Market map: Tokenization & real-world assets (RWAs) — the categories that will matter next

The tokenization of real-world assets has reached an inflection point: by the end of 2024, the total value of tokenized assets on public blockchains exceeded $14 billion, with projections from Boston Consulting Group suggesting this figure could surpass $16 trillion by 2030. For emerging markets—where an estimated $8 trillion in informal assets remain locked outside the formal financial system—this technological shift represents not merely an efficiency gain but a fundamental restructuring of how capital formation, ownership verification, and cross-border investment can occur. This analysis examines the signals founders should watch, the value pools crystallizing across asset classes, and the regulatory and incentive design challenges that will determine which categories capture sustainable market share over the next 12–24 months.

Why It Matters

The significance of real-world asset tokenization extends far beyond the digitization of ownership certificates. At its core, tokenization addresses three systemic barriers that have historically constrained capital flows into emerging markets: fractionalization of high-value assets, programmable compliance that reduces due diligence costs, and near-instantaneous settlement that eliminates counterparty risk. According to McKinsey's 2024 Global Payments Report, cross-border payment costs for emerging market corridors average 6.3% of transaction value, with settlement times ranging from 3–5 business days. Tokenized asset transfers on distributed ledger infrastructure can reduce these costs by 40–60% while compressing settlement to minutes.

The 2024–2025 period has witnessed several structural shifts that amplify these advantages. The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, fully implemented in December 2024, established the first comprehensive framework for tokenized securities in a major economic bloc. Simultaneously, jurisdictions including Singapore, the UAE, and Brazil have promulgated sandbox regimes specifically designed for RWA experimentation. Singapore's Monetary Authority reported that tokenized bond issuances within its Project Guardian framework exceeded $3 billion in notional value by Q3 2024, demonstrating institutional appetite for regulated tokenization infrastructure.

For emerging markets specifically, the opportunity set is compelling. The World Bank estimates that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies face a $5.2 trillion financing gap—a figure that tokenization-enabled fractional investment and automated credit scoring could meaningfully address. Moreover, the informal land tenure systems prevalent across Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America represent trillions of dollars in "dead capital" that blockchain-based registries could activate for collateralization and investment.

Key Concepts

Tokenization refers to the process of representing ownership rights in an asset as a digital token on a distributed ledger. Unlike traditional securities, tokens can be programmed with embedded logic governing transferability, dividend distribution, and compliance requirements. This programmability enables automated enforcement of regulatory constraints—such as accredited investor verification or holding period requirements—without intermediary intervention.

Real-World Assets (RWAs) encompass any tangible or intangible asset that exists outside the native digital environment of blockchain networks. This category includes real estate, commodities, infrastructure, receivables, intellectual property, and sovereign or corporate debt instruments. The critical distinction from native crypto-assets lies in the requirement for off-chain verification: a tokenized building requires ongoing attestation of physical condition, legal title, and valuation that pure on-chain assets do not.

Smart Contracts constitute self-executing code deployed on blockchain networks that automatically enforce predefined conditions. In RWA contexts, smart contracts govern token issuance, dividend payments, ownership transfers, and compliance verification. The reliability of smart contracts depends critically on oracle infrastructure—trusted data feeds that bridge on-chain logic with off-chain reality. For emerging market deployments, oracle robustness against data manipulation and latency represents a primary technical risk vector.

Compliance Architecture describes the technical and legal infrastructure ensuring tokenized assets conform to applicable securities laws, anti-money laundering (AML) requirements, and tax obligations. Effective compliance architecture typically involves permissioned token transfers (limiting transactions to verified wallets), embedded transfer restrictions, and real-time reporting to regulatory authorities. The complexity of multi-jurisdictional compliance—where issuers, investors, and assets may be located in different regulatory domains—remains one of the sector's principal operational challenges.

Unit Economics in tokenization refers to the cost-benefit analysis of issuing, maintaining, and trading tokenized assets relative to traditional alternatives. Key variables include issuance costs (legal structuring, smart contract development, audit), ongoing custody and administration expenses, secondary market liquidity, and the cost of capital savings achieved through broader investor access. For most asset classes, minimum issuance sizes of $5–10 million are currently required for positive unit economics, though technology improvements are steadily reducing this threshold.

