Real-world assets (RWAs) reached a new cumulative all-time high following Bitcoin’s decline below $100,000.
RWA tokenization refers to financial and other tangible assets minted on the immutable blockchain ledger, increasing investor accessibility and trading opportunities of these assets.
Onchain RWAs have reached a cumulative all-time high of more than $17.1 billion across over 82,000 total asset holders, excluding the value of stablecoins, according to data from RWA.xyz.
RWA global dashboard. Source: RWA.xyz
Tokenized private credit was the largest onchain asset, worth over $11.9 billion and accounting for 69% of the RWA industry’s total $17 billion, while tokenized United States Treasury debt accounted for $3.5 billion.
RWA value, breakdown. Source: RWA.xyz
The total value of onchain RWAs rose over 10% during the past 30 days, while Bitcoin's (BTC) price traded nearly flat, falling 1.6% over the past 30 days.
The RWA industry growth in January does not signal a capital exodus from Bitcoin so much as an evolution toward a more diverse crypto ecosystem, according to Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder & chief operating officer of Redstone.
“While RWAs provide stability through tokenized traditional assets, Bitcoin’s unmatched network security remains the bedrock of crypto digital finance,” he told Cointelegraph:
“This isn’t a zero-sum game – RWAs’ 300% growth in 2024 complements rather than competes with Bitcoin, signaling institutional investors’ expanding appetite for both stable, yield-generating instruments and premier digital assets.”
Some of the world’s largest management consulting firms foresee a potential 50-fold growth for the RWA sector by 2030, which could reach up to $30 trillion, according to some estimates.
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Big financial institutions will drive the growth of the RWA sector during the next several years, according to Edwin Mata, co-founder and CEO of Brickken, a European RWA tokenization platform.
The CEO told Cointelegraph:
“With growing institutional interest and clear regulatory progress, tokenization is positioned to become a cornerstone of the modern financial system and one of the leading narratives for blockchain, not just in 2025, but for the years to come.”
Brickken recently secured $2.5 million to expand its platform, which has tokenized over $250 million worth of assets in less than two years, Cointelegraph reported on Jan. 15.
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The RWA sector could see more than 50-fold growth by 2030, according to predictions from some of the largest financial institutions and business consulting firms compiled in a Tren Finance research report.
RWA tokenization, market size predictions by 2030. Source: Tren Finance
Most firms predict that the RWA sector may reach a market size of between $4 trillion and $30 trillion.
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