In 2026, the financial system will undergo a profound transformation: Real-world assets (RWAs) are being rapidly rebuilt on the blockchain. Traditional financial instruments such as US Treasury bonds, corporate bonds, commodities, private lending, and real estate are now being put on-chain.

Original text: The Everything-On-Chain Era:A RWA Spectrum Report

Author : Birdeye

Compiled by: Will Awang , Investment and Financing Lawyer specializing in Web3 & Digital Assets; Independent Researcher specializing in Tokenization, RWA, Payments, and DeSci

In 2026, the financial system will undergo a profound transformation: Real-World Assets (RWAs) are being rapidly rebuilt on the blockchain. Traditional financial instruments such as US Treasury bonds, corporate bonds, commodities, private lending, and real estate are now being put on-chain. RWAs endow these assets with a series of revolutionary capabilities: on-chain anchoring of partial ownership, 24/7 transferability, programmability, and composability. These characteristics are not only difficult for traditional financial infrastructure to achieve, but also directly address the long-standing pain points of capital market inefficiency, making RWAs a strong candidate for the large-scale application of blockchain technology.

The underlying logic is:

• Blockchain serves as a new globally unified ledger and a new financial infrastructure.
• Tokenized money built on this ledger will level the efficiency and cost of global value transfer.
• This has created a global, 24/7, multi-product market for payments, lending, and capital finance.

In 2024, we saw numerous assets go on-chain; in 2025, we saw these traditional financial assets combine extensively with DeFi. In 2026, we will see:

• Capital is no longer satisfied with traditional return models, but is more proactive in capturing on-chain returns on the basis of traditional return models—the further development of on-chain asset management;
• At the same time, the characteristics of blockchain that are difficult for traditional financial infrastructure to achieve will be further amplified, and innovative financial products such as mortgage lending, margin replacement, and RWA derivatives will continue to emerge.
• RWA assets will not be limited to the US dollar and US Treasury bonds. The gold market, which also has consensus and liquidity, will be further enhanced by the characteristics of blockchain.
• Of course, regulation will be a key focus, and the US's exemption for crypto innovation will be a breakthrough, especially in terms of institutional adoption.

Therefore, we compiled Birdeye's article, "The Everything-On-Chain Era: A RWA Spectrum Report," which summarizes the RWA market in 2025 and also reflects the development trends in 2026 based on the trends mentioned above.

If stablecoins paved the way for the large-scale operation of digital assets, then RWA extends this logic to the core of the financial market. From its initial small-scale pilot, RWA has rapidly risen to become a structural revolution. This transformation is driven by investors' desire for returns, active institutional investment, and the increasingly mature DeFi infrastructure. We are standing at the entrance to an era where "everything is blockchain," and RWA has the potential to become the cornerstone of the next financial era.

Key points summary

1. Aside from stablecoins, the supply of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) exceeds $36 billion, a 1.6-fold increase from 2024 and a 1000-fold increase from 2019. Fixed-income products dominate, while tokenized equities have grown 106-fold year-over-year.
2. BUIDL, a joint venture between BlackRock and Securitize, leads the institutional issuance of RWA assets, with a supply of $2.85 billion, representing 34% of the market share of all tokenized U.S. Treasury securities. In the institutional fund category, JAAA (the tokenized version of Janus Henderson's Anemoy AAA CLO fund, issued through Centrifuge) has a market capitalization exceeding $1 billion.
3. Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) has become an integrated orchestration layer for institutional smart contracts and has been adopted by numerous institutions such as Swift, Euroclear, UBS, and Mastercard. In May of this year, Chainlink partnered with Ondo and Kinexys (a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase) to successfully complete the first settlement of OUGSG on the Ondo Chain testnet.
4. R3 provides institutional clients with $17 billion worth of tokenized assets and expanded in May 2025 through a strategic partnership with Solana, enabling regulated institutions to issue and settle RWAs directly on public blockchain infrastructure.
5. In the retail sector, Aave’s Horizon RWA marketplace allows lending on assets such as Centrifuge’s JSTRY and JAAA, Superstate’s USTB and USCC, and VanEck’s VBILL. The marketplace grew 12 times in just three months from $48.14 million at launch to $571.6 million.
6. Backed by fixed-rate institutional lending, Maple Finance's syrupUSDC has grown rapidly, with total assets under management increasing from $162 million to $4.37 billion by 2025. On Ethereum's Spark and Morpho platforms, total syrupUSDC deposits have reached $630 million, while the supply of syrupUSDC on Solana's Kamino platform is close to $106.41 million.
7. Tokenized stocks launched in August and September 2025 and gained significant market acceptance, reaching a market capitalization of $225.04 million on Ethereum and $199.58 million on Solana. Trading volume decreased over the weekend when traditional stock markets were closed, but the on-chain price discovery mechanism continued.
8. Regulators in major financial centers are working to align tokenization with existing rules, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the European Union's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) and Special Financial Action Act (MiCA), and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). In regions where regulations are less clear, the need to address regulatory gaps and close them is becoming increasingly apparent.

