At the TEAMZ Web3 and AI Summit 2026 in Tokyo on the 8th, Kanny Lee of Second Swap argued that the real value of tokenized real-world assets lies in trading, not just issuance. She said that long-term growth depends on a tradable, on-chain secondary market. Second Swap is building that infrastructure to unlock liquidity for investors.
Lee defined the secondary market as a mechanism to prevent capital from becoming locked, noting that even assets with set maturities, like bonds or term deposits, must be sellable mid-term to sustain demand. Without a functional 2nd market, investor redemptions decline and overall liquidity suffers, she warned, citing the Nasdaq as an example of the importance of trading capability. She also referenced the trend of U.S. stock tokenization moving on-chain, suggesting that a secondary trading layer will naturally follow the primary issuance on-chain.
Second Swap has already begun delivering real-world results on the Avalanche network, with total value locked (TVL) surpassing $55 million. In partnership with Ocean Finance, the firm has brought on-chain marine freight finance, enabling investors to access previously hard-to-reach asset classes and targeting yields of 7–9%. The company sees Japan as a core market, plans to add privacy features via the Cardano sidechain Midnight, and aims to convert profits into yen-stablecoins to connect with actual spending.
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