Mapping a right to a token: documents to prepare
Mapping a right to a token means turning an existing right — a receivable, a revenue share, a real right in an asset — into a token entry that a distributed ledger can hold and transfer. The exercise needs four documents before the first mint: a rights-mapping memo, an underlying-right dossier, a token-terms document, and a sign-off record. Missing any of them turns the token into a claim nobody can trace back to its source.
What changes once the mapping is signed off
Before sign-off, the right and the token are two separate things joined only by a draft memo. After sign-off and the first mint, the token is the operative record holders rely on. Correcting scope after that point means burning tokens, reissuing them, and notifying every holder — a heavier step than editing a draft. Whether the resulting token needs a separate classification check, and under which regime, is a question the mapping file does not answer on its own. That assessment runs as its own stage; see How classification assessment token issuance runs in practice.
Documents to prepare, stage by stage
| Stage | Document produced | Who signs off |
|---|---|---|
| Rights inventory | Rights-mapping memo | Legal lead |
| Underlying-right dossier | Register extract, contract copy, or title record | Compliance function |
| Token terms drafting | Token terms document | Legal lead and technical lead jointly |
| Standard and custody selection | Registry entry record | Technical lead |
| Final sign-off | Approval record — the point of no return | Named approver |
Each row produces one artefact, not a folder of loose notes. A file missing the register extract or the approval record is not ready for a mint instruction, whatever the deadline pressure.
What to do
- Legal lead lists the right's source document, its holder, and any existing encumbrance.
- Legal lead drafts the rights-mapping memo, stating which attributes of the right move on-chain and which stay off-chain.
- Compliance function collects the underlying-right dossier — the register extract, contract, or title record that proves the right exists.
- Technical lead records the chosen token standard, the custody model, and the registry entry.
- Legal lead and technical lead draft the token terms, matching transfer restrictions and revocation clauses to the underlying right.
- A named approver reviews the full file and signs the approval record before the mint instruction is issued.
Who decides and how long it takes
There is no statutory clock running here. The approver named in your internal governance decides when the file is complete, not a court or a regulator. In practice, the sequence above runs from a single working session for a simple, single-jurisdiction receivable to several weeks when the underlying right sits across more than one register. A dossier that depends on a third-party register extract runs at the pace of that register, not at the pace of your own team.
Forks
If the underlying right already sits on a public register — land, company shares, a security — the dossier is a certified extract, and the mapping memo mainly restates existing attributes. If the right is created purely for tokenisation, with no prior register entry, the dossier is the constitutive contract itself. The approver then carries more weight, since there is no external record to check against.
If a counterparty whose confirmation you need does not respond, the file stays open at the dossier stage. Escalate with a written reminder that states a deadline. Treat continued silence as a fact to record in the memo, not as an implied confirmation.
Limit
This page covers the paperwork that precedes a mint instruction. It does not decide whether the resulting token counts as a crypto-asset requiring authorisation, whether a licence is needed to issue or trade it, or which jurisdiction's rules apply to a specific holder. Those are classification and licensing questions, answered elsewhere and only after the mapping file above is complete.
Sources and limits
This procedure describes an internal workflow, not a rule drawn from a register. Where the underlying right is itself the subject of a report — an asset held in a specific jurisdiction, or a debtor's exposure — the dossier stage above can draw on that report instead of starting from scratch. See, for a Polish asset, Asset in Poland.
The same applies on the debtor side. A file built around a counterparty's exposure benefits from a dedicated check before the dossier is closed; see Debtor in United Kingdom and its limits for what such a check can and cannot confirm.
Where it is not yet clear whether a paid report is warranted, a shorter first pass is usually enough to decide; see Free check overview in detail for what that first pass covers.
How the file is structured
We keep the mapping file as five numbered documents, one per stage in the table above, stored under a single reference so a reviewer can trace the token back to the right without asking for context. No stage is skipped because a deadline is tight — a shorter dossier is still a dossier, not a placeholder. We do not publish case examples here: at this stage of the practice, any description of a specific mapping would be more recognisable than anonymised, and we would rather show the structure than a story.
Cost factors
What a mapping engagement costs depends on how many registers the underlying right touches, how many jurisdictions are involved, whether a deadline is already running, and whether a counterparty needs to confirm anything before the dossier closes. We do not publish rates on this page. What we commit to is timing on our side: a partner replies to a first message within minutes during business hours, and a quote follows within one business day once the scope above is clear.
Related publications
The token-terms stage above overlaps with a separate check: whether the smart contract that will hold the token actually matches the licence terms drafted for it. See How smart contract and licence alignment tokenised rights documents for that check on its own.
Frequently asked questions
How long does mapping a right to a token take in practice?
A single-jurisdiction right with one register produces a complete file in a working session or two. A right that touches more than one register, or needs a counterparty's confirmation, extends the dossier stage to weeks rather than days.
Which documents are needed to start?
Start with the source document for the right itself — a contract, a title record, or a register extract — and a first draft of the rights-mapping memo. Everything else in the table above builds on those two.
What happens if the other side does not respond?
The dossier stays open. Send a written reminder that states a deadline, then record the silence in the memo as a fact rather than treating it as an implied confirmation.
Next step
A dossier left half-open at the confirmation stage is one of the more common ways a mapping goes wrong. See What it costs to be wrong in this situation for what that specific mistake costs once it is discovered later.