E92: From Lawyer to Founder: Scott Thiel’s Tokinvest Journey

About this episode

Scott Thiel discusses his transition from lawyer to founder of Tokinvest and the evolution of real-world asset tokenization.

In this episode of Beyond the Code , Yitzy Hammer sits down with Scott Thiel , CEO and founder of Tokinvest , to explore how real-world asset tokenization is moving from hype to reality. Scott shares his path from award-winning lawyer and legal innovator to startup founder building regulated on-chain investment products in Dubai. He reflects on his years at DLA Piper, his early fascination with the intersection of law and technology, his exposure to China’s fast-moving tech ecosystem, and how that journey ultimately led him into blockchain, Hedera, and the world of tokenization. The conversation dives deep into Tokinvest’s mission to make high-value assets more accessible through fractional ownership, from racehorses and art to commodities and real estate. Scott explains why regulation has been the missing piece for RWAs, how Dubai’s VARA framework created the right environment for innovation, and why Tokinvest’s latest approved real estate product marks a major step forward for retail access to tokenized finance. They also discuss the hard realities of building in crypto, what it takes to bring compliant products to market, why not every asset should be tokenized, and what the…

People in this episode

Host: Yitzy Hammer

Guest: Scott Thiel

Topics covered

• real-world asset tokenization
• blockchain
• startup journey
• regulated investment products
• fractional ownership
• crypto innovation
• retail access to finance

Keywords

• tokenization
• investment products
• blockchain
• fractional ownership
• crypto
• regulation
• Dubai
• real estate

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tokinvest, DLA Piper, Hedera

Places: Dubai, China

More episodes of Beyond the Code

• CS6: Mike Bacina (NXT Law) on Why Boutique Law Firms Are Winning the AI Race & Our First-Ever Sponsor · June 11, 2026 · 18 min
• E102: From Celsius Crash to Crypto Compliance: Snir Levi on Building Nominis · June 9, 2026 · 40 min
• CS5: Sam & Sarah (Swivul) — Mariah Carey, a Token Dump, and Building the Travel Platform for Web3 | Consensus Miami 2026 · June 8, 2026 · 22 min
• CS4: Shiba Inu Co-Founder Russ Davis on Meme Coins, Vitalik & What's Next · June 4, 2026 · 14 min
• CS3: Crypto Law & Lessons Learned: Jacqueline Cooper on Bitcoin Mining Hacks, Legal Education & Digital Estate Planning · June 3, 2026 · 13 min
• E98: After 25 Years Fighting Crime at the MET, Jonathan Benton is Recovering Your Stolen Crypto · May 25, 2026 · 1h 14m