tokenize

American  

[toh-kuh-nahyz] / ˈtoʊ kəˌnaɪz /

especially British, tokenise

verb (used with object)

tokenized, tokenizing

1. to hire, treat, or use (someone) as a symbol of inclusion or compliance with regulations, or to avoid the appearance of discrimination or prejudice.

   The company has been accused of tokenizing women and people of color in their advertising.

2. Linguistics. to separate (text) into discrete words, sequences, symbols, or other linguistic units.

   When working with a data set using natural language, it's often useful to tokenize the text into individual words.

3. Computers. to replace (sensitive or personal information, such as a bank account number) with a placeholder, usually a randomized string of characters having no meaningful value.

   The electronic wallet technology securely captures, tokenizes, and stores credit card information.

4. Digital Technology. to split (a tangible or intangible asset) into virtual tokens that are able to be sold or exchanged.

   Rather than selling a painting outright, the artist can now tokenize the product and offer digital shares of the painting.

   The startup hopes to tokenize movie stars, rock bands, and other celebrities, giving fans a unique opportunity to invest.

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Other Word Forms

• tokenization
  noun

Etymology

Origin of tokenize

First recorded in 1985–90; token ( def. ) + -ize ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tokenize tokenized tokenizing

The landmark measure, which establishes a regulatory framework for tokenized dollars known as stablecoins, has unleashed a wave of efforts to tokenize everything from stocks and bonds to funds and real assets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2025

“Now, Wall Street is exploring how to tokenize stocks, bonds and even real estate,” he said, bringing traditional financial assets into the same programmable ecosystem.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 10, 2025

As in: My name is Alex, and I could tokenize myself by launching AlexCoin.

From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2025

"I hope people in computer science can figure out how can we tokenize cryptocurrencies in some way that can benefit global science," says Grzybowski.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 24, 2024

If the plan succeeds, he and the angel investor would tokenize “The One” and sell it as a digital currency.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 27, 2021

It will expand into tokenized stocks should U.S. regulators greenlight them.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Big U.S. banks plan to launch a tokenized deposit network next year, the Journal previously reported.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

Traditional banks and payment companies are launching digital payment networks with tokenized deposits.

From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026

A tokenized deposits network could carry many of the same benefits as stablecoins do without cutting banks out of the process.

From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026

Plus, FIFA’s World Cup grass experiment and why Citigroup is rolling out tokenized shares.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

Airbnb founder and CEO thinks the success of tokenizing real-world assets depends on trust embedded in the governance and trustworthiness of the hosting system itself.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

Financial institutions are increasingly tokenizing funds, which refers to digitizing these funds to trade on blockchain ledgers.

From Barron's ● Mar. 16, 2026

But some say the once-hot idea of tokenizing collectibles has lost its faddish appeal.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 9, 2025

But for the most part, “The Space Race” doesn’t quite interrogate these tokenizing narratives, leaving the central question unaddressed: Can the glorified achievements of a few result in change for the many?

From New York Times ● Feb. 13, 2024

Bobby’s bickersome museum colleagues sometimes make up a charmingly intersectional peanut gallery and sometimes feel like an assortment of tokenizing punchlines.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2022