Tokenized RWAs Near $30B as Institutions Scale On-Chain

On April 23, Chainalysis reported that tokenized real-world assets are approaching $30 billion in total assets under management as institutional investors increase use of on-chain U.S. Treasurys and asset-backed credit products.

The blockchain analytics firm tracked nearly 400,000 addresses holding tokenized RWAs and found that institutional categories are growing faster than retail-facing segments. The firm identified asset-backed credit and specialty finance as the fastest-scaling institutional categories.

Asset-backed credit reached $1 billion in roughly 6.1 months from initial issuance. Specialty finance scaled to comparable levels in about 21.5 months. Commodities required around 36.2 months to reach similar scale, and tokenized stocks have not yet matched those timelines.

U.S. Treasury debt is the largest class of on-chain RWAs and concentrates liquidity within institutional products. The report cited products such as BlackRock’s BUIDL and Circle’s USYC as examples of on-chain Treasury exposure that have drawn institutional interest. Commodities remain the largest retail-facing category, with tokenized gold accounting for substantial trading volume.

The firm noted a sharp rise in new Ethereum wallets created specifically to receive RWAs in late 2025 and early 2026. Many of those wallets received their first RWA transfer within one week of creation, a pattern consistent with purpose-built or whitelisted institutional structures. Retail-oriented categories drew broader participation from older crypto-native wallets.

Chainalysis tracked $40.5 billion in tokenized gold trading volume and measured a 45-day rolling trading-volume correlation between tokenized gold and the SPDR Gold Shares ETF. That correlation improved from the second quarter of 2025 through the first quarter of 2026, but remained weaker than the historical correlation between the ETF and the Vaneck Gold Miners ETF.

The report listed factors that have aided adoption of tokenized assets, including around-the-clock blockchain settlement, lower intermediary costs and changes in regulation and market structure. Those features were cited as drivers behind growing institutional use of tokenized Treasury and private credit products.

The firm wrote, “RWAs aren’t reserved for advanced users and use cases; instead, they are a key reason why institutions come on-chain in the first place.” The report said market participants are moving beyond pilot programs and considering execution details such as custody arrangements, compliance workflows and settlement design when planning new on-chain offerings.