The emergence of financial assets as the dominant form of wealth represents one of the most significant economic transformations in human history. This chapter examines how financial assets have grown from simple trade facilitation tools to become the primary engine of wealth creation, now representing over five times global GDP. Through analysis of historical data spanning from Renaissance Italy to modern markets, we document how traditional financial assets (stocks, bonds, bank deposits, and market-traded instruments) have consistently outpaced underlying productive assets (real estate, manufacturing equipment, infrastructure, and natural resources). The chapter explores the paradox of composition whereby individual rational investment decisions aggregate into systemic financial growth and instability, while examining how technological innovations in cryptography and electronic money are creating parallel financial systems that challenge traditional monetary policy frameworks. Using quantitative metrics, we demonstrate that while this financialization has created unprecedented prosperity for asset holders, it has also generated new forms of systemic risk and social stratification between asset owners and wage earners.