Crypto markets are becoming a place to manage a wider range of investments. Eligible investors can use tokenized products to earn Treasury income or hold exposure to a company or commodity through their wallets. These real-world assets , or RWAs, connect blockchain markets with claims on assets held outside the blockchain. They bring familiar financial choices into platforms that investors already use for crypto.
What happens after a product reaches a wallet gives a clearer picture of adoption. An investor may keep a fund token for income, trade a stock-linked product or borrow against an eligible holding. Those choices depend on the legal claim behind the token and the markets in which it can be used. This report follows the companies and blockchains supporting that activity, the products attracting capital and their use in trading and lending.
Who Builds the RWA Market
A tokenized Treasury fund or stock-linked product reaches investors through several connected businesses. Ondo Finance develops products such as OUSG , which offers eligible investors short-term Treasury exposure, and Ondo Stocks , which covers public securities. The product determines what an investor holds and the rights attached to the token. Wallets and exchanges provide the routes through which investors can buy and use it.
Asset managers can keep managing portfolios while specialist platforms handle tokenized shares. Securitize administers tokenized share classes of BlackRock’s BUIDL fund on networks including Ethereum and Solana , where qualified investors can transfer tokens between approved wallets. The blockchain records transfers of fund shares, while BlackRock manages the portfolio and BNY Mellon holds its cash and securities in custody.
Distribution across several blockchains requires those records to stay consistent. Centrifuge , which provides infrastructure for Janus Henderson’s JTRSY and JAAA strategies , coordinates token issuance, pricing and investor orders through one accounting hub . Fund tokens can be distributed on supported networks linked to that hub. Investors gain more routes into a product while its manager maintains consolidated records.
Those tokens can also become inputs to other financial applications. In decentralized finance, or DeFi, this ability to combine products is known as composability. Superstate ‘s FundOS maintains shareholder records and supports subscriptions and redemptions in dollars or the USDC stablecoin. Aave Horizon accepts supported shares as collateral for stablecoin borrowing . An eligible investor can therefore raise liquidity against a holding while retaining its fund exposure. The fund’s eligibility rules continue to apply when its tokens enter a lending protocol.
Treasury Funds Anchor Onchain Savings
Tokenized U.S. Treasury funds hold $14.7B, about 37% of the $39.3B distributed RWA market . They are its largest individual asset class.
For an investor already holding capital in crypto, a Treasury-backed product offers a place to earn income while deciding where to use that capital next. After subscribing, the investor holds a fund token in a wallet and gains exposure to the underlying portfolio. The product’s eligibility checks and transfer rules determine who can take part and where the shares can move.
A holder seeking income may leave that position untouched until the capital is needed elsewhere. The ability to redeem then becomes central to the product’s appeal. Net subscriptions show whether the fund is attracting and retaining money, while redemptions test whether holders can recover it on the promised terms. Treasury funds can therefore serve a cash-management role even when their tokens trade infrequently.
Commodities Combine Asset Accumulation With Price Gains
Tokenized commodity capitalization rose from $3.1B at the end of 2025 to about $8B by late September 2026, roughly 2.6 times its starting value. Ethereum holds the largest share, with XRP Ledger accounting for another substantial portion.
Gold accounts for most commodity value distributed to investors . Tether Gold and PAX Gold each link a token to one fine troy ounce of vaulted gold . Silver is a smaller segment, with products such as Kinesis Silver backed by allocated bullion . Holders can buy and transfer metal exposure through wallets, while physical delivery follows each issuer’s redemption terms.
Commodity tokenization also covers commercial uses beyond investment in precious metals. Justoken’s Enertoken records electricity contracts on XRP Ledger, while its agricultural tokens support transactions and credit against commodities. Oil exposure takes another form in USOon , which provides exposure to the United States Oil Fund. The underlying fund invests in oil futures and swaps . USOon gives holders financial exposure through that fund , with no claim to barrels of stored crude.
Tokenized gold ‘s market value rose through both additional metal held and price appreciation. Ounces held increased 73% over the year to August 31, 2026, while the gold price rose 29%.
ETFs Broaden Portfolio Access
Tokenized ETFs grew from $225M at the end of 2025 to $673M by the end of the third quarter of 2026, nearly tripling. The third quarter added about 59% from a $422M base. Ethereum remains the largest market, while BNB Chain accounts for a growing share.
Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, package a basket of securities or an investment strategy into one position. Tokenized versions bring that portfolio exposure into crypto wallets without requiring investors to assemble individual holdings. Issuing products on several chains creates more ways to hold them, though trading liquidity is spread between venues. Execution still depends on the market for the specific token an investor buys.
