Kula Wants to Fix What Many Tokenized Assets Still Lack: Actual Ownership

Real-world asset tokenization has become one of crypto's fastest-growing sectors, but Kula argues the industry may be overlooking a critical question:

What exactly does the token own?

The decentralized impact investment firm has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Lionhart Capital, a hedge fund and private equity group with a combined listed market capitalization exceeding $3 billion, to develop a proof of concept for regulated onchain title tokenization.

Unlike most tokenized assets currently trading onchain, Kula's model is designed to make the token itself represent legal ownership of the underlying asset, with ownership rights recognized by the relevant regulatory authority.

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The Ownership Problem in RWA Tokenization

The tokenized real-world asset market has expanded rapidly over the past two years. According to industry data, the sector grew more than 256% over the last 15 months, reaching $19.3 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2026.

Yet Kula believes much of today's tokenization market remains largely referential.

In many existing structures, a token simply references an asset that is ultimately held through layers of legal agreements, custodians, trustees, and contractual arrangements. The token itself does not necessarily confer direct ownership rights.

Kula's approach seeks to eliminate that disconnect. Under its proposed model, the token would serve as the legal title to the underlying asset itself rather than acting as a digital reference to ownership held elsewhere.

"As tokenization scales toward the projected trillions, a single question will separate the projects that endure from the ones that fail," said Chris Turner, Co-Founder of Kula.

"Does the token carry title to the asset, or does it only refer to an asset held somewhere else? We issue title. The real world is not the hard part, title is."

Building Regulated Infrastructure

One reason direct title tokenization remains rare is that it requires more than blockchain technology alone.

According to Kula, the process requires issuance through a licensed Virtual Asset Service Provider operating within a regulated financial services framework.

The company believes this regulatory layer will eventually become a baseline requirement as institutional participation in tokenized assets increases.

Rather than acting solely as a technology provider, Kula has spent several years developing governance, compliance, and issuance infrastructure designed to support regulated digital asset ownership.

The company says the systems underpinning the initiative have already been deployed across more than $50 million in underlying asset value.

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Where Impact Investing Meets Tokenization

The partnership also highlights the convergence of two rapidly growing markets.

Global impact investing assets now exceed $1.5 trillion, according to the Global Impact Investing Network, with the sector growing at an annual rate of roughly 21% since 2019.

At the same time, several industry forecasts estimate tokenized assets could grow into a market worth between $16 trillion and $30 trillion by the end of the decade.

Kula was originally built to facilitate impact-focused investments in emerging markets through regulated governance structures and community participation. The company believes title tokenization is a natural extension of that mission.

"Kula was built on the conviction that regulated infrastructure and community governance are not constraints on capital deployment, they are what make it sustainable," said Paul Jackson, CEO of Kula.

"Title tokenization is the application of that conviction to a market that is growing fast and, in our view, is not yet asking the right questions about what the token actually represents."