ICN.live Key Opinion | EXCLUSIVE Interview with Ross Shemeliak, Co-founder and COO at Stobox

ICN.live KEY OPINION, Exclusive Interview with Ross Shemeliak

Ross is a tokenization expert and the Co-founder & COO of Stobox, a licensed and regulated company in tokenization and Real World Assets (RWA). With over six years of experience, he has been instrumental in building Stobox up to a $50 million valuation, overseeing the tokenization of $500 million in assets, and serving 100+ clients. Ross is a recognized member of the Blockchain for Europe Association and the Qatar Financial Center. Ross has also secured over 30 partnerships with industry leaders like Fireblocks, Chainlink, Plume, and Circle. 

AI in RWA: Combating AI-Enhanced Scams and Hacks

In light of Chainalysis’s 2025 report highlighting a 21% increase in stolen crypto funds ($2.2 billion) and the growing use of AI in scams like pig butchering, what advanced security protocols or AI-driven fraud detection systems has your company implemented to protect RWA investors from these evolving threats?

Tokenization is a complex process, and many issuers struggle with legal structuring, regulatory compliance, and documentation. With the rise of AI, knowledge and consulting are becoming a commodity, and that fundamentally shifts how projects can scale.

What we’re seeing now is the first wave of AI-native infrastructure for tokenization. Instead of relying on costly one-to-one consulting, issuers can use AI-powered platforms that streamline jurisdiction selection, generate compliant documentation, and navigate regulatory pathways with far less friction.

This isn’t about ChatGPT writing legal docs; it’s about creating systems that embed compliance logic into token creation, powered by constantly updated legal and market intelligence. That’s what will protect RWA investors in the long term: reducing human error, enabling scalable due diligence, and automating enforcement.

The industry doesn’t just need AI for fraud detection; it needs AI to democratize access to regulated tokenization. Because when everyone can launch RWAs compliantly, fraud becomes far easier to prevent, and trust becomes the standard, not the exception.

Elite Players of the Industry

Following BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) integration with Ethena’s synthetic dollar, do you see 24/7 RWA-to-stablecoin atomic swaps becoming the default model?

The BlackRock BUIDL + Ethena integration shows us what the future looks like: 24/7 liquidity and permissioned DeFi. RWA-to-stablecoin atomic swaps are no longer a vision; they’re becoming the new normal.

We’re seeing a shift toward financial stack interoperability. U.S. Treasuries are now instantly swappable into synthetic dollars. That’s not just efficient, it unlocks programmable treasury management, where capital can reallocate in real time based on macro signals.

And now, with the U.S. approving the GENIUS Act, we’re about to witness stablecoins formally entering the Web2 financial system, with clear legal rails and custody standards. This is the green light that institutional capital was waiting for. With rules in place, big players can treat stablecoins as a convenient settlement standard, not a legal gray area.

This unlocks a future where tokenized assets can move across chains, protocols, and institutions, all within a single compliance framework. Atomic swaps will be the default, but programmable, composable finance is the real opportunity here.

The Great Regulatory Divergence

As of this year, Europe is operating under the MiCA framework, providing a clear, unified rulebook. Hong Kong’s recent move to regulate crypto staking and introduce more stringent frameworks for tokenized securities, meanwhile, the U.S. is developing a “patchwork” of SEC guidance and potential stablecoin laws.

Are you forced to ring-fence your products jurisdictionally? If yes, in which market—the regulated certainty of the EU or the larger, more dynamic uncertainty of the U.S.—presents the bigger immediate growth opportunity?

Yes, we’re forced to ring-fence our products jurisdictionally, and that’s a symptom of global regulatory fragmentation.

Europe has MiCA now, but it only covers stablecoins and crypto assets. The rest of the tokenized securities market still relies on MiFID II and legacy frameworks. In contrast, the U.S. operates under a “regulation by enforcement” model, where you often don’t know the rules until you’ve already broken them, yet most of the RWA volume is still tied to U.S. Treasuries.

For example, we can’t offer products involving USDT to European investors under MiCA, even though it dominates market liquidity. This shows how regulatory clarity doesn’t always mean practicality.

