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RWA Market Anatomy: Why Private Credit Owns 58% While Equities Struggle at 2%

· 9 min read
Dora Noda
Dora Noda
Software Engineer

The tokenized real-world asset market just crossed $33 billion. But if you look beneath the headline number, a striking imbalance emerges: private credit commands 58% of all tokenized RWA flows, treasuries take 34%, and equities—the asset class most people would expect to lead—barely registers at 2%.

This isn't a random distribution. It's the market telling us exactly which assets are ready for tokenization and which face structural barriers that no amount of blockchain innovation can immediately solve.

The $33 Billion Breakdown: Where the Money Actually Sits​

Let's start with the current state of tokenized RWAs as of late 2025:

Private Credit: $18.9B active, $33.6B cumulative originations Figure Technologies alone accounts for 75% of the market with over $10 billion in tokenized home equity lines of credit (HELOCs). Centrifuge has crossed $1B in TVL, with its Janus Henderson Anemoy Treasury Fund (JTRSY) receiving $400M in allocations. Maple Finance and Goldfinch focus on corporate credit and SME financing, typically offering 8-12% yields on the borrower side.

Tokenized Treasuries: $9B+ BlackRock's BUIDL fund captured $2.38 billion within 15 months of its March 2024 launch, peaking at nearly $2.9 billion and securing 40% of the tokenized Treasury market. Franklin Templeton's BENJI holds over $800 million, while Ondo Finance's USDY and OUSG products combined approach $1 billion.

Real Estate: ~$20B (tokenized) but largely illiquid Despite tokenization, most real estate tokens exhibit low trading volumes and limited secondary market activity. The Deloitte Center for Financial Services predicts $4 trillion in tokenized real estate by 2035—but that's a decade away.

Equities/Stocks: ~$484 million Less than 2% of the RWA market. While Robinhood introduced tokenized stocks for European customers and Coinbase launched tokenized stocks for U.S. investors in late 2025, adoption remains minimal.

Why Private Credit Dominates: The Perfect Tokenization Use Case​

Private credit's dominance isn't accidental. It represents the ideal intersection of blockchain capabilities and traditional finance pain points.

The Yield Premium​

Traditional private credit already offers institutional investors 8-12% annual yields—significantly higher than treasuries or public equities. Tokenization doesn't create this yield; it makes it accessible to a broader investor base while improving operational efficiency.

For crypto-native capital sitting in stablecoins earning 0-5%, private credit protocols offer a compelling alternative: real-world yield backed by actual collateral (real estate, receivables, inventory), with yields that crypto treasuries simply can't match on a risk-adjusted basis.

Operational Efficiency Gains​

Private credit traditionally involves extensive paperwork, manual reconciliation, and complex custody arrangements. Tokenization automates these processes:

  • Settlement: Instant versus T+2 or longer
  • Fractional ownership: $1,000 minimums instead of $1 million
  • Transparency: Real-time on-chain tracking of loan performance
  • Programmable distributions: Automatic yield payments without manual processing

Figure Technologies' HELOC tokenization demonstrates this at scale—$10 billion in tokenized home equity loans with automated origination, servicing, and distribution.

Regulatory Clarity (Relatively Speaking)​

Private credit tokens typically fall under existing securities regulations. They're sold to accredited investors through compliant structures, often registered as securities. This is actually an advantage: the regulatory framework exists, and issuers know exactly what compliance looks like.

Compare this to equities, where tokenizing publicly traded stocks creates jurisdictional nightmares—SEC regulations, FINRA oversight, cross-border transfer restrictions, and complex tax implications.

Why Treasuries Grew 50x in 18 Months​

Tokenized U.S. Treasuries exploded from ~$140 million in early 2024 to nearly $9 billion by late 2025—a 50x increase in less than two years. Three factors drove this growth:

The DeFi Collateral Thesis​

Tokenized treasuries are now accepted as collateral on major platforms including Crypto.com and Deribit. For institutional traders, this means holding yield-bearing T-bills instead of earning nothing on USDC sitting in a trading account.

BlackRock's BUIDL deployed across seven blockchain networks (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, Aptos, Solana) specifically to maximize collateral utility. When you can use the same T-bill position as collateral across seven different chains, the capital efficiency gains are substantial.

The Yield Arbitrage​

In a 5%+ interest rate environment, holding non-yielding stablecoins has an opportunity cost. Tokenized treasuries capture the risk-free rate while maintaining the on-chain utility that crypto-native institutions require.

For DAOs, treasury management funds, and institutional traders, this is a no-brainer: swap USDC for BUIDL or OUSG and earn 5%+ while retaining the ability to use those assets on-chain.

Institutional Validation​

BlackRock's entry legitimized the entire category. When the world's largest asset manager launches a tokenized fund, the "blockchain is experimental" narrative collapses. Franklin Templeton, Ondo Finance, and others followed, creating competitive pressure that accelerated product development and fee compression.

Why Equities Lag: Structural Barriers That Blockchain Can't (Yet) Solve​

Tokenized equities represent less than 2% of the RWA market despite stocks being the asset class most familiar to retail investors. The barriers are structural, not technological:

The Securities Law Maze​

Publicly traded stocks are already regulated securities. Tokenizing them doesn't simplify compliance—it creates additional complexity:

  • Broker-dealer requirements: Trading tokenized stocks typically requires broker-dealer licensing
  • Transfer agent rules: Stock ownership records have specific legal requirements that blockchain ledgers must satisfy
  • Cross-border restrictions: A tokenized Apple share can't freely move between jurisdictions without triggering regulatory obligations

Ondo Finance's January 2026 announcement of tokenized U.S. stocks on Solana will test whether these barriers can be navigated at scale.

