Key takeaways:
RWAs put familiar assets on programmable, blockchain-based templates.
2024-2025 brought higher yields, MiCA adoption and blue-chip issuers.
Key barriers eased: clearer rules, better infrastructure, stronger economics.
Builders such as Plume, Mantra and Securitize are turning pilots into products.
The next big shift in crypto: Tokenizing the real world
In 2020, it was DeFi.
2021 saw NFTs.
2023 was the year of layer 2s.
Over the past two years, one trend has held its grip, and it’s only tightening: the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs).
Numbers support this, but it’s the community’s conviction around RWAs that makes it a standout case.
Earlier in October 2025 at Token2049, some of the industry’s biggest voices put tokenization center stage. Robinhood’s Vlad Tenev warned that it’s barreling toward the financial system like a freight train. Tom Lee described a structural shift in how Wall Street moves and holds assets. Meanwhile, policy builders, from Bo Hines to World Liberty Financial, highlighted tokenized assets as a decade-defining crypto onramp.
RWAs are increasingly seen as the missing link for global adoption, a rare and genuine “eureka” moment for the crypto sector.
What RWAs are and their main types
Tokenized RWAs represent legally recognized or contractual claims on offchain assets, issued as tokens on programmable ledgers. This structure enables ownership, transfers, distributions and collateralization to be automated through software.
A practical way to think about RWAs is by category:
Cash equivalents: Tokenized money market funds and Treasury bills, such as Franklin Templeton’s onchain US government money market fund, Benji, move fund recordkeeping and settlements onto the blockchain.
Commodities: Asset-backed tokens represent vaulted gold, such as PAX Gold (PAXG), where each token equals one fine troy ounce of a London Good Delivery gold bar stored in approved vaults and issued on a programmable ledger.
Real estate: Tokens represent fractional ownership interests in residential or commercial properties, issued via programmable ledgers on blockchain.
Funds and private credit: Tokenized fund shares, such as BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), and tokenized private credit or loan interests are increasingly being used as onchain collateral.
Collectibles: Fractional ownership claims on items such as whiskey casks, offered via asset-backed tokenized marketplaces that record interests on programmable ledgers.
But if we already have the physical versions, why do we need digital twins? Let’s explore that next.
What real-world problems do RWAs aim to solve?
Tokenization solves real frictions in how assets are accessed, traded and serviced.
Access and inclusion: Billions still lack access to high-yield financial instruments, even though many are now digitally reachable. Around 900 million unbanked adults own a mobile phone, including about 530 million with smartphones. Put compliant investment products behind a screen, and you create a genuine on-ramp to inclusion.
Liquidity and fractional ownership: Tokenization enables large, location-bound assets to be divided into smaller investment units and traded on programmable ledgers. This brings lower minimums, broader global investor access and the potential for continuous secondary trading beyond traditional market hours.
Faster settlement and enhanced collateral mobility: Tokenization is beginning to reduce settlement cycles from T+1 or T+2 to minutes, freeing up capital and reducing operational drag. Recent digital bond and asset tokenization pilots demonstrate the speed improvement and show how tokenized collateral can be reused or moved across venues more efficiently.
Composability and automation: RWAs are programmable tokens: Whitelists, fee logic, distributions and transfer restrictions can be encoded. This means servicing, compliance checks and collateral flows can be executed or orchestrated by code.
So, if programmable crypto has existed since the first Turing-complete blockchains, why are RWAs only emerging in the mid-2020s?
Why interest skyrocketed in 2024-2025
Two forces converged: yield and credibility.
With cash rates elevated, investors poured record sums into money market funds in 2025, making short-duration yield the default parking spot for institutions. That same backdrop made onchain versions of US Treasury bills and money market funds economically compelling, pushing tokenized treasuries to about $8.6 billion outstanding.
At the same time, blue-chip issuers entered the market. BlackRock’s BUIDL crossed $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) within a year of launch and, by October 2025, had grown to around $2.8 billion while expanding issuance across multiple chains. It’s proof that tokenized funds can scale under brand-name managers.
Rules and public-sector playbooks also fell into place. In the European Union, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation’s stablecoin framework took effect on June 30, 2024. The broader crypto asset service provider (CASP) licensing regime followed on Dec. 30, 2024, giving institutions a clear roadmap.
Meanwhile, the Monetary Authority of Singapore advanced Project Guardian and launched BLOOM (Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency), an initiative for settlement in tokenized bank liabilities and regulated stablecoins.
In Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority created a digital bond knowledge base and introduced a grant scheme to subsidize tokenized bond issuance. The result was clearer compliance paths, lower pilot costs and faster time to market.
Taken together, these factors helped lift all boats. Non-stablecoin RWAs on public chains climbed toward the mid-$30 billion in 2025. The narrative is shifting from pilots and proofs-of-concept to broader issuance and distribution.
Who’s making this possible?
A genuine race is underway to build the infrastructure for RWAs.
Plume takes the RWA-focused layer-2 path. It offers Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) tooling on the surface with embedded compliance features such as Know Your Customer (KYC)-gated transfers and whitelists underneath. The project also has a growing pipeline of issuers bringing treasuries, private credit and fund shares onchain.
Mantra opts for a sovereign layer 1 with a regulatory-first stance. It holds Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) licensing through its finance arm and runs a MultiVM stack — combining the EVM and CosmWasm. This enables tokenized funds, loans and real estate assets to be issued and traded alongside decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols under a compliance-capable infrastructure.
Around them are specialist layers such as Polymesh, which focuses on permissioned, identity-anchored assets. Service providers such as Securitize manage cap tables, attestations and compliant secondary transfers.
We’re still in the early stages, but Plume, Mantra and Securitize are the ones to watch.
Risks, realities and the path ahead
“Early stages” is something to take seriously.
Readers should keep an eye on a few hard problems:
Legal enforceability of token claims: What exactly do you own and under which court’s jurisdiction?
Secondary liquidity: AUM isn’t market depth — spreads and redemption frictions can bite.
Custody and counterparty design: Segregation, recovery and audits remain critical.
Oracle and data integrity: How asset facts reach the chain matters.
Governance around transfers, whitelists and upgrades: Cross-border rules and tax treatment remain patchy, so distribution can fragment across jurisdictions.
The upside is that the missing pieces are increasingly aligning: clearer rulebooks, reputable issuers, bank-grade custody and programmable settlement infrastructure.
RWAs don’t change what the asset is; they change how it’s issued, moved and used as collateral, compressing processes from days to minutes and broadening qualified access.
The smart way forward is pragmatic: scrutinize legality, redemption mechanics, disclosures and market-making commitments, then scale from narrow use cases to broader distribution.
If crypto is the internet of value, RWAs are how the rest of finance plugs in, step by step, compliantly and at increasing scale.