but: Real estate billionaire Barry Sternlicht is ready to tokenize assets, but says U.S. regulation blocks it

The $125 billion real estate firm wants to offer blockchain-based tokens to clients but is stalled by regulation. What to know : Barry Sternlicht, whose Starwood Capital manages more than $125 billion in assets, says the firm is ready to tokenize real-world assets but is stymied by U.S. regulatory barriers. Sternlicht argues that tokenizing assets like real estate on blockchains could open new ways to raise capital and give investors access to illiquid markets. Praising the technology as "the future," he likens tokenization’s development stage to an earlier stage than that of artificial intelligence and says the world needs to catch up.