Real-world asset (RWA) protocols have emerged as one of DeFi’s biggest winners in 2025, surpassing decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to become the fifth-largest category by total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama.
RWAs now account for roughly $17 billion in TVL, up from $12 billion in Q4 2024, reflecting the rapid transition of tokenized Treasurys, private credit, and other real-world claims from niche experiments to core DeFi infrastructure. DefiLlama noted, “At the start of this year, they weren’t even in the top 10 categories.”
Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, told Cointelegraph that RWA growth is being driven more by “balance-sheet incentives rather than experimentation.” He explained that higher-for-longer interest rates are making tokenized Treasurys and private credit attractive as on-chain, yield-bearing assets, while improving regulatory clarity is lowering friction for institutional allocators.
RWAs move into DeFi’s core
Excluding stablecoins, RWAs had already grown to around $24 billion earlier this year, with private credit and tokenized Treasurys acting as the main growth engines. Ethereum remains the dominant public settlement layer for on-chain debt and fund structures.
Through 2025, the market has remained concentrated among a small group of large issuers and vehicles on Ethereum. However, RWA.xyz data shows a second tier of networks — including BNB Chain, Avalanche, Solana, Polygon, and Arbitrum — each capturing low-to-mid single-digit percentage shares of public-chain RWA value.
In parallel, permissioned infrastructure such as Canton Network has become a major institutional hub, controlling over 90% of the market share. It hosts large RWA programs in a privacy-preserving, regulated environment that can integrate with DeFi data and liquidity rails.
What’s driving flows?
Tokenized U.S. Treasurys remain the gateway product, with platforms like BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), Circle’s USYC, Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, and Ondo’s OUSG pushing the combined tokenized Treasury segment above the multi-billion-dollar mark by December.
Vincent Liu noted, “The constraint is no longer tokenization itself, but liquidity and integration into TradFi.” He added that in 2026, the focus will shift from headline TVL to metrics such as who controls issuance, where RWAs are deployed as collateral, and which venues capture secondary market flow.
Gold, silver, and the 2026 story
Rallies in gold and silver are adding a new dimension to the RWA trade, drawing more capital into tokenized commodities. Tokenized commodities’ market cap has approached $4 billion, led by gold products like Tether Gold and Paxos Gold, which have expanded alongside spot metals reaching new highs.
“These moves are elevating tokenized commodities from niche RWAs to macro-relevant assets, with real demand for on-chain access and 24/7 settlement,” Liu said, noting that clearer pricing and custody standards make them easier to integrate into DeFi and institutional systems.
Looking into 2026, Liu emphasized “behavioral validation” as gold and silver break highs: strong prices attract issuance, which brings liquidity and reinforces adoption beyond pure yield narratives. He also highlighted interoperability as a key signal, noting that “real acceleration” will occur when tokenized commodities can move seamlessly across venues and chains, functioning as neutral collateral rather than isolated products.
