The worth of tokenized real-world belongings (RWAs) on public blockchains has climbed about 66% in 2026, reaching roughly $23.6 billion as of Wednesday, based on DeFiLlama knowledge.
The market stood at round $14.1 billion on Jan. 1 earlier than steadily rising by means of early March. Tokenized funds, together with merchandise backed by US Treasury payments, bonds and cash market funds, account for the biggest share of the sector.
DeFiLlama knowledge reveals tokenized funds symbolize about 44.5% of the whole market with $10.5 billion in worth, adopted by tokenized gold and commodities at roughly $6.5 billion and tokenized equities at almost $4 billion. Different segments, together with personal credit score and yield-generating merchandise, make up smaller parts of the onchain RWA ecosystem.
Business individuals informed Cointelegraph that the following stage of development is being pushed much less by tokenization as an idea and extra by distribution, market entry, and the enchantment of belongings that may commerce and settle across the clock.
Demand for always-on markets drives tokenized asset curiosity
“The true breakthrough right here is {that a} handful of merchandise have turn into considerably simpler to entry, distribute, and use,” an RWA.xyz spokesperson informed Cointelegraph.
Associated: Tokenized US Treasurys rise by over $1B since begin of 2026
On Tuesday, tokenized shares surpassed $1 billion in on-chain complete worth, based on knowledge from RWA.xyz. Platforms equivalent to Ondo and xStocks account for a lot of that exercise.
The tokenized US Treasury market additionally surpassed $10 billion in market capitalization in February, earlier than leaping to $11.13 billion in March.
Traders are “drained” of markets that shut
Ross Shemeliak, co-founder and chief working officer at Stobox, stated many buyers are annoyed with legacy techniques that function on restricted buying and selling hours and depend on a number of intermediaries to maneuver capital.
“Traders are uninterested in monetary markets that shut at 4 pm and require layers of intermediaries simply to maneuver capital,” Shemeliak informed Cointelegraph.
He stated rising institutional experimentation with tokenization has additionally helped legitimize the mannequin. Over the previous yr, main monetary corporations have rolled out blockchain-based variations of US Treasury devices, funding funds and different real-world belongings.
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