cover:

• Why liquidity does not magically appear when you “put assets on blockchain”

• The hidden inefficiencies in capital markets and who benefits from them

• Why debt markets may be a bigger opportunity than equities

• Tokenized vs blockchain-native assets and why the distinction matters

• Who wins and who gets squeezed as tokenization scales

• The real role of regulation and why it is not the biggest blocker

• What capital markets could look like in 5–10 years with AI and blockchain combined

This is a grounded conversation about how financial infrastructure actually evolves, not how we wish it would.

If you care about payments, capital markets, or where finance is heading next, this one is worth your time.