According to DeFiLlama, the value of real assets (RWA) on public blockchains has increased by nearly 66% in 2026, reaching approximately $23.6 billion as of Wednesday.
The market was about $14.1 billion as of January 1, before rising steadily in early March. Tokenized funds, including products backed by US Treasury bills, bonds and money market funds, make up the bulk of the sector.
DeFiLlama data shows that tokenized funds make up about 44.5% of the market with a value of $10.5 billion, followed by gold and commodities at about $6.5 billion and tokenized stocks at about $4 billion. Other segments, including private credit and yield products, make up smaller parts of RWA’s onchain ecosystem.
Industry participants told Cointelegraph that the next phase of development will be driven less by tokenization as a concept and more by distribution, market access and the appeal of assets that can be traded and settled overnight.
The demand for always-on markets is driving interest in tokenized assets
“The real success here is that several products have become much easier to access, distribute and use,” a spokesperson for RWA.xyz told Cointelegraph.
related to: The US tokenized treasury has increased by more than 1 billion dollars since the beginning of 2026
According to RWA.xyz, on Tuesday, tokenized shares in the total value of the chain exceeded 1 billion dollars. Platforms like Ondo and xStocks account for much of this activity.
The US tokenized treasury market also surpassed $10 billion in market capitalization in February and reached $11.13 billion in March.
Investors are “tired” of the nearby markets
Ross Shemeliak, co-founder and chief operating officer of Stobox, said many investors are frustrated by legacy systems that operate during limited trading hours and rely on multiple intermediaries to transfer capital.
“Investors are tired of financial markets that close at 4:00 p.m. and are only asking for capital to move through layers of intermediaries,” Shemeliak told Cointelegraph.
He said that increasing institutional experimentation with tokenization has also helped legitimize the model. Over the past year, major financial firms have rolled out blockchain-based versions of US Treasuries, mutual funds and other real assets.
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