Still, we see more long-term upside in the U.S. It’s messy, but it’s where capital lives. The EU is stable but slow. Our strategy is to stay nimble, combining flexible jurisdictions like BVI and Liechtenstein with modular compliance layers that adapt to local markets.

Ultimately, the biggest opportunity lies in infrastructure that abstracts regulatory complexity, allowing issuers to scale globally without rebuilding from scratch in each region.

Bitcoin as a Strategic Competitor

With major corporations now adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets as a treasury reserve asset, a new dynamic is emerging. Do you view Bitcoin as a complementary part of the digital asset ecosystem, or do you see it as a direct competitor to your tokenized yield-bearing products for a slice of the corporate treasury pie?

Bitcoin and tokenized RWAs aren’t competitors; they serve entirely different strategic roles.

Bitcoin is digital self-custody of wealth; it’s unconfiscatable, liquid, and sovereign. That’s why corporations are adding it to their balance sheets. But Bitcoin doesn’t generate yield, and it doesn’t mirror the structure of real-world capital markets.

Our tokenized products are designed for yield and compliance, a digital form of fixed income, equity, or real estate. They’re programmable, jurisdiction-aware, and backed by legal claims. For CFOs, it’s not about replacing Bitcoin; it’s about building a balanced digital treasury.

The real value of RWAs lies in their connectivity to traditional finance. You can embed dividend logic, trigger payments based on milestones, or run DAO-controlled cap tables, things you can’t do with BTC.

So while Bitcoin serves as a macro hedge or store of value, tokenized RWAs are about capital efficiency. The treasury of the future will have both, but it’s the RWA layer that will power structured financial strategies.

The Next Asset Frontier

The current RWA boom is overwhelmingly concentrated in tokenized U.S. Treasuries and private credit. What is the single biggest operational and technological barrier you are working to solve right now to tokenize the next major asset class—be it commercial real estate, private equity, or intellectual property—at scale, and when do you realistically see that asset class becoming as significant as Treasuries are today?

The next frontier in tokenization isn’t a new asset class; it’s a new way of structuring tokens.

We believe the future is in data-rich tokens that bridge off-chain (Web2) information into the smart contract layer. Investors should be able to see, in real time, the legal claim, asset backing, third-party verification, and even dynamic data like rent payments, occupancy rates, or royalty income, all linked directly to the token.

Yes, U.S. Treasuries and stablecoins dominate the space now. But we see enormous opportunity in real estate, a multi-trillion dollar market, under-digitized and globally fragmented. And even more in private companies, which represent 99.9% of all businesses globally.

The challenge is to go beyond ERC-20. Real RWAs require custom logic, transparency, and compliance baked into the token. We’re working toward a standard where every token includes embedded proof of ownership, legal structure, and real-world performance.

Once that’s achieved, asset classes like real estate and private equity won’t just be tokenized, they’ll be more accessible and trustworthy than ever before.

Open Mic: Your Thoughts on the Market

We’d love to give you the floor for an open-ended response. What are your personal thoughts on current market conditions, and do you have any insights on the future of the industry you’d like to share?

We’re at the tipping point of the financial internet.

The early tokenization phase was chaotic, with fragmented protocols, unclear regulation, and hype-driven launches. But that era is ending. What’s emerging is an industry grounded in compliance, programmability, and interoperability.

BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Franklin Templeton aren’t just experimenting anymore — they’re building frameworks. And that legitimizes the space faster than any bull market ever could.

At Stobox, we believe tokenization is no longer about “if” or “when”, it’s about how well it’s executed. The winners won’t be those who issue the most tokens, but those who build trust infrastructure. Tokens will be embedded with legal structure, real-world data, and smart contract logic that mirrors the real world.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum are becoming rails, not rivals. As regulation matures, you’ll see a fusion: decentralized infrastructure with regulated access points.

What excites me most? The global SME market. 99.9% of the world’s companies are private, and most are underfunded. Tokenization is the most powerful tool we’ve ever had to unlock global capital for local businesses — and we’re just getting started.