Real-World Assets Surpass $32 Billion Amid Tokenization Surge
Real-world assets (RWA) have reached a market value exceeding $32 billion, marking a significant milestone as Wall Street's interest in tokenization continues to grow. According to Cointelegraph, JPMorgan has recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a new tokenized money-market fund for stablecoin issuers on Ethereum. However, not everyone is convinced by the impressive figures and the involvement of major financial players. Chris Kim, founder and CEO of liquidity provider Axis, expressed skepticism, noting that many projects and traditional finance entities entering the crypto space are primarily focused on the issuance layer, neglecting the liquidity aspect. Kim emphasized that issuing a tokenized asset and trading it are distinct processes, and the industry's fixation on market cap figures does not accurately reflect the liquidity available for trading the $32 billion in assets.
The onchain RWA market has grown by approximately $10 billion in 2026. Tokenized finance is anticipated to expand further, with McKinsey & Company projecting a market cap of $2 trillion by 2030, and Standard Chartered forecasting $30.1 trillion by 2034. Despite these optimistic projections, Kim argued that the industry is prioritizing the wrong metrics, as the issuance of assets is outpacing the ability to trade them. He highlighted that the tradability of these assets will be crucial in determining the future value of tokenization markets, but currently, there is limited trading activity around tokenized RWAs. The headline figures do not adequately represent the uneven distribution of liquidity across asset classes. Tokenized Treasuries, which constitute about half of the RWA market, benefit from the liquidity of US government debt, as indicated by rwa.xyz data. However, other categories face challenges, with Chainalysis reporting that the tokenized assets market cap includes highly illiquid assets like real estate alongside more liquid ones.
Fragmentation is a significant issue in the RWA economy, with the same asset being issued across multiple blockchains in various formats, leading to inefficiencies. Kim noted that this fragmentation is accelerating, resulting in pricing discrepancies and reduced capital efficiency. According to a report by RWA.io, moving capital between networks incurs costs of 2% to 5% per transaction in fees and slippage, draining between $600 million and $1.3 billion from the market annually. If this fragmentation persists, annual losses could reach $75 billion by 2030. While the technology to address these issues exists, the infrastructure to connect it all is lacking. Onchain operational failures have already led to a 143% increase in financial losses in the first half of 2025 compared to all of 2024. Despite these challenges, Kim remains optimistic about the future of tokenization, viewing it as an inevitable standard for global capital markets, though not an immediate one. Until liquidity infrastructure improves, the market cap figures will not fully reflect a functioning market. The International Monetary Fund has also raised concerns about potential systemic risks, warning that while tokenization could reduce trading costs, it may amplify shocks if institutions become more interconnected with lower liquidity buffers.