I. Overview: The RWA tokenization market has huge growth potential.

1.1 Fixed-income products dominate.

As of November 30, 2025, the supply of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) exceeded $36 billion, more than doubling from $15.75 billion at the beginning of the year. This represents a staggering 1000-fold increase compared to the mere $33.21 million value of tokenized assets in 2019. The growth momentum has accelerated significantly over the past three years: the year-over-year growth rate rose from 60.79% in 2023 to 66.70% in 2024, reaching 159.29% in 2025.

According to a 2024 survey of 26 financial institutions by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), 65% of respondents considered bonds to be the most likely asset class to be tokenized. Indeed, fixed-income products already dominate the tokenization space, with private credit tokenization reaching $18.64 billion and U.S. Treasury tokenization reaching $9.15 billion. This concentration reflects investor demand for debt instruments, which offer attractive yields and relatively lower risk compared to more volatile asset classes.

1.2 Tokenized Stock Market Surge

Tokenized stocks have become the fastest-growing RWA category, with their supply surging 106-fold from $5.93 million in October 2024 to $629 million in November 2025. This growth was primarily driven by Securitize's Exodus Movement, which added over $300 million worth of tokens on its Arbitrum and Algorand platforms. Meanwhile, Backed Finance launched its US-based tokenized stock product, xStocks, in Q2 2025, and currently has $150 million in assets listed. Subsequently, Ondo Global Markets launched over 100 tokenized stocks and ETFs in Q3, quickly surpassing the $100 million mark and becoming the fastest-growing tokenized stock platform, with its total value locked (TVL) exceeding $300 million.

On November 20, Caesar partnered with Centrifuge to put its stock on the blockchain, becoming the first crypto-native company to issue shares in tokenized form. With Nasdaq and US regulators in talks to allow tokenized securities trading, the tokenized stock market is poised for even stronger growth.

1.3 Ethereum has the largest total supply, while Plume has the most holders.

Unsurprisingly, Ethereum continues to lead in tokenized asset supply thanks to its strong liquidity and well-developed infrastructure, with its total RWA value reaching $11.9 billion as of mid-November. Ethereum also boasts the most tokenized assets, totaling 477, followed by Polygon (279) and Plume (198).

However, in terms of the number of holders, Plume has significantly surpassed Ethereum, boasting 280,639 holders, 2.2 times the number of Ethereum's 130,230 holders. Solana ranks third, demonstrating remarkable growth momentum, with its number of holders surging from 9,468 at the end of June to 105,762 at the end of November.

1.4 Huge development potential

Despite the rapid growth of the RWA market in recent years, its size remains minuscule compared to traditional finance. According to Helius's forecast, as of 2024, only 0.0026% of tokenizable assets will be represented on-chain.

As shown in the table above, apart from private lending (0.69%), the tokenized value of most categories is negligible, accounting for less than 0.01% of the total market size. This huge gap highlights that the RWA field is still in its early stages of development and has enormous potential for growth as tokenization progresses.

