Institutions have stopped shopping for tokenization parts. Instead, they now want one stack that does everything. That shift explains why Hashgraph made a strategic investment in ioBuilders. The two firms announced the deal at HederaCon in Miami on May 4, 2026. Genfinity’s Ryan Solomon recently sat down with both CEOs to unpack what it means.
Carlos Matilla leads ioBuilders, the Madrid firm behind the Asseto tokenization platform. Eric Piscini runs Hashgraph, and he previously served as Deloitte’s global blockchain lead. Their conversation traced how institutional tokenization moved from pilots toward production. Below, we break down the partnership and why it matters for regulated finance.
From project-by-project to a single tech stack
ioBuilders started building on Hedera in 2020. For years, the work stayed project by project. A client arrived with a problem, and ioBuilders built the solution alongside Hashgraph. That approach produced real products, including the widely used Stablecoin Studio. It also delivered the Asset Tokenization Studio for cash and securities.
However, Matilla said each deployment behaved like its own island. Institutions wanted a full stack instead of scattered components. Therefore, ioBuilders consolidated its work into Asseto, a modular platform. Hashgraph’s investment then deepened a six-year relationship into a joint go-to-market push. As a result, both teams now sell and support one integrated offering.
What Asseto actually does
Matilla described what launching a tokenized instrument looked like three years ago. Institutions needed separate vendors for issuance, custody, trading, and settlement. Then they spent heavily connecting everything to core banking and compliance systems. That meant five or six contracts, misaligned roadmaps, and long timelines. Asseto collapses that sprawl into a single stack.
Consequently, one platform now handles issuance, lifecycle management, trading, and settlement. Institutions configure the instrument terms, transfer restrictions, and compliance rules they need. The smart contracts underneath already run in production, and auditors have already reviewed them. Additionally, APIs connect Asseto to core banking, transfer agents, and liquidity providers. Piscini called this end-to-end coverage the real gap the partnership fills.
Public and private, working together
Many council members told Hashgraph they loved Hedera but could not build on a public ledger. Data residency and compliance rules blocked them. Yet those same institutions still needed liquidity from public markets. Asseto answers both demands at once. It runs on the public Hedera network and the private HashSphere network.
HashSphere gives institutions data sovereignty and privacy for sensitive workflows. Meanwhile, the public Hedera network provides access to onchain liquidity and Web3 channels. Piscini framed the choice as a compliance decision, not a technical compromise. Institutions pick the deployment model that matches their risk profile. Notably, HashSphere reached general availability alongside the ioBuilders investment.
CLPR removes the lock-in problem
Piscini pointed to CLPR as the next major unlock for Asseto. CLPR is Hashgraph’s cross-ledger protocol, and it moves tokens and data without bridges. Today, some asset managers tokenize the same asset across ten different chains. As a result, they struggle to track and move those assets efficiently. CLPR aims to end that fragmentation.
Once CLPR integrates fully into Asseto, chain selection stops being a permanent bet. Institutions can issue on the cheapest and fastest option available. They can also move assets between ledgers as needs change. Therefore, the structural, long-term commitment to one blockchain disappears. That removes a real risk that has slowed institutional adoption.
The road ahead for tokenized assets
Both CEOs see nearly every asset class moving onchain over time. Matilla ranked digital cash as the furthest ahead today. Stablecoins, deposit tokens, and wholesale CBDCs settle the rest of the market. Money market funds follow closely, especially as collateral for margin. Additionally, tokenized lending and private credit drew strong interest from both leaders.
Matilla said ioBuilders will soon announce a lending project with top-tier institutions. Piscini highlighted private credit as a market ripe for wider investor access. Equities, by contrast, already trade efficiently, so both saw less urgency there. For now, the focus stays on illiquid and locked-up assets. The takeaway is clear: production, not proofs of concept, defines this next phase.
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