The five fastest-growing categories of on-chain tokenized RWA assets

Author: Aaron Wood; Source: Cointelegraph; Compiled by: Shaw, Golden Finance

Standard Chartered's Head of Digital Assets Research, Geoff Kendrick, predicted in a recent research report that by 2030, the total value locked in decentralized finance (DeFi) could reach $2.7 trillion.

He noted that currently only 3% of stablecoins and 10% of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) are used in DeFi, but he expects that share to rise to 30% by 2030.

This would represent a 36-fold increase from current levels. The accelerating pace of asset tokenization also gives Kendrick ample reason to remain optimistic.

Tokenized RWAs — encompassing stocks, bonds, real estate, gold, carbon credits, and other categories — had a total on-chain circulating value of $32.22 billion as of the end of June, nearly triple the market size of approximately $11.8 billion a year earlier. Including stablecoins, which are essentially tokenized fiat products, the entire broad tokenized asset market exceeds $328.8 billion.

Data from RWA.xyz shows that the total number of RWA holders has grown to 937,928, with user numbers rising 13% month-over-month in the last month alone.

Below is a breakdown of the core growth drivers across each RWA sector.

U.S. Treasuries

U.S. short-term Treasury bills, medium-term notes, and long-term bonds are the largest category of tokenized assets on-chain, with a total size of $15 billion. These assets offer investors high acceptance, low risk, ample liquidity, and yield-generating potential — features that stablecoins currently lack.

BlackRock's BUIDL fund launched in March 2024 and peaked at over $2.9 billion in total assets in June 2025. Due to fund rebalancing and competition among platforms, its current size has declined to $2.23 billion. The fund has distributed over $100 million in dividends and is deployed on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, Aptos, and BNB Chain.

In February 2026, Uniswap Labs and Securitize jointly announced that shares of the BlackRock BUIDL fund are now tradable on UniswapX. This brings a regulated, institutional-grade tokenized fund onto a decentralized exchange (though the product has access restrictions for trading participants).

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo said: "This is exactly the breakthrough we have been working towards: merging the credibility and regulatory standards of traditional finance with the efficiency and openness of decentralized finance."

Franklin Templeton's OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund is a similar product, with shares issued as BENJI tokens. It has reached $2.44 billion in size and is deployed on Avalanche, Arbitrum, Aptos, Base, BNB Chain, Stellar, Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon.

Other notable Treasury tokenization products include Circle's USYC ($3.1 billion), Ondo's series of products ($3.7 billion), and Invesco's WTGXX ($764 million).

Private Credit

Private credit — loans originated by non-bank institutions, negotiated and held on their balance sheets — is another fast-growing segment within RWAs.

Its appeal is similar to Treasuries but offers higher yields than government bonds. Additionally, the private credit industry has long suffered from lock-up periods lasting years, and asset tokenization can inject liquidity into these holdings.

Corporate treasurers and asset managers can now transfer, use as collateral, and redeem their private credit positions on-chain.

The two leading platforms for tokenized private credit are Maple Finance and Stokr, each holding about a 22% market share, according to RWA.xyz. The total tokenized private credit market is approximately $6.2 billion.

Equities & ETFs

RWA.xyz data shows that tokenized equities currently have a small total size of just $2.19 billion, but they have surged nearly 50% in the past 30 days, indicating strong growth momentum, and are expected to see further significant expansion in the near term.

In May, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced a pilot for tokenized securities trading. DTCC handles clearing and settlement for virtually all U.S. stock trades, with custody of over $114 trillion in securities.

The pilot is set to launch this month and could become commercially operational by October. The pilot covers Russell 1000 components, major index ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries. Over 50 financial institutions are participating, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Circle, Ondo Finance, and Ripple Prime.

Ondo Finance, via its Global Markets platform, holds approximately 60% of the tokenized equity market. In March 2026, it partnered with Franklin Templeton to tokenize five ETFs. In April, it partnered with Broadridge Financial Solutions to allow tokenized equity and ETF holders to submit voting intentions on the underlying shares.

Gold & Commodities

Tokenized gold is the largest sub-category within tokenized commodities, with products having been on the market for years, but 2026 brought an unexpected stress test.

When U.S.-Iran tensions escalated sharply in early 2026, traditional financial markets were closed for holidays, while tokenized crude oil and gold markets remained open 24/7.

After the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran early this year, Wall Street trading desks increasingly relied on on-chain perpetual contract platforms. During traditional market off-hours, these became the only channels for real-time pricing of safe-haven assets like gold and crude oil.

Since the start of 2026, weekend trading volume for on-chain commodity perpetuals has grown 8-fold. Currently, commodity on-chain perpetuals account for over 67% of all contracts deployed on decentralized exchanges.

Thus, the tokenized commodity market never closes, providing a tangible competitive advantage during geopolitical events that do not respect traditional trading hours.

In March 2026, total tokenized commodities reached $5.8 billion; they have since fallen to $4.7 billion, with gold accounting for the vast majority.

The correlation between tokenized gold trading volumes and the traditional gold market has been strengthening. The historical correlation was weak, but in Q1 2026 it exceeded 0.70, signaling that the on-chain gold market is maturing.

Real Estate

Real estate tokenization remains more a vision than a scaled reality.

As part of the RWA space, tokenized real estate assets currently total just $202.7 million, but this sector is expected to grow steadily as several compliant products launch in two core markets this year.

The Dubai Land Department launched Phase 2 of its real estate tokenization project in February 2026, allowing secondary trading of tokenized property units. In the same quarter, Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission approved a real estate tokenization product from Delin Holdings.

Real estate tokenization can offer fractional ownership to investors who cannot afford high property investment thresholds. One token represents a partial interest in a property; holders can receive rental income proportionally and can transfer their shares at any time without waiting for the entire property to sell.

Total RWA Market Remains Relatively Small

Tokenized real-world assets are growing, but the road ahead is long. Tokenized Treasury products, the largest and most mature RWA category, total nearly $15 billion. In comparison, the traditional U.S. Treasury market is about $30 trillion — making the former’s size negligible.

The DTCC custodies assets worth $114 trillion; tokenized equities are virtually insignificant in comparison.

Liquidity in the sector remains weak, with most RWA products seeing thin secondary market trading and investors typically holding for long periods.

However, regulators are gradually embracing the sector. In March, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Nasdaq's proposal to allow certain stocks to be traded and settled in token form. Analysts and industry observers predict that stock token trading will soon see broad approval; SEC Chairman Paul Atkins is likely to use "innovation exemptions" to greenlight RWA development.

The debate in the industry is no longer about whether real-world assets will be tokenized, but how fast the process will be.