Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook took the stage at Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research on May 27 to deliver a keynote that sat squarely at the intersection of two forces reshaping finance: artificial intelligence and digital assets. The forum, titled “From Digital Assets to AI,” was moderated by Neale Mahoney.
Tokenization’s quiet breakout year
The most concrete data point from Cook’s remarks: the market capitalization of US tokenized assets has more than doubled over the past year, reaching approximately $25 billion.
Cook discussed tokenization’s potential to enhance liquidity management and streamline cross-border payments. Notably, Cook did not reference specific cryptocurrencies during her Stanford remarks. The focus stayed at the infrastructure level, on tokenization as a technology rather than on any particular token or protocol.
AI as both engine and risk factor