For reference, stablecoins have followed a similar trajectory: from 2020 to 2025, their share of the US M2 money supply jumped from 0.15% to 1.11%, a nearly 70-fold increase in just five years. If RWA grows along a similar trajectory, the next decade could see an unprecedented migration of on-chain capital. In fact, McKinsey predicts that by 2030, the total value of tokenized assets will reach $1.9 trillion, more than 60 times the current level.

II. RWA Stack

Unlike crypto-native assets, real-world assets (RWAs) inherently contain off-chain components related to the physical or legal world. Currently, each tokenized asset is pegged to an underlying off-chain instrument, such as a bond, security, or commodity, and legal documents defining ownership, transferability, and investor rights.

RWA currently operates in two modes: on-chain native mode and hybrid mode. In the on-chain native mode, investors transact entirely on-chain, while in the hybrid mode, ownership is recorded on-chain but relies on off-chain infrastructure for investor interaction. According to data from RWA.xyz, as of October 2025, the hybrid mode project had a market capitalization of $16.36 billion, representing 52% of the total supply.

However, this binary classification is oversimplified. A more accurate view is to consider RWA as a technology stack, ranging from strictly regulated, institutional-investor-only permissioned assets to permissionless, fully on-chain tokens geared towards retail users. The closer an asset is to a permissioned asset, the more stringent its investor requirements, such as KYB (Know Your Customer), verification, and high minimum investment amounts. This results in a small holder base and very little or no secondary trading.

It's important to note that permissioned assets are not necessarily non-transferable off-chain assets, as they can be transferred entirely on-chain between whitelisted addresses. For example, BlackRock's tokenized U.S. Treasury bond BUIDL, issued by Securitize, is only open to eligible U.S. investors, with a minimum investment of $5 million and only 89 holders; while Centrifuge's tokenized Janus Henderson AAA CLO strategy JAAA is open to non-U.S. professional investors, with a minimum investment of $500,000 and only 10 holders. Both are permissioned assets, but both are native on-chain assets.

On the other hand, RWAs targeting retail users require minimal or no KYC verification, thus attracting broader user participation and fostering DeFi integration and a vibrant secondary market. Backed Finance's xStocks, a tokenized US stock product based on the Solana platform, is a prime example, boasting over 44,000 unique holders. Users can trade xStocks on CEXs or DEXs without additional KYC verification, and the token has been integrated with Kamino Lending and Raydium (the Raydium platform) from the outset. Tokenized stocks and ETFs on the Ondo Global Markets platform (available on the Ethereum and BNB chains) follow the same pattern, with trading volume exceeding $699 million since September.

Driving RWA growth means recognizing that the three drivers— product design, institutional adoption, and regulatory compliance— need to be deeply embedded in the technology stack. The key is finding the intersection of these elements to achieve the optimal balance between innovation, accessibility, and compliance. In the following sections, we will continue to use this framework to explore how deeper institutional engagement, stronger retail product-market fit, and a clearer regulatory foundation will define the next phase of RWA expansion.

III. Institutional Level Adoption

The foundation of RWA's growth lies in institutional participation. Institutions are no longer merely testing the waters, but actively investing. Some institutions still adhere to traditional frameworks, using blockchain to record ownership while maintaining off-chain custody and compliance systems. Others are taking more forward-thinking strategies, issuing assets directly on-chain and developing infrastructure connecting existing banking networks and public blockchains. These efforts collectively form the structural pillars of the RWA ecosystem, ensuring that tokenized assets are not only technically feasible but also capable of large-scale implementation at the institutional level.

3.1 Integrating on-chain records with off-chain infrastructure

A more conservative approach is to retain off-chain infrastructure while attempting to use on-chain records, such as the tokenized private credit products launched by Figure and Tradable on Provenance and ZKSync, respectively. This approach has been criticized by DeFi natives, who argue that these tokenized assets have a small number of holders and lack on-chain activity; the projects simply place their internal databases on-chain while all processes are executed off-chain.

Nevertheless, this conservative approach is suitable for companies looking to experiment with blockchain technology and explore how to gradually integrate it into their existing technology stack. As of the end of November 2025, Figure and Tradable had tokenized $16 billion worth of active loans, representing approximately 85.24% of total on-chain active loans.

