RWA is becoming the dominant trend in crypto in 2025, with total TVL exceeding 10.6 billion USD, doubling from the previous year. Stablecoins like USDT serve as the first bridge between fiat money and blockchain, contributing to bringing institutional capital into DeFi. The most tokenized real assets include U.S. Treasury bonds, money market funds, real estate, and gold.
Notable projects like Ondo Finance, Circle/Hashnote, or Securitize are developing RWA products with liquidity, yield, and standards suitable for traditional investors.
RWA not only opens up new liquidity but also provides stable yields, helping the crypto market attract capital flows worth trillions of USD in the future.
Introduction.
In 2024-2025, RWA has become a prominent trend in crypto, referred to by experts as the main “narrative” of the market. RWA helps bring traditional valuable assets onto the blockchain, creating new liquidity and connecting DeFi with TradFi. According to Conduit, the total value locked (TVL) in RWA projects reached about $10.6 billion on the blockchain (April 2025), doubling from $4.4 billion a year earlier.
Notably, stablecoins – essentially Fiat-backed tokenization – have accounted for over 200 billion USD in market capitalization across blockchains. The future of RWA is forecasted to be very large: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates that by 2030, there will be 16 trillion USD of traditional assets brought onto the blockchain. In this context, stablecoins like USDT with high stability and liquidity are playing a crucial role in facilitating fiat capital flows into the crypto market.
USDT: Pioneer of Bringing USD to Blockchain.
USDT, launched in 2014, is the first stablecoin and one of the most popular Fiat-backed tokenizations. The initial goal of USDT was to digitize the U.S. dollar, allowing for efficient and quick transactions and storage of USD on the blockchain.
Unlike BTC or ETH – which are highly volatile – USDT is pegged 1:1 to USD, providing stability for investors. As a result, it has become the primary tool for trading and investing, especially in popular trading pairs like BTC/USDT and ETH/USDT.
According to Chainalysis, stablecoins – primarily USDT and USDC – account for more than two-thirds of the total transaction value in crypto. At major exchanges, most of the inflow and outflow of funds occurs through USDT, rather than fiat money like USD or EUR.
For financial institutions, USDT is a tool for holding USD value on-chain, helping them avoid the inconveniences of traditional money transfers (slow banking, high fees). According to S&P Global, USDT and USDC account for 92% of the stablecoin market, demonstrating the dominant role of USDT in the crypto ecosystem.
Stablecoin: The Link Connecting TradFi and Web3.
Not only a trading tool, stablecoins are also a bridge between the crypto market and TradFi. In 2025, the U.S. government issued a decree encouraging the use of stablecoins as part of the national financial infrastructure – while pausing the development of Central Bank Digital Currency.
This is a positive signal, reinforcing confidence among financial institutions and investors in stablecoins backed by real assets, such as USDT or USDC.
Stablecoin issuers are also actively participating in the tokenization trend. For example:
Circle (USDC) has acquired Hashnote – the organization that issues USYC, a tokenized money market fund with a market cap of 1.3 billion USD.
The goal is to integrate USDC with USYC to create a bridge between cash and interest-bearing assets, serving the needs of institutional investors.
According to S&P Global, tokenizing government bonds helps stablecoins have transparent collateral, low risk, and create stable yields. For example:
BlackRock's BUIDL fund or
Franklin Templeton's tokenization fund.
Both are acting as reserve assets for stablecoins, allowing institutions to access safe products on the blockchain.
Most tokenized RWA in 2025.
By 2025, the most tokenized traditional asset categories will focus on stable and large-scale earning groups. Here are some typical types of RWA:
T-bills, Treasuries – This is the most strongly tokenized group of RWA. According to data from RWA.xyz, the total value of tokenized U.S. government bonds reached about $7 billion by May 2025 with an average yield of ~4.12%. Among these, Securitize and Ondo Finance are the leading platforms, respectively accounting for about $2.9 billion and $1.2 billion in value (representing 41% and 17% market share, respectively). Stablecoins like Ondo USDY or Hashnote USYC (later acquired by Circle) are also closely tied to bond yields, helping investors access Treasury returns on the blockchain.
Government and other corporate bonds – In addition to T-bills, global bonds (sovereigns, corporate) are also gradually being tokenized, although the scale is currently smaller. For example, the total value of tokenized international bonds reached ~232 million USD (May 2025). The Spiko project (Latin America) holds about 80% market share of this type.
