Josh Gordon is the Managing Director and Head of Distribution and Partnerships at Chintai, a pioneering company in the blockchain and real-world asset tokenization space. With over a decade of experience in real estate and financial services, Gordon brings a wealth of knowledge to his role at Chintai. He initially invested in the company during its seed round in 2021 before taking on a leadership position. Prior to Chintai, Gordon co-founded Chimera Wealth RIA and held executive roles in the mortgage industry, including Vice President positions at CrossCountry Mortgage and Chimera Wealth. His expertise in building key relationships and growing businesses has been instrumental in Chintai's development of innovative tokenization solutions for sustainable finance and ESG investing.
Could you share your background and how it led you to working on Chintai?
My professional journey started in traditional finance around 2012. I was originally in lending and worked my way up to become a top loan officer, eventually starting my own franchise.
During COVID, I also launched an independent wealth advisory business, where I advised clients on real estate and other investment strategies.Through that advisory work, I got involved with Chintai as an investor. I saw enormous potential in tokenization—taking real-world assets (RWAs) like real estate or private equity and putting them on-chain for greater accessibility.
The team at Chintai had solid tech but needed help commercializing it, especially on the business development and regulatory side. That’s where I came in.
Chintai focuses heavily on RWAs. How do you approach tokenization, and what types of assets are you working with?
We’re committed to providing a full-stack solution for asset tokenization like issuance, custody, secondary trading, and compliance.
While real estate is a major focus, our platform can handle a wide range of assets: commercial buildings, data centers, infrastructure projects like water treatment facilities, art funds, gold funds, private equity, venture deals — you name it.
The key is offering a white-label solution so clients can onboard quickly without worrying about the technical heavy-lifting.
We handle the compliance, KYC, and regulatory filings (e.g., Reg D, Reg CF, Reg A) in the U.S. and abroad, enabling asset managers to tokenize and offer their assets to accredited investors efficiently.
There’s a debate around public vs. private blockchains for tokenization. What is your take on this debate and how do you see this evolving?
Right now, regulators generally want the ability to enforce certain controls—like rolling back transactions or applying strict KYC. A fully public chain doesn’t always allow for that kind of compliance.
In many jurisdictions, the only way to get the proper licensing is to use a permissioned network that meets regulatory standards.
That said, we already have bridges for our token (CHEX) into Ethereum, Base, Solana, and BNB. However, bridging real-world assets (RWAs) and fully decentralizing the entire process is another matter.
We’re not opposed to eventually moving to a truly public chain model once there’s broader regulatory consensus around compliance controls.
As the technology and regulatory frameworks evolve, we see greater interoperability and potentially more decentralization on the horizon.
Could you explain how the CHEX token fits into the Chintai ecosystem?
CHEX was launched back in 2019 with a fair distribution model. We’ve always kept it straightforward: the token powers transaction fees under the hood, similar to how Ether works on Ethereum.
However, from a user perspective — especially traditional investors — it’s invisible. They don’t need to fuss with wallets or gas fees. Staking CHEX can grant rewards tied to the growth of our network, and we’re also actively buying back tokens on the open market from the revenue we generate.
We want to maintain a deflationary environment so that the token’s supply dynamics remain healthy and transparent. Our aim is to blend the best aspects of Web3 with a Web2-style user experience.
How do you see the regulatory landscape evolving for RWAs, and what’s next for Chintai?
Regulatory clarity is slowly improving, especially in the U.S. We’ve taken a cautious approach, structuring offerings with traditional securities filings and thorough KYC to stay on the right side of the rules.
Moving forward, we expect more established financial institutions — like Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan — to roll out tokenization initiatives. The market is massive, so our focus is on creating a best-in-class platform for mid-tier asset managers who want a turnkey tokenization solution.
We’re raising our next equity round to expand licensing, grow our team from around 40 to possibly 100, and continue refining our SaaS offerings. Ultimately, we see ourselves at the forefront of bringing real-world assets onchain in a way that’s fully compliant, user-friendly, and scalable.
About Chintai
Chintai is a comprehensive tokenization platform focused on bringing real-world assets (RWAs) onchain in a compliant, user-friendly way. With services covering issuance, custody, secondary trading, and advanced compliance, Chintai offers a white-label solution that allows asset managers to quickly and seamlessly tokenize everything from real estate to private equity and infrastructure projects. By combining traditional finance expertise with blockchain technology, Chintai aims to expand investment opportunities for both institutional and retail participants, all while navigating the evolving global regulatory landscape.