According to Animoca, tokenized real-world assets in a multichain future could ultimately represent trillions of dollars in traditional financial assets.
'The $400 trillion traditional financial addressable market shows the potential growth opportunity for RWA tokenization,' said Animoca Brands researchers Andrew Ho and Ming Ruan in an August research report.
Research finds that the currently tokenized real-world assets (RWA) market is just a small part of the entire addressable market ($26 billion), which totals over $400 trillion.
These asset classes include private credit, government bonds, commodities, stocks, alternative funds, and global bonds.
Currently, large asset management firms are engaged in a 'strategic race to build full-stack, integrated platforms,' with companies that can 'control the asset lifecycle' gaining long-term value.
RWA value hits a historic high.
The emerging RWA tokenization market currently reaches a historic high of $26.5 billion, growing 70% since the beginning of the year, according to industry tracker RWA.xyz.
This 'indicates clear momentum and rising institutional confidence,' researchers say.
The current RWA market is dominated by two categories: private credit and U.S. government bonds, accounting for nearly 90% of the tokenized market value.
The future of RWA is multichain, not just Ethereum.
Ethereum is the market leader in RWA tokenization, holding 55% of the market share, with an on-chain value of $156 billion.
When including Ethereum layer-2 networks like ZKsync Era, Polygon, and Arbitrum, the share rises to 76%.
Researchers say, 'Due to its security, liquidity, and the vast ecosystem of developers and DeFi applications, Ethereum may have a leading position.'
The growth of RWA tokenization may drive demand for related crypto assets like Ether (ETH), which reached a new high last week, and oracle providers like Chainlink (LINK), whose gains have recently outpaced the broader crypto market.
However, researchers point out that RWA tokenization activity is unfolding across a multichain ecosystem covering both public and private blockchains, adding that Ethereum's current leadership is being challenged by 'high-performance and specialized networks,' indicating that interoperability will be key to success.
Animoca Brands launched its own tokenized RWA market called NUVA earlier this month.
