Tokenisation to change SMSF landscape
The tokenisation with regard to the ownership structure of conventional assets will have a profound impact on SMSF holdings and compliance.
The tokenisation with regard to the ownership structure of conventional assets will have a profound impact on SMSF holdings and compliance.
A key industry stakeholder has forecast the impact asset tokenisation will potentially have on the SMSF sector and the challenges a shift to this type of ownership structure will raise.
Tokenisation is the process of creating digital ownership of an existing asset and usually involves breaking it down into a collective of smaller pieces.
“For example, instead of one investor needing to buy a $10 million property, the ownership could potentially be divided into thousands of digital tokens,” SMSF sector veteran Hellen Molloy explained in an online post.
Molloy pointed out the process can apply to any asset, such as property, government bonds, private credit, and shares or managed funds.
To this end, she noted it has the potential to change how assets are bought, sold, owned and administered.
“It could also allow large assets to be broken into smaller pieces, potentially giving investors access to investments that previously required very large amounts of money,” she said.
Given tokenisation will likely have an effect on all asset classes, she predicted it has the potential to impact the SMSF sector in a significant way.
“In the future, an SMSF might have a portfolio containing Australian shares, property, Bitcoin, tokenised bonds, tokenised property and tokenised private investments,” she estimated.
However, she acknowledged this would be accompanied by compliance issues that will need to be resolved.
“Our SMSF system wasn’t originally designed for this and that raises some big practical questions,” she recognised.
“[Questions like] who legally owns the tokenised asset? Who holds it in custody? How does the accountant value it? How does the auditor verify it exists? How does the SMSF administrator record it? How does the trustee prove ownership? What happens when it is sold? How is it taxed? What protections exist for the investor?
“These are the kinds of issues the financial industry needs to solve as tokenisation grows.”
She expected the shift to tokenisation will increase in the immediate future and noted the consequence this will have on the country’s retirement savings framework.
“[It] means Australia’s superannuation and SMSF ecosystem needs to understand how trustees will safely own, hold, value, administer, audit and eventually transact these new forms of assets,” she pointed out.
By: Darin Tyson-Chan | August 26, 2026 | smsfadviser.com
