New Asset Classes

Emerging Asset Classes Over the Next 10 Years

Regime changes in energy, compute/AI, climate, demographics, and geopolitics will create new “investable wrappers” around power reliability, data, resilience, and biology. Below are plausible asset classes and how to think about them.

Energy, Power, and Infrastructure

Distributed Energy Portfolios

Cash-flowingUtility-linked

• Bundles of rooftop solar, batteries, and heat pumps with metered cash flows from grid services and power sales.
• Think securitizations or tokenized claims with performance data.

Virtual Power Plant (VPP) Credits

CapacityGrid services

• Tradable claims on aggregated demand response/storage capacity paid by utilities or ISOs.
• Expands capacity markets down to households and SMBs.

Edge Power Price Hedges

HedgingLMP-based

• Retail-accessible futures/options tied to local power nodes (e.g., data center hubs).
• Lets businesses manage electricity-cost risk like airlines hedge fuel.

Ancillary Service Tokens

FlexibilityStandardized

• Standard contracts for frequency regulation, reactive power, reserves.
• Monetizes flexibility from devices and fleets.

Compute, AI, and Digital Infrastructure

Compute-Rights Markets

GPU/TPU timeSLA-backed

• Tradable reservations for verified compute capacity with service guarantees.
• Could be bundled like cloud leases or tokenized credits.

Model Royalties & IP Streams

AI IPRoyalty

• Securities that share revenue from specific models/datasets, akin to music royalties.
• Depends on licensing enforcement and auditability.

Data Dividends & Trusts

Data incomePrivacy

• Pooled “data trusts” licensing anonymized personal/community data with payout mechanisms.
• Regulatory frameworks and verifiable usage are key.

Edge Infra REITs

REITAI inference

• Vehicles owning micro data centers, last-mile fiber, and cell sites with take-or-pay contracts.
• Benefits from low-latency AI demand growth.

Synthetic-Agent Businesses

AutonomousTokenized revenue

• Legal wrappers for agent networks generating cash flows (ads, APIs, subscriptions).
• Offer tokenized revenue shares and on-chain governance.

Climate, Carbon, and Nature

High-Integrity Carbon & Biodiversity Units

MRVInsured

• Credits with satellite/IoT verification and durable storage (e.g., mineralization), plus standardized insurance.
• Likely to bifurcate from legacy offsets.

Water Security Rights

HydrologyScarcity

• Tradable contracts for desalinated/recycled water or basin-specific rights with drought insurance.
• Strongly local legal frameworks.

Adaptation Infrastructure Notes

ResilienceRevenue-backed

• Securities tied to flood defenses, urban cooling, stormwater systems.
• Funded by resilience fees or insurance savings.

Bio-based Materials Streams

Low-carbonOfftake-linked

• Offtake-backed securities for biomanufactured materials (e.g., green cement, bio-polymers).
• Verification of emissions benefits required.

Biotech, Healthspan, and Biosecurity

Longevity Outcome-Linked Bonds

Clinical endpointsImpact-linked

• Payouts tied to trial success or real-world reductions in disease incidence.
• Shares upside of effective interventions with investors.

Biofoundry Capacity Credits

Wet labPrepaid slots

• Tradable reservations for DNA synthesis, cell-line development, or GMP bioreactors.
• Analogous to compute credits, but for biology.

Personal Health Data Vaults

Data ownershipYield

• User-controlled data licensed to researchers via trusts; contributors earn yield.
• Requires privacy guarantees and compliance.

Rapid-Response Vaccine Platforms

ReadinessRev-share

• Revenue-sharing vehicles tied to pre-negotiated pandemic readiness contracts and stockpiles.
• Government offtake and option-like payoffs.

Real Assets and Resilience

Climate-Resilient Land Banks

ElevationWater security

• Funds acquiring property in water-secure, fire-aware geographies with adaptation CAPEX.
• Insurance arbitrage and migration flows as drivers.

