Development and Evolution of the RWA Market

Background Overview

Real World Assets (RWA) refer to assets from the real world that are digitized and traded on blockchain through tokenization technology. These assets encompass tangible and intangible items, including real estate, commodities, bonds, stocks, art, precious metals, and intellectual property. The core significance of RWAs is their ability to bridge traditional financial assets with decentralized finance (DeFi), enhancing asset liquidity, transparency, and transaction efficiency. An initial wave of Security Token Offerings (STO) emerged in 2017-2018 but faded quickly due to regulatory and infrastructure constraints. It wasn't until the DeFi boom in 2020 that a comprehensive on-chain financial infrastructure was established, creating favorable conditions for traditional financial assets to be tokenized. Driven by both technological advancements and regulatory progress, real-world assets have become capable of secure and lawful representation and circulation on blockchain, fueling rapid growth in the RWA sector in recent years.

Why tokenize physical assets?

Tokenizing physical assets within the blockchain offers numerous significant advantages for end users. Let’s look at some of the most relevant benefits:

1) Elimination of intermediaries: One of the most notable advantages of tokenizing physical assets is the ability to conduct peer-to-peer direct transactions without intermediaries as counterparties, relying entirely on smart contracts.

2) Speed and operational continuity: With the elimination of trusted counterparties, all their "physical" requirements are also removed, making the entire process simpler, faster, and available 24/7.

3) Operational costs: Another significant benefit of avoiding interaction with physical counterparties is reflected in operational costs. Just consider the fees required at the end of a traditional home purchase transaction compared to what might be needed using decentralized smart contracts; the difference is evident.

4) Barriers to entry: In the transition to a permissionless system, we can eliminate all barriers to entry, such as nationality or the typical social backgrounds found in the "traditional" world.

5) Convenience of asset fragmentation: By converting physical assets into digital assets, we have the opportunity to split the latter into multiple identical or different parts through simple smart contracts based on user needs.

6) Security and trust: By bringing these assets onto the blockchain, we have the opportunity to interact with distributed smart contracts that are used thousands of times daily. This allows us to operate in a trustless and transparent system, eliminating the risks associated with reliance on centralized physical institutions.

Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) are digital tokens recorded on a blockchain that represent ownership or legal rights to tangible or intangible assets. The scope of tokenization encompasses a wide range of asset classes, including real estate (residential, commercial properties, and real estate investment trusts REITs), commodities (gold, silver, oil, and agricultural products), artworks and collectibles (high-value artworks, rare stamps, and vintage wines), intellectual property (patents, trademarks, and copyrights), and financial instruments (bonds, mortgages, and insurance policies).

By enabling fractional ownership, tokenization enhances the liquidity of assets, making investment opportunities that were once limited to high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors more accessible to the general public. The immutable ledger of blockchain ensures transparent ownership records, reducing the risk of fraud; at the same time, tokenized assets traded on decentralized exchanges bring unprecedented market accessibility and efficiency.

According to McKinsey's analysis, the total market value of various tokenized assets (excluding cryptocurrencies and stablecoins) is expected to reach approximately $2 trillion by 2030, with a pessimistic scenario of $1 trillion and an optimistic scenario of up to $4 trillion. These estimates do not include stablecoins (including tokenized deposits, wholesale stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies CBDCs) to avoid double counting, as these tools are often used as cash payment instruments in the settlement of tokenized asset transactions.

RWA market data analysis

The market scale of real-world assets tokenized on blockchain has grown exponentially since 2017. In the early exploratory stage, the market remained quite small; for instance, by the end of 2018, the total market capitalization of global stablecoins was only several billion dollars, and other RWAs were even smaller. However, with the rise of DeFi and stablecoins, the RWA market began expanding rapidly.

According to statistics, as of June 9, 2025, the total market capitalization of traceable real-world asset tokens on public blockchains has approached approximately $23.4 billion. These tokenized assets span various categories such as U.S. treasury bonds, corporate credit, real estate, various funds, and commodities. This scale is roughly equivalent to 10% of the total stablecoin market capitalization and represents about 0.7% of the overall cryptocurrency market cap, potentially ranking among the top ten crypto assets by market capitalization. Notably, on-chain private credit has even surpassed tokenized treasury bonds. For example, U.S. fintech company Figure has digitized and tokenized around $12 billion in mortgages and other assets through its Provenance blockchain, while Wall Street institutions like Apollo have tokenized credit funds worth hundreds of millions through platforms like Securitize. Meanwhile, tokenized treasury bonds have become a new trend: BlackRock’s BUIDL fund (tokenized treasury bond fund) leads this segment with a scale of $2.9 billion; Ondo Finance’s tokenized treasury products amount to approximately $1.3 billion, Franklin Templeton’s BENJI treasury fund tokens total around $775 million, and combined with platforms such as Matrixdock and Superstate, the tokenized treasury bond category now exceeds $7 billion. Additionally, tokenization of real estate is also rapidly catching up: Dubai’s MAG Group announced plans to tokenize a $3 billion luxury real estate project; American platforms such as RealT and Parcl enable retail investors to hold fractional shares of underlying properties and earn rental income through tokens. Overall, the RWA market has seen exponential growth from an initial scale of millions of dollars to tens of billions today, demonstrating enormous growth potential for this emerging sector.

From 2017 to 2025, the RWA market has evolved from inception to explosive growth, reaching maturity driven by regulations, institutional participation, and technological advancements. Global Eco Chain emerged at this historic juncture, aiming to seize this opportunity by offering a comprehensive "one-stop" solution for compliant asset tokenization and cross-chain trading, thus leading the next wave of the RWA industry revolution.