Author: Evan Kuhn, President of DeLorean Labs
When automakers develop new models, their decentralized logistics and sales cycles mean that even if customers pay a deposit, they have no viable or reliable way to predict the delivery time of the vehicle.
Eager car buyers may wait months or even years after paying a deposit, without knowing their position in the delivery queue. This is why new models are often priced above the sticker price when they first hit the market.
Currently, there is no industry-wide solution—but tokenized reservations will open up a multi-trillion-dollar market.
Today, the efficiency of reserving car models is extremely low. Car buyers pay hefty markups when new models roll off the production line because the manufacturing timeline is unpredictable.
The choice is clear: if you want a new car now, you must pay a significantly higher premium than the sticker price; if you want to pay the regular sticker price, you have no say or concept of when you will receive the vehicle. So, how serious is this issue?
A recent study of the hotel industry in the Asia-Pacific region showed that cancellations through Booking.com accounted for 40% of revenue. In comparison, Expedia accounted for 24%, indicating that there are hundreds of billions of dollars at risk globally, while ticket resale platforms charge a 30% markup, harming both artists and fans.
Car waiting lists remain even more opaque. Dealers charge buyers a markup of $30,000 to $70,000 on Ford F-150 Lightning orders, showcasing a lucrative secondary market created entirely by information asymmetry, without even a formal "black market." According to a McKinsey report, even manufacturing is affected, with 15%-30% of capacity idle because small companies lack access to a tradable reservation system.
Smart contracts on the blockchain elegantly address the issues related to information asymmetry. For example, tokenized apartment reservations can host deposits on-chain, allowing buyers to freely trade their positions while developers maintain stable sales momentum.
The automotive industry presents a compelling case for reservation tokenization, as false waiting lists have long fueled abusive markups.
Tesla's Cybertruck has accumulated over 1 million reservations, each backed by a refundable deposit of up to $250, representing over $200 million in dormant capital that could have driven secondary market liquidity instead of being stored in the company's treasury.
A tokenized reservation system would end such practices by transparently allowing queue positions to be traded, with manufacturers earning royalties from secondary transactions. The technological infrastructure already exists. BMW's venture capital arm has heavily invested in blockchain-based supply chain solutions, and Mercedes is piloting an automatic payment system for car charging networks. Daimler, the manufacturer of Mercedes, has also been exploring decentralized identity, in-car data sharing, and automatic payments for electric charging, utilizing blockchain in logistics and costs.
Consider the chain reaction: Tesla's orders could be traded post-tokenization based on production schedules, geographic delivery priorities, or customization. Early adopters might sell their positions in the queue, and manufacturers could gain secondary market value, with prices transparently set rather than obscured by dealer markups.
These on-demand production positions would operate like call options in financial markets, giving holders the right (but not the obligation) to purchase later. If preferences change or demand surges, positions can be freely sold. This approach would introduce market dynamics to an industry that has historically lacked transparency.
Skeptics may call this over-engineered, but the numbers suggest otherwise. In February 2025 alone, OpenSea recorded over $211 million in non-fungible token (NFT) trading volume, capturing 47.8% of the market share.
For mass adoption, blockchain must become invisible. Promising examples include Visa's experiments with gasless payments through account abstraction, Circle's Verite (which allows users to prove compliance without disclosing personal data), and Magic Link's email-based wallet access. The goal is not to force users into the crypto realm but to embed the benefits of blockchain into everyday interactions, making it seamless, automatic, and fundamentally invisible to users.
According to the Boston Consulting Group, the tokenization of real-world assets could reach $16.1 trillion, covering financial products such as insurance, pensions, alternative investments, home equity, infrastructure, and patents. Redirecting even a small portion of these activities toward real-world reservations, hotel rooms, concert tickets, or unused factory time would create new secondary markets.
Nike's exit from NFTs does not signify the end of tokenization but rather refines the focus. Similarly, the next breakthrough will not come from digital art but from practical applications: hotel chains monetizing no-show guests by opening resale markets, automakers eliminating waiting list hype through transparent position trading, or healthcare providers reducing MRI waste while earning fees from legitimate transfers.
The trillion-dollar question is not whether tokenized reservations will reshape industries, but which industries will act first to gain the advantages of open, liquid reservation systems. Those who take action now will not only solve old problems—they will unlock entirely new markets.
Author: Evan Kuhn, President of DeLorean Labs.
Related: Opinion: The Future of Cryptocurrency Lies in Practicality for Global Payment Expansion
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Original article: Opinion: Tokenizing Car Reservations Will Open a Trillion-Dollar Market
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