What's Working and What Isn't

What's Working

Tokenized Treasuries and Money Market Instruments: The highest-velocity RWA category to date has been tokenized U.S. Treasury products, which grew from under $100 million in early 2023 to over $2.5 billion by late 2024. Products from Franklin Templeton (Benji), BlackRock (BUIDL), and Ondo Finance have demonstrated that on-chain access to yield-bearing instruments attracts significant capital, particularly from crypto-native treasuries seeking stable returns. For emerging market investors, these products provide dollar-denominated yield access without traditional banking relationships—a meaningful value proposition in currency-volatile environments.

Trade Finance Receivables: Platforms including Tradeteq, Centrifuge, and Goldfinch have successfully tokenized trade finance receivables, enabling DeFi liquidity pools to fund invoices and export financing for emerging market SMEs. Goldfinch has deployed over $100 million to borrowers across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, with reported default rates below 2%—competitive with traditional trade finance performance. The key enabler has been pooled risk structures where diversified portfolios reduce single-counterparty exposure while maintaining attractive yields (12–18% APY) for liquidity providers.

Real Estate Fractionalization in Regulated Sandboxes: Jurisdictions with progressive regulatory frameworks have witnessed successful real estate tokenization. RealT in the United States has tokenized over $100 million in residential properties, enabling minimum investments of $50. In Singapore, CapitaLand's tokenized REIT units within the Project Guardian sandbox demonstrated institutional-grade custody and settlement. For emerging markets, platforms such as Propy (operating across multiple jurisdictions) and Brickken (EU-focused with LatAm expansion) have validated that regulatory sandboxes can enable compliant property tokenization with measurable liquidity improvements.

What Isn't Working

Illiquid Secondary Markets: Despite primary issuance growth, secondary market trading for most tokenized RWAs remains thin. Outside of tokenized Treasuries, average daily trading volumes for real estate and credit tokens typically represent less than 0.1% of outstanding value. This illiquidity undermines a core tokenization promise—fractional ownership enabling liquid positions—and reflects insufficient market maker participation, fragmented trading venues, and the fundamental challenge that many RWAs have inherently illiquid underlying assets.

Oracle and Data Integrity Failures: Several high-profile incidents have exposed vulnerabilities in the connection between on-chain tokens and off-chain reality. Disputes over property condition, valuation methodology, and legal title have complicated tokenized real estate projects. In agricultural commodity tokenization, challenges verifying physical inventory against token supplies have led to investor losses. The sector lacks standardized attestation frameworks, and the cost of robust continuous verification often exceeds the efficiency gains tokenization provides for smaller issuances.

Regulatory Fragmentation and Uncertainty: While sandbox regimes have enabled experimentation, the absence of harmonized international standards creates significant compliance costs for multi-jurisdictional offerings. A tokenized infrastructure fund seeking investors from Singapore, the UAE, and Brazil must navigate three distinct regulatory frameworks, each with different disclosure requirements, investor qualification standards, and custody rules. This fragmentation particularly disadvantages emerging market issuers who lack the legal resources to manage complex cross-border compliance programs.

Key Players

Established Leaders

BlackRock launched BUIDL in early 2024, rapidly accumulating over $500 million in tokenized Treasury fund assets and signaling that the world's largest asset manager views tokenization as core infrastructure rather than experimental technology. Their involvement has substantially de-risked institutional adoption.

JPMorgan operates Onyx, a blockchain platform that has processed over $700 billion in tokenized repo transactions, demonstrating enterprise-grade settlement infrastructure. Their Tokenized Collateral Network enables institutional clients to pledge tokenized assets as margin, expanding capital efficiency.

Franklin Templeton pioneered mutual fund tokenization with their Benji platform, operating one of the first SEC-registered funds with shares recorded on public blockchain. Their on-chain money market fund exceeded $400 million by 2024.

Securitize provides end-to-end tokenization infrastructure, having facilitated over $1 billion in tokenized asset issuances across private equity, real estate, and credit products. Their recent partnerships with BlackRock and Hamilton Lane have established them as the leading white-label tokenization platform for traditional asset managers.

Chainlink supplies the oracle infrastructure underlying most institutional RWA projects, providing the data feeds and cross-chain communication protocols that enable reliable valuation updates and compliance verification. Their Proof of Reserve product has become the de facto standard for asset-backed token verification.

