Empirical evidence

Access gains can come with a liquidity backstop trade-off

What the BIS working paper found about underserved property markets, disaster-period trading, and platform buybacks.

Key findings

  • In the studied U.S. data, areas with fewer physical bank branches or more concentrated banking markets tended to show greater tokenized-property adoption.
  • Trading rose 35% cumulatively over the two days after disaster declarations in the studied dataset.
  • That liquidity response was contingent on platform buyback features and came with higher platform insolvency risk.
  • Trading declined around a regulatory shock that indirectly restricted buyback facilities.

Practical meaning

  • Treat buyback terms as a counterparty promise with capacity, limits, price, suspension, and solvency questions.
  • Ask whether secondary activity is arm's-length trading or platform-funded redemption.

Credit-access finding

The study links tokenized-property growth with areas where traditional credit intermediation appears less accessible. That supports a possible gap-filling role, but it does not show that tokenized financing is cheaper, safer, or equally protected.

The two-day result

The 35% cumulative increase is tied to the event-study dataset and the two days following a disaster declaration. It should be stated with that time window and not reframed as a general liquidity premium.

Who provides the exit?

Where a platform buys tokens back at a recent appraised value, holders receive a short-term exit route while the platform absorbs risk. If many holders exit together, the backstop's capacity and solvency become central.

Limitations

  • The paper studies selected U.S. property-level platforms over 2019-2025.
  • A working-paper result should not be generalized to every platform, jurisdiction, or market condition.
  • The result concerns observed transactions, not guaranteed exit at fair value.

What this source does not establish

  • Permanent liquidity
  • Platform solvency
  • A causal result for all tokenization models
  • Suitability of any offering

Full source citations

Evidence used

When bricks meet bytes: does tokenisation fill gaps in traditional real estate markets?

Bank for International Settlements · 2026-06-30 · empirical working paper

PDF p. 3: abstract and headline results; PDF pp. 19-22: sample, coverage, and descriptive statistics; PDF pp. 31-33: access-to-credit design; PDF pp. 35-38: disaster-event results and buyback mechanism; PDF pp. 46-47: conclusions and boundaries

Open public source ↗

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