The tokenized real-world asset market hit $24.9B, nearly 4x growth in one year. Treasuries, gold, and stocks are driving the surge onchain.
The tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market has crossed a major milestone.
According to data shared by crypto analyst Diego on X, the market hit $24.9 billion in February 2025. That marks a near 4x jump in just one year. Tokenized assets excluding stablecoins grew by $18.5 billion, a 289% year-over-year rise.
Diego noted that U.S. Treasuries and commodities together drove 58% of that growth.
1/7
Onchain data that predicts moves 📊
Nexus Data #002 just dropped:
RWAs hit $24.9B, nearly 4x in one year
But the headline number hides the real signals
Here’s what actually happened with Treasuries, gold, stocks, and why 88% of RWA stables are still idle in DeFi
🧵— Diego | Take Profits (@0xTakeProfits) March 7, 2026
Tokenized US Treasuries Grow, but Lose Market Share
Tokenized U.S. Treasuries nearly tripled over the year, reaching close to $11 billion. That is a 183% increase in twelve months.
BlackRock’s BUIDL fund took the top spot, climbing 239% to $2.2 billion. Ondo Finance also made its mark, with total exposure reaching $2 billion across its products.
Yet even with that growth, Treasuries lost ground as a share of the total market. Their slice dropped from 59% to 43%. Diego pointed out that top-3 concentration also fell, going from 61% down to 48%.
More players are entering the space, and competition is picking up. That shift points to a market broadening beyond a handful of dominant names.
The trend also shows that investors are no longer clustering in one corner of the RWA space.
Capital is spreading across asset types. That diversification signals growing confidence in tokenized assets as a whole, not just in one product category.
Related Reading: Cardano Enters Regulated RWA Market With Archax Integration
Tokenized Stocks and Gold Gain Ground as Real Macro Tools
Tokenized stocks have been the fastest-growing segment in the RWA space. From near zero, the category surged to $786 million since mid-2025.
Major names like NVDA, TSLA, SPY, and QQQ are now live onchain. Diego noted that this growth kept accelerating even as Bitcoin dropped below $70,000. That detail is telling.
Onchain equity demand appears to be moving independently of broader crypto market swings.
Tokenized gold told a similar story. Circulating supply of onchain gold nearly doubled, going from 687,000 troy ounces to 1.3 million. Gold spot prices rose 80% over the same period.
Diego highlighted that investors were not just riding the price rally. They were actively minting new onchain gold. That level of participation suggests real conviction in gold as a digital macro hedge, not just speculative exposure.
Both segments reflect a shift in how investors are using blockchain infrastructure. Real-world assets are no longer a niche experiment. They are becoming practical tools for portfolio management.
RWA-Backed Stablecoins Face Idle Capital Problem in DeFi
One of the more striking findings in Diego’s data involves RWA-backed stablecoins.
Total supply in that category sits at roughly $8.5 billion. But only about $1 billion of that, around 11.8%, is actually deployed and active in DeFi protocols. The other 88% remains idle.
Diego pointed directly to KYC and whitelisting requirements as the core barrier. Most RWA-backed stablecoins require identity verification to use.
That locks out a large portion of DeFi, which runs on permissionless access. By contrast, permissionless assets like reUSD have hit utilization rates of over 96%.
The gap between supply and usage shows a real tension at the heart of the RWA market.
Assets are being tokenized at scale. But without composability, meaning the ability to plug into DeFi freely, much of that capital sits dormant.
Diego’s data frames capital efficiency as the next major challenge for the sector.
The infrastructure is growing. Whether it becomes truly usable depends on how the industry handles access and compliance going forward.
