"Tokenization has received a lot of attention in recent years as a technology that could revolutionize financial markets and payments. It promises fast settlement, low risk for counterparties and minimal barriers to competition. Yet tokenization is often misunderstood. It is intrinsically complex, and there is no universally recognized framework for assessing the benefits, risks and policy implications of various system designs. In this article, we present just such a framework—one that is clear, simple and structured."