3.2 Issuing tokenized assets on-chain

In recent years, with increasingly stringent regulations, institutions have begun issuing on-chain assets. Currently, the institutional RWA market is primarily dominated by low-risk fixed-income products, such as US Treasury bonds and institutional funds. Some institutions issue tokenized products directly, while others partner with tokenization service providers such as Securitize or Centrifuge to handle issuance and compliance matters.

Leading the market is BUIDL, a tokenized money market fund managed by BlackRock and issued through Securitize, with a supply exceeding $2.85 billion across seven networks as of mid-November. BUIDL accounts for 34% of all tokenized U.S. Treasuries. Following closely are Franklin Templeton's BENJI, with a supply of $850 million across eight networks, and WisdomTree's WTGXX, with a supply of $620 million across seven networks. Other notable issuances include JTRSY (managed by Anemoy and Janus Henderson, issued through Centrifuge), FDIT (issued by Fidelity), and VBILL (managed by VanEck, issued through Securitize).

In the institutional fund category, JAAA (a tokenized version of Janus Henderson's Anemoy AAA CLO fund, issued through Centrifuge) leads with a market capitalization exceeding $1 billion as of October 2025. Approximately 75% of JAAA's supply is minted on Ethereum, and its total market capitalization represents about 30% of the entire institutional fund category. In September 2025, Centrifuge partnered with Plume to launch the Anemoy tokenized Apollo diversified credit fund (ACRDX), further expanding its product line. This fund secured a $50 million cornerstone investment from Grove, the credit infrastructure protocol for the Sky ecosystem. In this category, Securitize leads with 14 tokenized funds holding assets totaling $861 million on-chain.

WisdomTree is an interesting example of deep institutional integration. This asset management firm and leading exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider was founded in the US in 1985. In 2019, the company launched its first Bitcoin ETF, marking its initial foray into the cryptocurrency space. Since then, WisdomTree has increased its investment in RWA, holding 15 assets across multiple blockchains with a total size of $650 million, covering areas such as money markets, equities, fixed income, and asset allocation. Recently, WisdomTree announced a partnership with global financial services company BNY, which will serve as WisdomTree's core Bank-as-a-Service (BaaS) infrastructure provider to facilitate the adoption of stablecoins and RWA. Furthermore, they recently partnered with Chainlink to put the net asset value data of their tokenized private credit fund (CRDT) on-chain via Chainlink DataLink.

3.3 Building the infrastructure connecting traditional finance and DeFi

The deepest level of institutional participation in RWA lies in building the infrastructure that connects traditional finance with decentralized systems, thereby enabling interoperability between the traditional banking system and blockchain networks. This integration brings the long-term vision of on-chain finance closer to reality.

Chainlink, a leading pioneer in this field, recently launched the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE), an integrated orchestration layer for institutional smart contracts that enables cross-chain interoperability while ensuring compliance, privacy, and enterprise-grade security. CRE was announced at SmartCon 2025 last November, and several major global financial institutions, including Swift, Euroclear, UBS, and Mastercard, adopted the technology at launch. In May of this year, Chainlink partnered with Ondo and Kinexys (a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase) to successfully complete the first settlement of OUGG on the Ondo Chain testnet. As a secure orchestration layer, CRE connects JPMorgan Chase's permissioned Kinexys digital payment network with Ondo Chain, achieving the first DVP (Delivery versus Payment) model that connects traditional settlement channels with blockchain infrastructure.

In September 2025, Chainlink partnered with UBS to further expand this innovation, leveraging SWIFT messaging technology to advance tokenized fund workflows. They developed a technical solution that allows institutions to manage digital asset workflows directly through their existing SWIFT infrastructure. The project uses ISO 20022 messages sent via SWIFT and CRE to trigger subscription and redemption workflows on UBS Tokenize, UBS's internal tokenization platform. The CRE processes the SWIFT messages and executes transactions using Chainlink's Digital Transfer Agent (DTA) technology standard.

This plug-and-play integration effectively eliminates the complexities of blockchain, enabling institutions to interact with tokenized assets through familiar financial messaging methods—a breakthrough that promises to open doors for institutions to the $100 trillion global fund industry. Last November, UBS Tokenize and DigiFT announced the completion of the first tokenized fund redemption powered by CRE and based on the Chainlink DTA technology standard.