Money Market Funds – Many new generation stablecoins (like Hashnote's USYC) are essentially tokenized short-term bonds and money market instruments. Statistics show that this token has become the largest tokenized currency product, reaching 1.3 billion USD and growing rapidly over the past year. JPMorgan has noted that in the future, tokenization of MMF funds and T-bills could account for half of the stablecoin market.
Real Estate – Although not as popular as Debt instruments, real estate is one of the most frequently mentioned assets. Tokenization of real estate allows fractional ownership, expanding opportunities for retail investors. Deloitte forecasts that the market for tokenized real estate funds could reach trillions of USD in the next decade. Many platforms like Centrifuge are already tokenizing real estate loans and private real estate funds, allowing blockchain investors to access large-scale real estate projects.
Commodities and precious metals – Products like gold are also being tokenized. For example, Paxos Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT) each represent a certain amount of physical gold. BlockApex reports that PAXG has a TVL of ~542 million USD, allowing investors to hold gold in a decentralized manner. Tokenized silver, oil, and other commodities are also gradually emerging.
Overall, T-bills and Debt instruments remain the focus of RWA tokenization in 2025, due to their high liquidity and safety. Simultaneously, income-generating asset types such as real estate or gold are being developed to diversify options and attract more new capital into the crypto market.
Expanding liquidity and attracting new capital.
RWA acts as a bridge connecting crypto with TradFi, helping to increase liquidity and attract large capital flows from outside.
Tokenizing real estate, bonds, or equities allows traditionally hard-to-trade assets to become highly liquid and be bought and sold instantly on the blockchain.
Instead of taking months to sell a real estate property, investors only need seconds to trade representative tokens. According to Cointelegraph, this is unlocking liquidity for many large asset types.
RWA also expands the customer base thanks to its fractionalization capability. This makes it easier for both retail and small institutional investors to access products that were previously reserved for large financial entities.
According to Conduit, RWA can “democratize investment” by bringing trillions of USD of traditional assets onto the blockchain.
In addition, RWA assets provide many outstanding benefits:
Higher liquidity.
Low cost.
Transparency thanks to smart contracts.
Automation of processes such as dividend distribution, shareholder voting, etc.
As a result, the flow of money circulates quickly and the market operates more efficiently.
Especially, RWA also generates real yields, attracting new capital flows from investors seeking stable income. DeFi products linked to government bonds or stablecoins backed by RWA are delivering yields of 4–6% per year – higher than traditional USD savings.
For example: Stablecoin USDY (issued by Ondo on Solana) has reached over 170 million USD TVL, showing that financial institutions are viewing RWA as a tool that combines stability, profitability, and liquidity.
According to the Ripple-BCG report: The market size of tokenized assets could grow from 0.6 trillion USD (2025) to 18.9 trillion USD by 2033, equivalent to a compound annual growth rate of nearly 53%.
This figure reflects the enormous potential of RWA in "digitizing" real assets and attracting traditional capital flows into the blockchain.
The future of RWA.
By 2025, RWA will no longer be a temporary "narrative" in crypto, but will gradually become the infrastructure connecting the reality between TradFi and DeFi. The tokenization of bonds, real estate, and commodities helps capital flow from institutions, banks, and even governments to access the blockchain – where transactions occur faster, more transparently, and cost-effectively.
However, for RWA to truly explode, the biggest barrier still lies in the legal framework and operational standards: how to verify assets on-chain? Who is responsible in case of disputes? I think this will be a significant challenge that needs to be solved before there is a massive influx from global financial institutions.
In this context, the U.S., Singapore, and the UAE are emerging as pioneering legal centers – laying the groundwork for legitimate digital asset models. These countries could serve as launchpads for the "blockchain version of Wall Street" in the near future.
I believe that in the long term, RWA will not be limited to the financial sector. New assets such as copyrights, carbon credits, personal data, or supply chains will also gradually be tokenized – opening up a world where all types of value can be freely and transparently traded on-chain.
If stablecoins are the "currency" of blockchain, then I believe RWA is the foundational asset that creates the digital economic structure. In the journey of convergence between DeFi and TradFi, RWA is not only a bridge – but the foundation for building a new financial system: open, efficient yet still safe and compliant.