Familiar Stocks Extend the Market’s Reach
Tokenized stocks have more than 4.3M holder positions across company-linked products. Many of the largest holder bases belong to familiar technology businesses. Recognizable company names may give users an entry point into stock tokens, although the counts leave the size of those investments unclear.
The same investor can appear across several tokens or wallets, and a custody address can represent many customers. Promotional allocations can also add holders with small balances. Balances and repeat transactions provide a better test of whether these holders continue using the products.
A stock token’s legal structure determines the rights attached to it. xStocks , for example, are tracker certificates backed by underlying assets . Holders receive economic exposure without shareholder voting rights. The holder’s claim comes from the issuer’s contract, so products following the same company can offer different claims.
Private and Newly Listed Companies Broaden Access
Products grouped in the pre-IPO category grew from $4.1M at the end of 2025 to $65.8M by the end of the third quarter of 2026, approximately 16 times their starting value. The third quarter added about 30% from $50.7M. The basket includes SpaceX, which is now publicly listed , alongside private companies.
Private shares are often limited by investor eligibility or minimum investment requirements. Tokenized products can offer exposure through a separate contractual claim. After a company lists, investors can also buy its publicly traded shares. The token then competes with that alternative on access and trading terms.
The contract can also restrict an investor’s exit. Robinhood’s private-company token giveaway used derivative contracts with conditions on transfer and redemption. Such products offer contractual exposure with different ownership rights and restrictions on exit.
Perpetuals Meet Demand for Active Trading
RWA perpetual trading volume reached $2.57T in the third quarter of 2026, more than double the second quarter’s $1.27T. Binance accounted for nearly half of the total. The activity spans centralized and decentralized venues.
Perpetual contracts provide long or short exposure without an expiry date or ownership of the referenced asset. Leverage and repeated trading allow notional volume to grow far beyond the collateral committed. Market depth and spreads show how easily traders can execute those positions.
Equities accounted for 8% of tracked tokenized asset value and 93% of onchain spot volume in August 2026. Equity perpetual volume reached $72.4B against $12.6B of spot volume over the same month, almost six times as much. These figures cover a narrower market than the mixed-venue quarterly total. They show how differently trading activity is distributed from the assets investors hold.
Trading outside exchange hours complicates pricing. Crypto venues can keep matching orders while the conventional markets used for hedging are closed. Traders must then rely more heavily on the venue’s order book and price feeds. An open market can still offer poor execution when the order book is thin.
Collateral Use Depends on a Reliable Exit
About 42% of stock-token supply is eligible as collateral in DeFi, while approximately 2.6% is posted in lending markets. Eligibility creates an option to borrow against a token. Investors still need a reason to use it, and lenders need a price and liquidation route they can rely on.
Credit tokens enter lending more often than cash equivalents. Around 19% to 21% of tokenized credit was deposited in lending protocols, compared with 0.4% of cash equivalents. Credit tokens can support borrowing strategies, while cash funds serve holders seeking income. Deposited balances show which assets enter lending markets. They do not measure how much investors have borrowed against them.
Redemption terms matter when collateral must be sold quickly. Midas processes standard redemptions according to each strategy’s valuation and settlement timetable. Instant redemptions draw on dedicated liquidity and charge a fee. The amount available limits how much can be redeemed immediately, which lenders must consider when setting borrowing limits.
A lending market needs buyers who can receive the collateral and pay for it during liquidation. A price feed alone cannot supply that liquidity. Restrictions on eligible buyers and delays in redemption can narrow the options for selling a position, affecting how much a lender can advance against it.
Venture Funding Supports Market Infrastructure
RWA companies announced $237.5M across 26 disclosed venture rounds in the first nine months of 2026. Superstate’s $82.5M Series B accounts for about 35% of that capital and explains much of the first quarter’s lead over later quarters.
The recipients build the services behind tokenized products. Superstate develops systems for securities issuance and ownership records, while OpenTrade connects yield products with fintechs, exchanges and wallets . Smaller rounds also finance credit and asset platforms. This capital funds the companies operating the market, with separate investor subscriptions determining the assets held in their products.
The Bottom Line
The clearest demand for tokenized assets is in holding investments and trading their prices. Treasury funds attract income-seeking balances, and equities account for most of the covered onchain spot turnover. Lending has developed unevenly. Credit tokens already have a substantial collateral role, while only about 2.6% of stock-token supply is deposited in lending markets.
The stock-token gap shows the limits of making an asset available as collateral. A lending integration still needs borrowers and a way to sell the position when a loan fails. For products bought primarily to hold, dependable redemptions matter more than adding another trading or borrowing feature.