Another landmark example is the strategic partnership between R3 and Solana. R3, a global leader in tokenization and interoperability solutions, is dedicated to driving market digitization and connecting the largest on-chain RWA ecosystem with DeFi. R3 supports tens of millions of transactions monthly and provides $17 billion worth of tokenized assets security for clients such as Euroclear, HQLAx, and the Swiss Digital Exchange (SDX) through its platform. The partnership between R3 and Solana marks a significant step forward in connecting permissioned ledgers with high-performance public blockchains. By connecting real-world asset issuers with on-chain capital allocators on Solana, R3 is streamlining the process of bringing regulated institutional assets onto the blockchain and unlocking new revenue potential through new yield opportunities and collateral backed by high-quality real-world assets from the R3 ecosystem.

IV. Market fit for retail products

Continuing with the existing technology stack framework, the accessibility of retail RWAs is at the end of the expansion curve. Although institutional-grade RWAs are still constrained by high barriers to entry and compliance requirements, developers are innovating and exploring new ways to bridge this gap— transforming institutional-grade assets into permissionless DeFi-native tools .

From treasury-backed stablecoins like USDTB and frxUSD, to yield tokens like syrupUSDC, and encapsulated forms like tokenized stocks, these models extend RWA's reach beyond accredited investors. In doing so, they bring traditional financial value directly on-chain, marking a crucial step towards a more inclusive and fully composable on-chain economy.

4.1 RWA as collateral for DeFi composable stablecoins

Since not all RWAs are open to retail investors, some projects are using institutional-grade RWAs as collateral to create retail-accessible assets, such as stablecoins. For example, because BUIDL is limited to accredited institutional investors with a minimum investment of $5 million, Ethena launched USDtb, an asset backed by BUIDL and fully combinable across various DeFi protocols.

As of mid-October 2025, USDtb's market capitalization on Ethereum reached $1.28 billion, with $20 million in liquidity in its USDtb-USDC pool on Curve Finance and an average daily trading volume of $2.26 million. Retail users can earn yields by providing USDtb to lending markets or borrowing USDtb as collateral for popular assets in DeFi protocols. Thanks to Merkl's USDtb rewards program, users can earn an average annualized yield (APY) of 6.83% on DeFi platforms such as Aave, Morpho, Fluid, and Euler. Lending activity is primarily concentrated on the Aave platform, which holds $101.89 million in USDtb and has borrowed $59.45 million, far exceeding other protocols.

Another example is frxUSD, a stablecoin fully backed by tokenized US Treasury bonds. Its $75.43 million reserves consist of 71.65% USTB, 20.34% BUIDL, and 4.11% WTGXX. USTB and BUIDL are restricted to accredited investors with minimum investments of $100,000 and $5 million, respectively; while WTGXX is open to US retail and institutional investors with a minimum investment of $1.

frxUSD is a yield-generating stablecoin that yields 3.85% by default from the underlying Treasury bond yield, and 5.60% when staked as sfrxUSD. As of November 2025, frxUSD had a market capitalization of $98.36 million, liquidity of $21.9 million, and daily trading volume on Ethereum of $3.31 million. The number of frxUSD holders increased from less than 10 in February to 729 in October, while the number of sfrxUSD holders reached 309. Total yield payouts exceeded $1.33 million, and the total supply approached $43.22 million.

On October 25, the supply of frxUSD doubled after a pre-deposit campaign in partnership with Stable, which led to a surge in the number of frxUSD holders and liquidity, and also boosted the number of sfrxUSD holders a few days later.

In the lending space, Aave's Horizon RWA marketplace allows users to deposit RWA assets as collateral and borrow stablecoins using them as collateral. Horizon launched on Ethereum on August 27, 2025, and quickly became the fastest-growing RWA lending platform, with its market size increasing 12-fold in just three months, from an initial $48.14 million to $571.6 million.