Micromobility & Logistics Corridors

ConcessionsUsage fees

• Cash flows from dedicated e-bike, drone, or autonomous delivery networks in dense cities.
• Public-private partnerships likely.

Insurance-Linked Resilience Securities

ParametricMitigation

• Cat bonds that fund hardening measures and pay out on triggers, reducing future losses.
• Aligns incentives for prevention.

Financial Plumbing and Tokenization

Tokenized Treasuries & MMFs

24/7 settlementComposability

• On-chain shares of T-bills and money markets with instant settlement and programmable escrow.
• Bridges traditional yield to digital rails.

Real-World-Asset (RWA) Indexes

Trade financeInvoices

• On-chain baskets of receivables, equipment leases, and inventory finance with transparent waterfalls.
• Lower costs and better reporting vs. legacy SPVs.

Compliance-Native Stablecoins/CBDC Hybrids

ProgrammableAudited

• Settlement assets for supply chains and B2B with embedded compliance and audited reserves.
• Potential interoperability with CBDCs.

Labor, Education, and IP

Income-Sharing Notes for Reskilling

Human capitalOutcome-linked

• Regulated ISAs with consumer protections and return caps, tradable in standardized formats.
• Aligns training providers with learner outcomes.

Open-Source Maintenance Royalties

OSSUsage-based

• Protocols routing micro-royalties from commercial OSS usage into securitized royalty funds.
• Enables diversified exposure to software infrastructure.

Creator Equity & Catalog Tokens

StreamingBrand deals

• Standardized revenue shares from catalogs and creator businesses with transparent accounting and recourse.
• Improves liquidity in the creator economy.

Space and Geo-Services

Earth Observation Data Streams

SubscriptionsSLAs

• Satellites issuing priority access tokens/notes for data feeds and analytics guarantees.
• Used by agriculture, insurance, logistics, and defense.

In-Orbit Service Capacity

Debris removalRefueling

• Tradable contracts for future in-orbit services sold as capacity rights.
• Backed by performance bonds and insurer guarantees.

Security and Privacy

Privacy-Preserving Compute Markets

ZKConfidential

• Enclaves where buyers bid for confidential compute with verifiable outputs and slashing for breaches.
• Useful for finance, health, and gov data.

Cyber-Resilience Insurance Derivatives

Risk hedgesSector indices

• Indices tied to breach frequency/severity, enabling direct hedging of cyber risk.
• Could trade like cat-bond style instruments.

How to Evaluate These Emerging Classes

• Cash-flow clarity: Who pays, why, and under what contract? Prefer regulated/utility-like payers and long-term offtake.
• Verification and measurement: Independent MRV, audited reserves, on-chain proofs/oracles, and insurance backstops.
• Legal wrapper and recourse: Bankruptcy-remote SPVs, clear IP/title, jurisdictional clarity.
• Counterparty and platform risk: Avoid single-platform dependence; seek portability and standards.
• Unit economics and scalability: Declining marginal costs, network effects, regulatory tailwinds.
• Correlation and regime fit: Favor assets that benefit from AI adoption, energy constraints, climate volatility, and deglobalization.

Practical Ways to Get Exposure Early

• Public proxies: Utilities modernizing grids, copper/uranium miners, data-center REITs, GPU suppliers, biofoundries, satellite operators.
• Specialist venture funds: Climate/energy, AI infra, bio, space—size small and diversify.
• Pilot programs and credits: Try high-durability carbon removal, tokenized T-bills, verified compute credits with capped risk.
• Build human capital: Work in these domains; equity/options can outpace financial returns.

Caveats

• Expect shakeouts and consolidation; many early entrants won’t survive first cycles.
• Illiquidity and regulatory risk are substantial; size positions accordingly.
• Favor diversified baskets over single bets; verify claims, don’t just trust narratives.

Next step:

Tell me which of these themes (energy, AI, climate, bio, data, space) interest you, your jurisdiction, time horizon, and risk budget. And let's discuss more in the comments below.