The RWA market surged by 40%: tokenized assets reached $51 billion
The tokenized real-world assets (RWA) sector is showing impressive momentum: its market capitalization has surged by 40% since the beginning of the year, reaching $51 billion. This growth occurs against the backdrop of a general correction in the cryptocurrency market, highlighting the sustained interest of institutional and retail investors in blockchain solutions for traditional assets.
The number of RWA token holders has increased by 60%, exceeding 917,000 unique addresses. The leaders in terms of locked funds remain the Figure platform with $18.9 billion and Securitize with $4.3 billion. These projects are building the infrastructure for a new class of digital securities.
Market Structure and Dynamics
The largest share of tokenized assets is occupied by private credit — 47% of the total volume. In second place are U.S. Treasury bonds (30%), followed by precious metals (9%). However, the segment of tokenized stocks showed the highest growth: it increased by 130% over six months, reaching $1.6 billion.
Activity is concentrated in two key networks: Provenance (39% of the market) and Ethereum (33%). This reflects the dominance of specialized blockchains and universal platforms with a developed smart contract ecosystem.
Analysts identify three main approaches to stock tokenization:
- Trading infrastructure. Brokers, such as Robinhood, purchase stocks and issue tokens backed by them. This enables round-the-clock trading but does not grant the holder voting rights.
- Settlement layer. Blockchain replaces traditional accounting systems. Projects like Figure and Securitize create regulated stacks where investors receive full ownership rights to the underlying assets.
- Hybrid model. Coinbase offers an "exchange for everything," combining tokens for stocks, derivatives, and crypto assets for users outside the U.S.
Regulatory Prospects
Further development of the sector critically depends on the SEC's position. The regulator has already approved pilot projects by NYSE and Nasdaq for trading tokenized securities. A key driver could be an "innovation exemption" that would allow trading such assets within the U.S.
The figures speak for themselves: the monthly transaction volume in the tokenized stock segment in June amounted to $5.3 billion — compared to $500 million in September last year. A more than tenfold increase in nine months is not just a trend but the formation of a new class of liquid assets.
My expert commentary: The RWA market is entering a phase of maturity. The growth in the number of holders and transaction volumes indicates that tokenization is ceasing to be a niche experiment. However, the key risk remains the fragmentation of regulatory approaches: without unified standards in the U.S. and the EU, scaling will be constrained. Investors should pay attention to projects with a solid legal background, such as Securitize and Figure — they are setting the tone in this area.