Before the Black Monday crash in 1987, Frankfurt was considered the financial capital of Europe. After the crash, that role shifted to London in the mid-1990s. London gained the lead because it was the first to fully digitise securities, enabling faster settlement. Operational efficiency proved decisive.

After Brexit, the Netherlands attracted high-frequency traders thanks to its advanced digital infrastructure — fiber optics, AMS-IX, world-class data centers — and a highly skilled workforce. Once again, digital readiness determined leadership.

Today, a new opportunity is emerging: tokenization.

By 2030, the Netherlands can become a leading token economy. In this vision, financial markets and the wider economy are built on digital systems that record and connect assets securely and transparently, enabling a more innovative, inclusive, and sustainable model of growth.

In such an economy, money itself evolves. Stablecoins, transparently backed by safe assets such as sovereign debt, circulate as programmable cash. They move across borders with the same ease as today’s iDEAL payments, providing instant settlement at low cost. Small businesses gain rapid access to funding by selling tokenized invoices to investors, while mid-sized companies issue digital bonds in smaller denominations, opening up new sources of capital. Supply chains become more resilient as goods, payments, and financing are tracked and executed automatically. Citizens benefit directly as property ownership is shared between buyers and investors, making it easier for young families and first-time buyers to purchase a home. Identity, too, becomes digital and secure, empowering people to share only what is necessary while taxes, subsidies, and sustainability reporting are handled automatically in the background.

This future is not science fiction. The technology already exists and is spreading fast. Germany is steadily implementing its national tokenization strategy. The United States has passed new legislation to secure dollar dominance in the digital economy. The Netherlands, once among the leaders, now risks losing momentum and allowing others to define the standards of tomorrow.

Yet the Netherlands holds powerful advantages: world-class digital infrastructure, a central role in global trade and finance, a high-tech industrial base, and deep private-sector expertise. History shows that those who seize the moment in times of technological change set the standard for decades. Frankfurt and London once did. The Netherlands now faces the same opportunity. Tokenization is the next frontier.

The moment to act is now.

Now is the time to make the vision of a token economy a reality

The Dutch public and private sectors must play these trump cards by joining forces and make the Netherlands a leader in tokenization, with the ambition to become Europe’s first token economy by 2030. Achieving this requires a shared national vision that sets direction, builds trust, and unites government, industry, finance, and society; that creates awareness of the possibilities of, and enables concerted and coordinated action towards a token economy.

This vision should be implemented through a joint national strategy focused on four key action areas:

• Legal and regulatory action: Update national civil and financial law to provide transaction and ownership certainty for DLT-based business models, while taking a proactive stance in shaping EU policy to make possible at-scale token economy adoption.
• Accelerate tokenisation through national leadership: drive lighthouse projects across industry, finance, and public sector—such as digital identity, e-voting, and subsidy tracking—through a well-funded innovation vehicle, including tokenized national bonds to anchor trust, while enabling banks and businesses to scale tokenization into mainstream adoption.
• Strengthen human capital: launch nationwide education and training programs to build token economy skills—integrating curricula in universities, upskilling public-sector staff, and running awareness campaigns for businesses and citizens. This ensures both public and private sectors understand the benefits, risks, and practical applications of tokenization.
• Establish a national knowledge hub: Expand on a joint public–private platform to drive research, education, and awareness on the token economy. This centre of excellence should spread knowledge of benefits, risks, and applications, support academic and industry collaboration, and equip businesses, regulators, and citizens with the expertise needed to accelerate adoption.

For the full Manifesto "A Token Economy for the Netherlands":