IMF working paper puts governance and legal certainty at the center of tokenization

What the paper addresses

IMF Working Paper 2026/136 examines tokenized finance and the continuing importance of legal certainty, governance and institutional arrangements. The paper was published in July 2026. It should not be presented as a newly adopted set of global rules.

What readers can take from it

The useful question is who remains responsible when financial activity moves onto a shared ledger. A transaction record can make an event visible without settling a dispute about ownership, redemption or an intermediary’s obligations.

For a tokenized product, that means identifying both the technical process and the accountable parties. Who can change the contract? Who handles an incorrect transfer? Where can a holder assert a claim?

Those are practical due-diligence questions, not evidence that a particular product has failed. They also explain why a headline market-cap figure is an incomplete measure of market maturity.

Working papers present their authors’ analysis. Readers should distinguish that analysis from a binding supervisory decision or an official endorsement of a specific tokenization architecture.

Sources

• IMF Working Paper 2026/136

Editorial update — 11 October 2026: Replaced unsupported market and policy claims with a dated, attributed research summary.