A16z crypto shares tokenized asset data as RWA market hits $34 billion

Two years ago, the tokenized real-world asset market outside of stablecoins was a rounding error in global finance. Today, it’s a $34 billion category that has grown tenfold since mid-2024, and a16z crypto wants to make sure you’ve noticed.

On July 15, a16z crypto’s official X account shared data from an earlier analysis by Robert Hackett, putting the tokenized asset market’s expansion back in the spotlight.

What the data actually shows

Tokenized assets, excluding stablecoins, have grown from under $3 billion in mid-2024 to roughly $34 billion by May 2026.

Ethereum is doing most of the heavy lifting, holding $15.7 billion of that total. BNB Chain comes in second at $4 billion, followed by Solana at $2.2 billion.

The asset class driving the bulk of that growth is bonds, specifically U.S. Treasuries. Tokenized bonds totaled $15.2 billion, making them the single largest category. Precious metals, led by gold, accounted for another $5.1 billion.

One detail in the a16z data that deserves more attention is how little of this tokenized collateral is actually being used in DeFi. Only about 5% of tokenized bond supply, roughly $800 million, has been deployed in decentralized finance protocols. Reinsurance tokens, for instance, showed an 84% DeFi utilization rate.

Why this moment feels different

Evolving regulatory clarity around stablecoins has created a cleaner pathway for related tokenized products, and that clarity appears to be pulling capital off the sidelines. Asset managers including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton that were cautious observers a few years ago are active participants today.

Forecasts from McKinsey and Ark Invest suggest the tokenized asset market could eventually expand into the trillions by 2030. It is worth noting that these projections carry wide variance depending on how each firm defines tokenization, whether they include stablecoins, tokenized deposits, or only hard assets like Treasuries and gold.

What investors should watch

The first is DeFi integration. The 5% utilization rate for tokenized bonds is a bottleneck that, if it breaks open, could significantly expand the total addressable market for DeFi protocols that accept tokenized Treasuries as collateral.

The second is chain distribution. Ethereum’s $15.7 billion lead is commanding, but the presence of BNB Chain and Solana in the data suggests that issuers are not treating this as a single-chain story.

The third is regulatory trajectory. The stablecoin regulatory push in the U.S., specifically through the GENIUS Act, is closely watched by RWA issuers because the legal frameworks overlap. Clearer stablecoin rules tend to create cleaner precedents for other tokenized financial instruments.

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