The "Why Bother" Problem​

Traditional stock markets already offer:

  • Instant execution
  • High liquidity
  • Price discovery
  • Fractional shares (via many brokers)
  • 24-hour futures markets for major indices

Tokenization offers 24/7 trading and global access, but for most investors, existing infrastructure is "good enough." The marginal improvement doesn't justify the regulatory complexity.

The Custody Conundrum​

Stocks have established custody infrastructure. Adding blockchain creates new custody requirements—now investors need both traditional custody and crypto custody, often from different providers with different risk profiles.

This friction discourages institutional adoption, which in turn limits liquidity, which discourages retail adoption. It's a chicken-and-egg problem that treasuries and private credit avoided by starting fresh rather than retrofitting existing assets.

Real Estate: The $4 Trillion Promise That Keeps Waiting​

Tokenized real estate should be the flagship use case—fractional ownership of property is an obvious blockchain application. Yet the market remains largely illiquid despite $20 billion in tokenized assets.

What Failed in 2025​

The failures of 2025 were not primarily technical—they were failures of governance and architecture:

Securities Classification Errors: Many projects attempted to classify tokens as "utility" or "fractional ownership" without acknowledging they are investment contracts. This triggered immediate cease-and-desist orders from regulators.

KYC/AML Gaps: Real estate token compliance requires ongoing verification, not just onboarding checks. Failed projects allowed tokens to transfer to unverified wallets, violating anti-money laundering requirements.

Liquidity Lockups: Projects that ignored securities regulations found themselves unable to offboard investors or distribute dividends without triggering regulatory inquiries. Assets were technically tokenized but legally untradeable.

The Illiquidity Trap​

Even compliant real estate tokens struggle with liquidity:

  • Whitelisting requirements restrict who can hold tokens
  • Valuation opacity makes pricing difficult
  • No market makers means wide bid-ask spreads
  • Long holding periods reflect the underlying asset's illiquidity

Tokenization can't magically create liquidity for inherently illiquid assets. A tokenized apartment building is still an apartment building—just with a different ownership record format.

The Fragmentation Problem: $1.3 Billion in Annual Losses​

Cross-chain liquidity fragmentation currently costs the RWA ecosystem approximately $1.3 billion annually:

  • 1-3% price differences for the same asset on different chains
  • 2-5% fees for moving value between chains
  • Settlement delays that create arbitrage opportunities

RWAs issued on siloed chains (private or permissioned blockchains) lack cross-chain compatibility, restricting composability with DeFi protocols and fragmenting liquidity further.

The market is responding: BlackRock's BUIDL uses Wormhole for atomic cross-chain transfers across seven networks. Centrifuge has expanded to multiple chains. But standardization remains elusive.

What 2026 Will Clarify​

Several catalysts will shape RWA tokenization's trajectory in 2026:

Regulatory Convergence (or Divergence)​

The EU's MiCA framework provides a template for compliant tokenization across 27 countries. Hong Kong and Singapore have active tokenization initiatives. The U.S. still operates on a case-by-case No-Action Letter basis, which takes months.

If major jurisdictions align on standards, cross-border tokenization becomes viable. If they diverge, fragmentation worsens.

Equity Tokenization Tests​

Ondo Finance's planned launch of tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs on Solana in early 2026 will reveal whether equities can overcome structural barriers. Success could trigger institutional flows; failure would confirm that equities need different infrastructure.

Private Credit Expansion​

Keyrock projects tokenized private credit reaching $15-17.5 billion by year-end 2026 under base-case assumptions. Bull case scenarios (regulatory clarity + DeFi integration) could push this to $17.5 billion+.

The question is whether growth remains concentrated in home equity (Figure) and institutional credit (Maple, Centrifuge) or expands to new asset classes—trade finance, supply chain receivables, emerging market lending.

The Investment Thesis​

For builders and investors, the RWA landscape offers clear signals:

Near-term opportunity: Private credit protocols that can source quality collateral and offer compliant structures to accredited investors. Yields of 8-12% with real asset backing are compelling in any market environment.

Medium-term growth: Treasury tokenization will continue expanding as more institutions recognize the capital efficiency gains from using yield-bearing assets as collateral.

Long-term bet: Real estate and equities require regulatory clarity and infrastructure maturation that won't arrive in 2026. These are 2028-2030 opportunities at the earliest.

The market has spoken. Private credit works because it solves real problems for real institutions with existing regulatory frameworks. Treasuries work because they offer risk-free yield with on-chain utility. Equities and real estate will eventually work—but "eventually" isn't this year.

For developers building RWA infrastructure, the priority order is clear: credit protocols, treasury integrations, and only then the more complex asset classes. The $33 billion market didn't allocate randomly. It allocated rationally.

Building RWA infrastructure or integrating tokenized assets? BlockEden.xyz provides enterprise-grade RPC nodes for Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, and other chains where major RWA protocols deploy. Explore our API marketplace to power your tokenization platform.

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