Trend analysis: Tokenization & real-world assets (RWAs) — where the value pools are (and who captures them)

The tokenization of real-world assets has moved from speculative concept to institutional reality. By the end of 2025, the total value of tokenized RWAs on public blockchains exceeded $17 billion, up from $8.8 billion at the start of the year, according to data from RWA.xyz. BlackRock's BUIDL fund (tokenized US Treasuries on Ethereum) surpassed $500 million in assets under management within 10 months of launch. Franklin Templeton's BENJI token fund crossed $435 million. These are not crypto-native experiments; they represent some of the world's largest asset managers committing production infrastructure to blockchain-based financial products. For executives evaluating this space, particularly those focused on Asia-Pacific markets where regulatory frameworks are advancing rapidly, understanding which segments of the value chain generate durable returns is essential.

Why It Matters

The Boston Consulting Group estimated in 2024 that tokenized assets could represent $16 trillion in value by 2030, roughly 10% of global GDP. Even conservative estimates from McKinsey project $2-4 trillion in tokenized securities by 2030. The gap between these projections reflects genuine uncertainty about adoption speed, but the directional bet is clear: financial infrastructure is migrating on-chain, and the question is no longer whether but which asset classes, in which jurisdictions, and through which intermediaries.

Asia-Pacific is emerging as a critical region for RWA tokenization. Singapore's Monetary Authority (MAS) has been the most proactive regulator globally, launching Project Guardian in 2022 to explore institutional-grade DeFi and tokenized assets. By 2025, Project Guardian involved 17 financial institutions including DBS, JPMorgan, and Standard Chartered, testing tokenized bonds, foreign exchange, and fund management. Japan amended its Financial Instruments and Exchange Act in 2023 to explicitly permit security token offerings, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange launched a digital securities market in 2024. Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission approved tokenized fund structures in 2024, and Australia's ASX is piloting blockchain-based settlement for tokenized fixed income.

The economic logic driving adoption centers on three structural advantages: settlement efficiency (T+0 versus T+2, eliminating $30-50 billion in annual settlement risk capital), fractional ownership (enabling $100 minimum investment thresholds for assets previously requiring $100,000+), and programmable compliance (automating KYC/AML checks, transfer restrictions, and dividend distributions through smart contracts). These advantages compound in Asia-Pacific, where cross-border capital flows are substantial and existing settlement infrastructure is fragmented across dozens of national systems.

Key Concepts

Security Token Offerings (STOs) are the regulated issuance of blockchain-based tokens representing ownership in traditional assets such as equity, debt, real estate, or fund shares. Unlike utility tokens or cryptocurrencies, security tokens are explicitly classified as financial instruments and must comply with securities regulations in each jurisdiction of sale. STOs use smart contracts to enforce transfer restrictions, investor accreditation checks, and holding period requirements. The primary advantage over traditional securities is programmability: dividend payments, corporate actions, and compliance checks execute automatically without manual processing.

Tokenized Treasuries represent the fastest-growing RWA segment, with total on-chain value exceeding $3 billion by early 2026. Products like BlackRock's BUIDL (Ethereum), Franklin Templeton's BENJI (Stellar/Polygon), and Ondo Finance's USDY provide crypto-native institutions with access to US Treasury yields without leaving the blockchain ecosystem. These products function as yield-bearing stablecoins: holders earn approximately 4.5-5.0% annually while maintaining on-chain composability, meaning the tokens can be used as collateral in DeFi lending protocols, traded 24/7, and settled instantly.

Tokenized Private Credit applies blockchain infrastructure to the $1.7 trillion private credit market, addressing the illiquidity, opacity, and high minimum investments that characterize traditional structures. Platforms like Centrifuge, Maple Finance, and Goldfinch connect on-chain capital pools with real-world borrowers (including trade finance, revenue-based lending, and emerging market credit). The proposition is attractive because private credit yields of 8-15% significantly exceed on-chain lending returns of 3-6%, creating a natural demand pull.

Real Estate Tokenization divides property ownership into blockchain-based tokens, enabling fractional investment with dramatically lower minimums. Platforms such as RealT (US residential properties), Lofty (US rental properties), and ADDX (Singapore commercial real estate) have collectively tokenized over $500 million in property value. The structural challenge is that real estate tokenization requires wrapping physical assets in legal structures (typically SPVs) that map on-chain token ownership to off-chain property rights, adding legal complexity and cost.

