Capital

Opinion by: Anthony Agoshkov, co-founder of Marvel Capital

The world is witnessing the largest wealth handoff in modern history. 

Over the next 20 years, Millennials and Gen Z will inherit around $83 trillion, and some bullish forecasts suggest as much as $4 trillion of that could be tokenized onchain by 2030.

The bigger story isn’t the size of the transfer; it’s how that capital will be steered. 

While family offices lean on real estate, trade and energy, a new generation is already asking for something else. They’re chasing tokenized portfolios, digital-asset exposure and a seat at financial centers built for a digital-first era. Wealth managers face a clear test: expand their playbook to include tokenization, or watch the next wave of capital find partners who do.

Tokenization is the bridge for wealth transition

At the heart of this adaptation is tokenization, a mechanism allowing traditional assets to flow into digital markets without losing their familiar shape. 

Yield-bearing assets can be digitized, issued onchain and managed under familiar reporting rules. This changes the speed of capital — what once moved in years can now move in days. This is the timeline the next generation expects. For heirs, it makes crypto less like a gamble and more like an upgrade — digital liquidity anchored in wealth their families already trust.

This trend is already visible on the ground, with the Gulf becoming a live lab. The Dubai International Financial Centre now oversees around $1.2 trillion in family-office assets, a number still climbing as families test how far crypto-friendly frameworks can carry their wealth. Beneath the hype, the real story is that custody is being wired, tokenized funds are being launched, and diversification is moving onto digital rails. Once that plumbing is in place, capital rarely goes back.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and the UAE expect over 12,000 new high-net-worth individuals in 2025, drawn to hubs where tokenization is already live. Asia is also keeping pace: Some overseas Chinese family offices plan to lift crypto exposure to around 5% of portfolios, and trading on Korea’s three major exchanges is up 17% year-to-date. That flow shows that legal clarity acts as a competitive asset and gives us a preview of the race between global wealth hubs.

For wealth managers, the takeaway is clear that the great wealth transfer won’t leap straight from bonds to Bitcoin (BTC). Instead, it will move through tokenization that makes portfolios digital-first without forcing families to abandon what they know. And whoever builds that bridge first sets the standard for everyone else.

Yes, the first signs of adaptation are visible, but the path is uneven. Rules clash, infrastructure drags, and generations don’t see eye to eye. Together, these frictions slow capital and form the real test for wealth managers.

Hidden hurdles that stall next-gen capital

The transition won’t be smooth. The first wall that families will hit is the regulation.

Just look at the Gulf: Overlapping federal, emirate-level and free-zone rules in the UAE, plus distinct regimes in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar pull capital in different directions. For families with money spread across borders, rules change faster than lawyers can rewrite contracts.

Beyond the Gulf, the fractures only multiply. Europe leans on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), the US has the GENIUS Act, and Asia is rolling out stablecoin regimes in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Faced with that patchwork, families ask the obvious: Which rulebook do you trust, and which one survives long enough to matter? The result is the same: capital parked on the sidelines, waiting for clarity that may never arrive.

Clarity on paper isn’t enough if the plumbing still leaks. Many family offices still lack custody desks, proper reporting tools or the kind of governance that can safely manage tokenized portfolios. Without that backbone, deals stall in manual processes, allocations stay experimental and portfolios never scale. Ultimately, crypto looks less like a strategy and more like a side bet.

Related: Death, divorce and lost keys: The question of succession in tokenized property

On top of that comes the generational split. Heirs are eager to move, seeing digital exposure as table stakes. Senior decision-makers dismiss it as too volatile, untested and far from the “real” portfolio. Every time a boardroom says “no,” younger wealth quietly looks for someone else who will say “yes.” Over time, that drip becomes an exodus.

Put it all together, and the picture is blunt — rules pulling families apart, infrastructure stuck in catch-up and generations moving at different speeds. That’s why this is the real stress test; managers who pass it will turn obstacles into an edge. The only question is what they will build tomorrow morning.

Building the token-ready wealth office

The next wave of capital won’t sit idle, waiting for regulators to harmonize, for generations to align or for infrastructure to catch up.

Either way, families will keep moving, so managers must treat regulation as a toolkit. Not by chasing a “perfect” license, but by stacking jurisdictions: the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority in Dubai for issuance, Abu Dhabi Global Market for disputes, Bahrain for Sharia overlays and, when needed, layering in Europe’s MiCA, the US’s GENIUS Act or Hong Kong’s regime. That way, the stack bends instead of breaking when the map shifts. Capital does, too.

Generational split? It can be rewired. Give heirs wallet-based voting rights, let seniors hold veto keys, and push decisions through smart-contract logic instead of endless board packets. That way, the speed younger investors expect is built-in, while the oversight elders demand is never lost.

If regulations can be shaped into a toolkit and generational rifts turned into governance design, then plumbing is hardly the deal-breaker. Custody desks, reporting feeds, even token-ready governance — these are just build-outs. Show families that digital portfolios can run with the same discipline as legacy ones, and the excuses vanish.

It follows that, hurdles or not, they’re far from immovable. Capital always finds a route forward, even if it takes the long way. The managers who recognize that — and act on it — will capture the trillions now moving onto digital rails.

Opinion by: Anthony Agoshkov, co-founder of Marvel Capital.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.