Zurich, November 6, 2025 — The future of finance took center stage yesterday as Forbes and GenTwo convened innovators, executives, and investors to celebrate the launch of the first-ever Forbes Assetization Leaders List. The event, held at GenTwo’s headquarters in Zurich, brought together pioneers who are transforming the way assets are structured, managed, and monetized; and with it, the foundations of modern finance.

Out of more than 200 nominations and applications, 60 short-listed innovators were reviewed by an expert jury consisting of Philippe A. Naegeli, co-founder and CEO of GenTwo; Klaus Fiala, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Switzerland; Demelza Hays, economist and crypto researcher; Kean Birch, professor at York University; Richard Schäli, wealth and asset manager; and Martha Boeckenfeld, digital strategist and board member.

In his opening remarks, Philippe Naegeli described assetization as “the coming together of assets and democratization”, a movement to give people the opportunity to invest in what they truly believe in. “Be it art, watches, sneakers, or basketball cards — everything could be as easily investible as stocks and phones are today,” he said. For Naegeli, this isn’t just about access, but about scale: “This is a trillion-dollar opportunity — and we are only at the beginning.”

Klaus Fiala followed with a personal reflection, recalling his childhood collection of Michael Jordan basketball cards. “I threw them all out when I moved out,” he said. “Had I had the technological tools that assetization offers today, I could have built a portfolio around that. Would have been a nice payday for a student. That’s what assetization means to me — tapping value that’s still untapped in our current financial system.”

The Forbes Assetization Leaders List recognizes 30 companies and individuals driving this transformation — visionaries who are unlocking liquidity from non-bankable assets, building bridges between traditional finance and new asset classes, and advocating for broader access to investment opportunities.

From tokenized real estate and IP portfolios to fractionalized art and collectible platforms, these innovators demonstrate how assetization can turn creativity, ownership, and belief into new investment frontiers. Together, they represent the emergence of a financial system where everything — tangible or digital — can become an investable asset.

Applications for the 2026 Forbes Assetization Leaders List are now open. Apply here.

Credit: Claudio Zingarello / Forbes Swiss