Authorized users approved by RWA issuers can offer a variety of assets, such as Centrifuge's JSTRY and JAAA, Superstate's USTB and USCC, VanEck's VBILL, and Circle's USYC. As of the end of November 2025, JSTRY led the pack with a supply of $30.66 million, followed by USYC ($20.48 million) and VBILL ($9.17 million). JSTRY also saw the strongest growth, increasing 15-fold from its initial offering price of $2.08 million.

4.2 Repackage RWA into a permissionless yield token

Beyond low-risk treasury products, some projects are bringing traditionally institutional tools (such as public and private credit) onto the blockchain. Maple Finance's syrupUSDC is a noteworthy example. Maple, as a credit marketplace, allows institutions to borrow BTC, ETH, and other mainstream tokens into high-yield, overcollateralized loan pools for institutional borrowers. These borrowers then use these loans to grow their real-world businesses, making the ecosystem a platform that combines on-chain asset management with real-world applications. To allow permissionless retail users to participate, Maple launched syrupUSDC—a highly liquid, high-yield token with a base annualized yield (APY) of 6.5% (excluding rewards), funded by fixed-rate institutional loans.

The launch of syrupUSDC on Ethereum and its subsequent expansion to Solana fueled Maple's rapid growth. Since the beginning of 2025, its total assets under management have surged from $162 million to $4.37 billion, with an all-time high exceeding $5 billion. By November 2025, syrupUSDC's market capitalization exceeded $1.39 billion, with 99.71% concentrated on Ethereum and the remainder distributed across Solana and Arbitrum. The token has deeply integrated into the DeFi space, with total deposits on Spark and Morpho reaching $630 million, representing 97.4% of the total syrupUSDC used in Ethereum DeFi. On Solana, the supply of syrupUSDC on Kamino is close to $106.41 million, accounting for approximately 37% of the total market capitalization of syrupUSDC on that chain.

On DEXs, syrupUSDC's liquidity on Solana reached $39.13 million, twice that of Ethereum ($19.86 million). Solana's average daily trading volume was $9.83 million, ten times that of Ethereum ($972,000). The majority of trading activity occurred on their respective networks' main DEXs: Uniswap V4 on Ethereum and Orca on Solana.

Centrifuge recently launched deJAAA, a tokenized version of the Janus Henderson Anemoy AAA CLO fund, employing a semi-permissioned model and supporting DeFi. In fact, Centrifuge provides wrapping services for issuers looking to extend their RWA to a wider user base through DeFi integrations. deJAAA has been deployed on Solana and Base, with a total cross-chain value locked exceeding $10 million.

4.3 RWA is classified as a speculative asset.

The third major way to expand retail participation in RWA is to increase asset accessibility. The tokenized stocks launched in August and September 2025 were a significant milestone for the industry. For the first time, retail users could gain on-chain exposure to US stocks without completing KYC verification, thanks to wrapping services provided by projects such as Ondo and Backed Finance. The number of holders of these assets quickly climbed to the thousands.

While tokenized shares do not represent legal ownership of the underlying stock, they do provide users with a convenient way to gain economic exposure to that stock. Analysis of Tesla's ticker symbol TSLA and its on-chain tokenized version TSLAx developed by Backed Finance on the Solana platform shows that the price of tokenized shares is closely correlated with the price of their corresponding real-world shares. Daily price deviations fluctuate within a narrow range of -5.02% to 3.45%.

As of early December 2025, the total market capitalization of tokenized stocks on the Solana platform reached $199.58 million, including xStocks, PreStocks, and rStocks. Tesla xStock (TSLAx) led the pack with a market capitalization of $42.06 million, more than double that of NVIDIAx ($22.55 million), thanks to its 26% price increase in September. The average daily trading volume was $4.33 million, peaking at $11.81 million on October 10th, with TSLAx accounting for a significant portion of this volume, representing 35.81% of the total daily trading volume. Trading volume decreased significantly during the weekend when traditional stock markets were closed, but the on-chain price discovery mechanism remained effective.