Programmable Compliance embeds regulatory requirements directly into token smart contracts. Transfer restrictions based on investor accreditation, jurisdictional limitations, holding periods, and maximum ownership percentages execute automatically on each transaction. This eliminates manual compliance checks and enables 24/7 trading while maintaining regulatory adherence. Standards including ERC-3643 (for Ethereum) and Polymesh's identity framework provide the technical infrastructure for programmable compliance.

RWA Tokenization Market Benchmarks

Metric	Early Stage	Growth	Mature	Institutional
Total Value Locked ($M)	<10	10-100	100-1,000	>1,000
Number of Token Holders	<500	500-5,000	5,000-50,000	>50,000
Secondary Market Liquidity (daily volume / TVL)	<0.1%	0.1-1%	1-5%	>5%
Issuance Cost (% of deal size)	3-8%	1-3%	0.5-1%	<0.5%
Settlement Time	T+1	T+0	T+0	T+0
Minimum Investment	$1,000-10,000	$100-1,000	$10-100	$1-100

Where Value Pools Concentrate

Tier 1: Infrastructure and Protocol Layers

The deepest value pool belongs to the infrastructure providers whose platforms become the default rails for RWA issuance and settlement. These are the picks-and-shovels providers capturing recurring fees on every transaction without bearing asset-level risk.

Securitize has emerged as the dominant issuance and transfer agent platform, serving as the technology provider behind BlackRock's BUIDL, Hamilton Lane's tokenized fund products, and KKR's digital fund shares. The company processes over $1 billion in tokenized assets and earns recurring revenue through issuance fees, transfer agent services, and compliance automation. Their acquisition of a broker-dealer license and partnership with major asset managers creates a compounding network effect.

Polymesh, a purpose-built blockchain for regulated securities, has attracted over $350 million in tokenized assets by offering native identity verification, compliance rules, and settlement finality designed specifically for institutional requirements. In Asia-Pacific, Polymesh has partnerships with capital markets participants in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Tier 2: Asset Origination and Structuring

The second value pool belongs to firms that originate, structure, and distribute tokenized financial products. This segment captures issuance fees (typically 0.5-3% of deal value), ongoing management fees (0.1-0.5% annually), and structuring advisory revenue.

ADDX, headquartered in Singapore and regulated by MAS, operates a private market exchange offering tokenized access to hedge funds, private equity, bonds, and structured notes. The platform has facilitated over $1 billion in deals, with minimum investment sizes as low as $10,000 for assets traditionally requiring $200,000+. ADDX captures value as both the technology platform and the exchange, earning fees on origination, custody, and secondary trading.

Ondo Finance has built a $600 million business tokenizing US Treasury exposure for on-chain investors, earning management fees on the underlying fund while providing a critical building block for DeFi protocols that need yield-bearing collateral. Their USDY product has been integrated into over 20 DeFi protocols as collateral, creating sticky demand.

Tier 3: Secondary Trading and Liquidity

Secondary market infrastructure for tokenized assets remains underdeveloped but represents a significant future value pool. Current secondary trading volumes for most tokenized assets are thin (often less than 1% of total value daily), limiting price discovery and investor liquidity. The firms that solve the liquidity problem will capture substantial trading fee revenue.

INX operates a regulated digital securities exchange in Singapore and the United States. The Osaka Digital Exchange (ODX) in Japan launched security token trading in 2024, providing institutional-grade liquidity for tokenized Japanese government bonds and corporate debt. tZERO continues to operate a US-regulated alternative trading system for digital securities, though volumes remain modest.

Tier 4: Custody and Administration

Institutional-grade custody for tokenized assets represents a growing but competitive value pool. Traditional custodians (including BNY Mellon, State Street, and Northern Trust) are extending digital asset custody capabilities to tokenized securities. Crypto-native custodians like Fireblocks and Anchorage Digital compete on technology flexibility and integration with DeFi protocols. In Asia-Pacific, Standard Chartered's Zodia Custody and HashKey in Hong Kong serve institutional clients requiring regulated custody solutions.

What's Working

Tokenized Treasuries as DeFi Building Blocks

The explosive growth in tokenized Treasury products demonstrates product-market fit where on-chain capital seeks low-risk yield without leaving the blockchain ecosystem. BlackRock's BUIDL has been integrated as collateral on multiple DeFi lending protocols, creating composable value that traditional money market funds cannot replicate. This composability generates demand beyond simple yield-seeking, as the tokens function simultaneously as savings instruments, collateral, and settlement assets.

