Abstract
An independent policy and research study on how a small open economy can build a responsible tokenized-economy strategy. Its argument is that Georgia's tokenization potential does not come from technology alone, but from the institutional foundations built through public-sector reform, registry modernization, digital public infrastructure, financial-sector supervision, and macroeconomic credibility. The study asks a practical question: how can Georgia prioritize the use cases where tokenization genuinely adds value while safeguarding sovereignty, stability, legal clarity, and trust? Produced in partnership with the ReTech Center at École des Ponts Business School and supported by Hadron by Tether, it maps priorities across money and payments, capital markets, and real-economy finance, and frames Georgia as a potential responsible tokenization laboratory.
About the study
Tokenization Lessons from Georgia argues that Georgia's tokenization potential does not come from technology alone. It comes from the institutional foundations built through public-sector reform, registry modernization, digital public infrastructure, financial-sector supervision, and macroeconomic credibility. The core question is practical: how can Georgia build a responsible tokenized-economy strategy by prioritizing the use cases where tokenization genuinely adds value, while safeguarding sovereignty, stability, legal clarity, and trust?
The monograph maps priorities across three domains, money and payments, capital markets, and real-economy finance, and frames Georgia as a potential responsible tokenization laboratory. It is an independent policy and research study, produced in partnership with the ReTech Center at École des Ponts Business School. All factual claims are tagged with an evidence-grade marker, and forward-looking statements are labelled as assumptions. Nothing in it constitutes legal, financial, investment, tax, or regulatory advice; the analysis is current to a research cutoff of June 2026.
The workshop: Tbilisi, 27 July 2026
A closed-door workshop convenes selected Georgian and international stakeholders to discuss the study's findings and their implications for Georgia's next phase of digital finance and tokenization. The paper is the starting point for the discussion, and participants are invited to review it in advance.
- Date: Monday, 27 July 2026, 08:30 to 15:00 (Tbilisi time)
- Venue: Rooms Hotels, Tbilisi, Georgia
- Format: Roundtable discussions and a closed-door policy workshop
- Convened by: Intelligence Economy Institute, with the support of Hadron by Tether
Indicative agenda
| Time | Duration | Session | Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:30 | 30m | Welcome, coffee | Arrival, registration, informal networking |
| 09:00 | 10m | Introduction | IEI welcome; purpose, format, and expected outputs |
| 09:10 | 40m | Opening: Georgia's next chapter, from digital state to tokenized economy | Framing remarks from IEI, NBG, Tether, Ethsystems / the Ethereum Foundation, and École des Ponts / ReTech |
| 09:50 | 10m | Regulatory landscape | The legal and regulatory context for tokenization in Georgia and the region, presented by White & Case |
| 10:00 | 50m | Roundtable 1: Tokenization for real-economy finance and payments | Use cases across SME finance, remittances, merchant payments, trade and logistics, tourism, agriculture, and financial inclusion. Indicative participants: NBG, Tether, NAPR, UNDP, a payment actor, a development finance institution, a bank or MFI, Creditinfo, a fintech or logistics actor |
| 10:50 | 10m | Coffee break | Break and transition |
| 11:00 | 50m | Roundtable 2: Capital markets and financial market infrastructure | Tokenized deposits, securities settlement, delivery versus payment, custody, legal finality, and CSD and market-infrastructure evolution. Indicative participants: NBG, Ministry of Finance, GCSD/GSE, Kaleido, a bank or investment bank, a legal expert, an international market-infrastructure actor |
| 11:50 | 10m | Closing synthesis: Georgia as a responsible tokenization laboratory | Key priorities, safeguards, and possible next steps |
| 12:00 | ~1h | Lunch | Break and transition |
| 13:00 | 1h30 | Closed expert workshop: strategic scenarios for Georgia | Invite-only working session on selected scenarios across money and payments, capital markets, and real-economy finance; priorities for the next 24 months, regulatory dependencies, pilot design, ecosystem gaps, and international partnerships |
| 14:30 | 1h | Drinks and networking | Informal follow-up discussions |
Attend
Request to attend
Participation is by invitation, in person in Tbilisi or virtually. To request a place, email research@intelligenceconomy.org, noting whether you would join in person or online.