Ethereum also experienced a similar weekend trading slowdown, with trading volume briefly dropping to $50.49 on September 14th. This was primarily due to the different business models of xStocks and Ondo Global Markets: xStocks provides on-chain liquidity and is open 24/7; while Ondo Global Markets utilizes liquidity from traditional stock markets, issuing and redeeming tokens 24/7, 5 days a week. Ethereum's total market capitalization is 12.76% higher than Solana's ($225.04 million vs. $199.58 million), but overall trading activity dropped sharply from a monthly average of $10.76 million in September to $1.26 million in October, before rebounding in November.

Besides tokenized stocks, tokenized commodities such as gold are also popular among retail investors. Two major examples are Tether's XAUt and Paxos' PAXG. Although both launched in early 2019-2020, trading volumes didn't surge until September 2025, partly due to gold prices soaring above $4,400. While PAXG's market capitalization is far lower than XAUt's, it has four times the number of holders and twice the liquidity.

V. Clarity of Regulation

As governments and financial regulators worldwide recognize RWA's potential for modernizing capital markets, the regulatory landscape for RWA is rapidly evolving. While some jurisdictions have established clear legal frameworks for integrating RWA into existing financial systems, others are catching up. These differences are impacting where innovation occurs and how quickly institutions can expand their tokenization strategies.

5.1 Integrate RWA into the existing legal and financial structure

In major financial centers, regulators are working to align RWA regulations with existing laws. In the United States, all participating agents are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In early October 2025, Plume received its Registered Transfer Agent License from the SEC.

In the EU, the legal framework now follows two distinct paths: the financial instruments path applies to tokens representing regulated instruments such as bonds, funds, or stocks, including MiFID II, the Prospectus Regulation, and the CSCR; the crypto-asset path covers tokens that do not meet the definition of securities but are regulated by MiCA.

Other jurisdictions have adopted similar approaches. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and the UAE Securities and Exchange Commission (VARA) have all introduced regulations favorable to tokenization based on the principle of " same activity, same risk, same regulation ." These frameworks give institutions confidence to tokenize assets while maintaining compliance. In Singapore, Project Guardian, led by the MAS—a collaborative initiative involving major financial institutions and technology partners through multiple pilot projects—has demonstrated how tokenized bonds and funds can operate efficiently and securely within a regulatory framework.

5.2 Increased pressure on regulators

This gap is widening in regions where clear rules still lack, intensifying the urgency to close it. Investors remain vulnerable to fraud and market uncertainty due to the absence of established regulations, while innovators are shifting their operations to more progressive jurisdictions. Policymakers now face a difficult balance: protecting consumers while ensuring their national economies benefit from blockchain-driven financial modernization.

The United States provides a valuable example. While comprehensive RWA regulations are yet to be enacted, lawmakers have passed frameworks for stablecoins, such as the GENIUS Act, to protect consumer rights and maintain the global status of the dollar. This reflects a broader objective: leveraging blockchain not only to foster innovation but also to enhance its global financial influence. Similarly, other markets are increasingly recognizing that timely regulation is not merely about compliance—it is a competitive advantage that determines who leads the way in the era of tokenized capital markets.

VI. Conclusion

The tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) marks a decisive shift in global financial development. In just a few years, RWA has transformed from an experimental concept into a reliable, institutional-grade tool connecting traditional markets with decentralized infrastructure. The rapid expansion of the market—driven primarily by lending products, tokenized government bonds, and emerging tokenized stocks—demonstrates that blockchain technology is no longer an abstract innovation, but rather the foundation for building a more efficient, transparent, and inclusive financial system.

However, what we are seeing today is just the beginning. Tokenized assets still represent only a small fraction of their potential market, meaning there is enormous room for growth. To unlock this potential, three key elements must go hand in hand: scalable retail offerings with market fit, deeper institutional integration, and a harmonized regulatory framework that provides clear guidance without stifling innovation.

As the stablecoin era has demonstrated, once tokenized systems gain trust, utility, and regulatory legitimacy, their adoption grows exponentially. RWA is now entering a similar turning point—moving from the proof-of-concept stage to the global infrastructure stage. The next phase will not only digitize financial assets but also redefine how cross-border ownership, returns, and liquidity operate, truly ushering in the so-called "everything is blockchain" era.

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