Emerging Startups

Centrifuge has developed a protocol specifically designed for real-world asset financing, connecting DeFi liquidity with structured credit products. Their integration with MakerDAO to accept tokenized receivables as DAI collateral represented a landmark moment for RWA-backed stablecoins.

Ondo Finance offers tokenized access to U.S. Treasuries and corporate bonds, growing from zero to over $600 million in assets under management within 18 months. Their USDY product—a yield-bearing stablecoin backed by short-term Treasuries—has found particular traction with emerging market users seeking dollar yield.

Maple Finance operates institutional lending pools for crypto-native and web3 companies, having originated over $2 billion in loans. Their recent pivot toward tokenized real-world credit products positions them for cross-over growth.

Propy focuses on real estate transaction automation and has facilitated property purchases via cryptocurrency in multiple U.S. states and international jurisdictions. Their blockchain-based title registry pilots in underserved markets demonstrate the land tenure use case.

Goldfinch specifically targets emerging market credit, using a novel "trust through consensus" model where community backers assess borrower creditworthiness. Their portfolio spans fintech lenders, agricultural processors, and SME financiers across developing economies.

Key Investors & Funders

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has deployed significant capital into RWA infrastructure through their crypto funds, backing Centrifuge, Goldfinch, and numerous tokenization-adjacent protocols. Their thesis emphasizes RWAs as the bridge enabling traditional capital flows into crypto infrastructure.

Paradigm has invested across the tokenization stack, including oracle infrastructure and DeFi protocols with RWA integration. Their research contributions on tokenized asset design have influenced sector-wide architecture decisions.

Galaxy Digital operates both principal investment and trading operations in tokenized assets, providing much-needed market making services for early-stage RWA secondary markets.

Coinbase Ventures has backed multiple tokenization platforms and recently launched their own on-chain verification infrastructure for institutional asset management.

The Asian Development Bank and International Finance Corporation have funded pilot programs exploring tokenization for climate finance, infrastructure investment, and SME lending in their member countries, providing crucial validation for development-oriented use cases.

Examples

1. Goldfinch's Emerging Market Credit Expansion: By 2024, Goldfinch had deployed over $150 million to borrowers across 28 countries, with concentrations in Kenya, Nigeria, Mexico, and the Philippines. Their protocol enables U.S. and European investors to provide working capital to local fintech lenders who on-lend to SMEs. The platform reports average loan yields of 15–17% with default rates below 2.5%—performance competitive with development finance institution portfolios. The measurable outcome: an estimated 50,000+ SME borrowers have accessed capital that would otherwise be unavailable, with average loan sizes of $10,000–50,000.

2. Singapore's Project Guardian Tokenized Bonds: The Monetary Authority of Singapore's collaborative initiative with DBS Bank, JPMorgan, and SBI Digital Asset Holdings executed live tokenized bond transactions exceeding $3 billion in notional value. These transactions demonstrated same-day settlement, automated coupon payments, and cross-currency atomic swaps—reducing typical transaction costs by approximately 40%. The project explicitly tested multi-jurisdictional legal interoperability, establishing precedents for ASEAN cross-border capital markets.

3. Propy's Ukraine Land Registry Pilot: Prior to the 2022 conflict, Propy partnered with the Ukrainian government to pilot blockchain-based property registration, processing over 5,000 property transactions with cryptographic verification. The pilot reduced property transfer times from weeks to hours and created an immutable record protecting ownership claims. This model has since been proposed for post-conflict land registry reconstruction and has informed similar pilots in Georgia and Rwanda.

