Tokenize everything used to be a meme and a pitch‑deck slide. In 2025, it finally shows up in hard data and if we exclude stablecoins, tokenized real‑world assets (RWAs) on public chains have grown roughly 380% since 2022 to over $24 billion in value. But that does not mean that “everything” is moving on‑chain at the same speed. The early winners are very specific and they include private credit, short‑term government debt, institutional real estate and gold.
What does RWA tokenization mean
At its core, RWA tokenization just means turning legal rights to a real‑world asset such as a loan, bond, building or gold bar into a programmable token on a blockchain. Unlike its RWA counterpart, the token can settle faster, trade 24/7 and plug into DeFi as collateral or yield-bearing collateral.
The RWAs that are moving first share three traits:
- They have clear pricing or cash flows that includes yields, rent, coupons and spot prices.
- They already have huge, already‑regulated markets where even a tiny on‑chain slice is measured in billions.
- They have painful legacy rails with slow settlement, high minimums and limited access.
What is actually on-chain as of today?
Private credit a quite giant
Private credit refers to non‑bank lending to companies and projects. You can think of this as direct lending funds rather than listed bonds. By mid‑2025 private credit accounted for about $14B of the $24B tokenized RWA market, more than half the pie. Why? Because yields in the 8–12% range are attractive to on‑chain investors, and the underlying loans have historically awful liquidity. Putting claims on those loan pools into token form makes it easier to enter, exit and use positions as collateral. Protocols like Centrifuge, Maple, Goldfinch and institutional funds from Apollo and KKR are all building here.
Treasuries and money‑market funds
The second big bucket of RWAs is short‑term government debt and cash‑equivalent funds. Forbes and Investopedia estimate roughly $6–7B of Treasuries, bonds and money‑market exposures were tokenized by mid‑2025, with BlackRock’s BUIDL fund alone representing about a third of that.
Issuers like BlackRock (BUIDL), Franklin Templeton (BENJI), Superstate (USTB), Ondo (OUSG/USDY) and Circle (USYC) are joined by new tokenized money‑market pilots from Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon for institutional clients. The pitch to TradFi is simple its just the same regulated instruments, with on‑chain rails and better collateral mobility.
Real estate which is real but not a form of magic
Real estate has also started to show up, with about $3.8B in tokenized property value by mid‑2025. Most of it is in tokenized equity in property funds like on‑chain REIT‑style vehicles, tokenized real‑estate debt like mortgages as well as bridge‑loan portfolios and smaller experiments fractionalizing single buildings
Legal complexities like local land laws, registries, and foreclosure rules means tokenization here is incremental efficiency, not instant house‑flipping liquidity. There is cheaper fund admin, lower minimum tickets and easier secondary trading for accredited investors.
Commodities and gold leads the way
In commodities, gold is the clear flagship. By October 2025, tokenized gold’s market cap was around $3.9B, led by Tether Gold (XAUT) and Paxos Gold (PAXG). These tokens now plug into DeFi wrappers and lending markets, letting gold sit alongside BTC and stablecoins in on‑chain portfolios.
The catch here is that you are trusting an issuer to hold and redeem that metal, sometimes decades into the future. Even Binance co‑founder CZ has dismissed tokenized gold as a “trust me bro” asset. This highlights stablecoin‑like concerns around reserves and redemption. After all, without regulatory oversight, only issuers know if they have adequate reserves.
Beyond the hype and looking at regulation and concentration risk
Regulators are very clear that tokenization does not grant a legal cheat code. In July 2025, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce reminded markets that tokenized securities are still securities and fully subject to U.S. securities laws. The global watchdog IOSCO likewise warns that tokenization can confuse what investors actually own the asset vs. a claim. And they add new technology and counterparty risks.
There’s also concentration risk with tokenization. A handful of issuers like BlackRock, Franklin, Ondo, Tether, Paxos and a few credit platforms control most on‑chain RWAs today. That is very great for standardization, less great if any one of them stumbles. Tokenization also means that the reserves for the tokens of RWAs are concentrated among few custodians and entities. This is very risky if we want to consider decentralization.
Final thoughts and conclusion
Despite the “tokenize everything” slogan, the first serious wave is income‑producing, institution‑friendly assets. These include private credit, short‑term government debt and money‑market funds, institutional real‑estate structures and commodities like gold.
The tokenization of RWAs is not sci‑fi. It is the slow, unglamorous upgrade of financial plumbing to enable faster settlement, 24/7 markets, smaller tickets and composability with DeFi. That is where “tokenization of everything” quietly starts to look real. None of this is investment advice; it is a snapshot of how the rails are changing under the hood.
References
Cointelegraph – “Private credit powers $24B tokenization market, Ethereum still dominates — RedStone” (Jun 26, 2025)
https://cointelegraph.com/news/private-credit-powers-24b-tokenization-market-ethereum-still-dominates-redstone
CoinDesk – “Real-World Asset Tokenization Market Has Grown Almost Fivefold in 3 Years” (Jun 26, 2025)
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/06/26/real-world-asset-tokenization-market-has-grown-almost-fivefold-in-3-years
Forbes – “Real-World Asset Tokenization Hits $24 Billion As Wall Street Bets Big” (Jun 20, 2025) https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/06/20/real-world-asset-tokenization-hits-24-billion-as-wall-street-bets-big
Investopedia – “Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon Step into Tokenized Money Market Funds” (Jul 23, 2025)
https://www.investopedia.com/bny-mellon-and-goldman-sachs-step-into-tokenized-money-market-funds-11777455
CoinDesk – “Gold Token Market Swells to $3.9B as CZ Calls It a ‘Trust Me Bro’ Asset” (Oct 23, 2025)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/10/23/gold-token-market-swells-to-usd3-9b-as-cz-calls-it-a-trust-me-bro-asset