Singapore's Regulatory Sandbox Model

MAS's Project Guardian has demonstrated that proactive regulatory engagement accelerates institutional adoption. By providing a structured framework for experimentation, Singapore attracted major global banks to develop and test tokenization infrastructure within its jurisdiction. DBS Bank's tokenized bond issuances and JPMorgan's Onyx platform testing in Singapore provide templates that other jurisdictions are now replicating.

Private Credit Yield Premiums

Tokenized private credit platforms are attracting capital by offering yields 200-500 basis points above traditional on-chain lending rates. Centrifuge has facilitated over $400 million in real-world lending through its on-chain securitization framework, connecting DeFi liquidity pools with trade finance, real estate bridge loans, and invoice factoring. The model works because it creates genuine yield advantages for lenders while providing cheaper capital access for borrowers underserved by traditional banking.

What's Not Working

Liquidity Fragmentation

Tokenized assets trade across dozens of platforms, chains, and jurisdictions with minimal interoperability. A tokenized bond issued on Ethereum via Securitize cannot easily trade on Polymesh or settle against an asset on Stellar. This fragmentation suppresses secondary market liquidity and limits the composability advantages that tokenization promises. Cross-chain bridges and interoperability protocols remain technically immature for regulated securities.

Legal Complexity in Cross-Border Transactions

Despite the borderless nature of blockchain infrastructure, securities law remains stubbornly jurisdiction-specific. A tokenized fund approved in Singapore may not be distributable to investors in Japan, Australia, or India without separate regulatory approvals. The legal structuring costs to achieve multi-jurisdictional compliance often consume 50-70% of the cost advantage that tokenization delivers in settlement efficiency.

Retail Adoption Barriers

While fractional ownership is technically possible, most tokenized products remain accessible only to accredited or institutional investors due to regulatory constraints. The promise of democratized access to alternative investments has not yet materialized at scale, limiting the addressable market and the network effects that drive platform value.

Key Players

Securitize is the leading tokenization platform serving institutional asset managers including BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, and KKR.

ADDX operates Singapore's regulated private market exchange for tokenized alternative investments.

Ondo Finance provides tokenized Treasury yield products integrated across major DeFi protocols.

Centrifuge enables on-chain securitization connecting DeFi capital with real-world credit opportunities.

Polymesh offers a purpose-built blockchain for regulated securities with native compliance capabilities.

Fireblocks provides institutional-grade wallet infrastructure and custody supporting tokenized asset operations.

Action Checklist

• Assess which asset classes in your portfolio are candidates for tokenization based on settlement friction, minimum investment barriers, and investor demand for liquidity
• Map regulatory requirements across target Asia-Pacific jurisdictions (Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia) for security token classification and distribution
• Evaluate infrastructure partners (Securitize, Polymesh, Fireblocks) for technology maturity, regulatory compliance, and institutional client base
• Model the economics of tokenization including issuance costs, legal structuring, ongoing compliance, and anticipated savings in settlement and administration
• Pilot with high-demand, low-complexity asset classes (Treasury/money market products) before expanding to illiquid alternatives
• Establish custody arrangements with regulated digital asset custodians appropriate to target investor jurisdictions
• Monitor cross-chain interoperability developments that may reduce liquidity fragmentation risks
• Engage with regulatory sandboxes (MAS Project Guardian, JFSA fintech sandbox) to shape emerging frameworks

Sources

• Boston Consulting Group. (2024). Relevance of On-Chain Asset Tokenization in 'Crypto Winter'. Boston: BCG.
• McKinsey & Company. (2024). From Ripples to Waves: The Transformative Power of Tokenizing Assets. New York: McKinsey Global Institute.
• Monetary Authority of Singapore. (2025). Project Guardian: Industry Pilot Reports and Regulatory Findings. Singapore: MAS.
• RWA.xyz. (2026). Real-World Asset Dashboard: Tokenized Asset Market Data, January 2026. Available at: https://app.rwa.xyz
• BlackRock. (2025). BUIDL: USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund Performance Report. New York: BlackRock.
• International Organization of Securities Commissions. (2025). Policy Recommendations for Crypto and Digital Asset Markets: Tokenized Securities. Madrid: IOSCO.
• Japan Financial Services Agency. (2024). Security Token Offering Guidelines: Amended Financial Instruments and Exchange Act Implementation. Tokyo: JFSA.