Action Checklist

• Evaluate jurisdiction-specific regulatory requirements before designing tokenization architecture—sandbox applications in Singapore, UAE, or EU may provide faster paths to market than navigating uncertain regulatory environments
• Prioritize asset classes with established valuation methodologies and liquid reference markets to simplify oracle design and investor due diligence
• Budget for ongoing compliance infrastructure representing 1–3% of assets under management annually, including KYC/AML verification, regulatory reporting, and legal counsel
• Design token contracts with upgradeability mechanisms to accommodate evolving regulatory requirements without requiring full reissuance
• Establish relationships with regulated custodians capable of supporting tokenized assets—this remains a critical bottleneck for institutional capital
• Plan secondary market liquidity from the outset, potentially through committed market makers or liquidity mining programs during early trading periods
• Integrate robust oracle infrastructure with multiple data sources and verification mechanisms to prevent single points of failure in asset valuation
• Develop clear legal documentation addressing token holder rights, asset recovery procedures, and dispute resolution mechanisms enforceable in relevant jurisdictions
• Target minimum issuance sizes of $5–10 million to achieve positive unit economics under current cost structures, or partner with aggregators to pool smaller assets
• Monitor MiCA implementation outcomes and emerging regulatory frameworks in target markets to anticipate compliance requirement evolution

FAQ

Q: What distinguishes tokenized RWAs from traditional asset-backed securities? A: Tokenized RWAs share fundamental characteristics with traditional asset-backed securities—both represent claims on underlying assets with defined cash flows and legal structures. The key differences lie in the technology layer: tokenization enables programmable compliance (automated transfer restrictions), fractional ownership at granular levels (potentially sub-$100 denominations), near-instantaneous settlement (minutes vs. days), and 24/7 global trading. However, tokenization does not eliminate underlying asset risks, counterparty dependencies, or the need for legal enforceability—it changes how these elements are managed and verified.

Q: What minimum issuance size makes tokenization economically viable? A: Current cost structures—including legal structuring ($50,000–200,000), smart contract development and audit ($30,000–100,000), and ongoing administration—typically require minimum issuances of $5–10 million for tokenization to provide net cost savings versus traditional alternatives. However, this threshold is declining as infrastructure matures and standardized legal templates emerge. For specific asset classes with higher traditional structuring costs (private credit, fractional real estate), break-even points may be lower. Aggregation strategies that pool multiple smaller assets can also achieve viable unit economics.

Q: How do emerging market issuers navigate multi-jurisdictional compliance requirements? A: The most practical approach involves selecting a primary regulatory jurisdiction with favorable RWA frameworks (Singapore, UAE, Switzerland, or Liechtenstein are common choices) and structuring offerings to minimize nexus with restrictive jurisdictions. Most platforms implement geography-based transfer restrictions at the smart contract level, preventing token transfers to wallets not verified for permitted jurisdictions. For cross-border retail offerings, regulatory sandboxes providing temporary exemptions while frameworks develop offer the most realistic near-term path.

Q: What role do stablecoins play in RWA tokenization ecosystems? A: Stablecoins serve as the primary settlement layer for tokenized asset transactions, enabling instant payment finality without traditional banking infrastructure. For emerging market use cases, dollar-denominated stablecoins (USDC, USDT) provide particularly important value by allowing local investors to access and exit positions without forex conversion delays or costs. Yield-bearing stablecoins backed by tokenized Treasuries (such as USDY) represent an emerging hybrid category—effectively tokenized RWAs themselves—that may become significant for liquidity management.

Q: What are the primary risks specific to emerging market RWA tokenization? A: Beyond standard tokenization risks, emerging market deployments face elevated counterparty risk (borrower or asset manager default), currency volatility affecting local-currency assets, legal enforceability uncertainty in jurisdictions with weak property rights regimes, and political risk including potential regulatory changes or capital controls. Successful protocols have managed these risks through diversification (never concentrating >5% of exposure in any single counterparty), overcollateralization requirements, insurance mechanisms, and legal structures domiciled in reliable enforcement jurisdictions even when underlying assets are located elsewhere.

Sources

• Boston Consulting Group. "Relevance of On-Chain Asset Tokenization in 'Crypto Winter'." BCG Global, 2024.
• McKinsey & Company. "Global Payments Report 2024: The Next Frontier." McKinsey Global Institute, October 2024.
• Monetary Authority of Singapore. "Project Guardian: Exploring Asset Tokenization in Financial Services." MAS Publications, September 2024.
• World Bank Group. "MSME Finance Gap Assessment." International Finance Corporation, 2024 Update.
• De Soto, Hernando. "The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else." Basic Books, 2000. (Foundational reference on informal asset valuation)
• European Securities and Markets Authority. "Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation: Technical Standards." ESMA Publications, December 2024.
• RWA.xyz Analytics Dashboard. "Real-World Asset Tokenization Market Data." Accessed January 2026.