Real-World Assets: The Business of Tokenization

On-chain RWA is approximately $15 billion out of $400–500 trillion, which is less than 0.004%. (Source: rwa.xyz, MSCI, 2025)

Origination is high-margin and project-based (one-time fees). Infrastructure is recurring but lower margin. Distribution is volume-driven and thin.

Infrastructure (custody, oracle services, compliance tools) earns recurring fees that scale with protocol volume, similar to a SaaS model.

A secondary marketplace for security tokens must hold an ATS registration. This is the highest regulatory barrier and creates the strongest moat. (Examples: tZERO, INX)

A regulatory licence cannot be replicated by deploying the same smart contract. Years and significant capital are required. Technology alone scores 2/10; a licence scores 9.5/10.

Global real estate is approximately $326 trillion (Source: MSCI Real Assets, 2023), making it the largest tokenizable asset class – but also the hardest to tokenize legally.

The token contract is trivially forkable. The real moat is the legal entity per property and the local compliance and management network.

Centrifuge had over $400 million in total pool financing as of early 2025. (Source: Centrifuge platform documentation)

Centrifuge’s protocol is open-source. The code has already been forked. The real moat is the originator relationship network.

Contour had the right technology but could not align enough banks to achieve the liquidity network effects required for viability. This is the classic coordination failure in trade finance.

KlimaDAO accumulated large carbon reserves as a reserve-currency backing without retiring credits, removing supply from the voluntary market and distorting prices.

Transfer agents (Computershare, Broadridge) maintain shareholder registries. Smart contracts can replace this function entirely. Timeline: 5–10 years, subject to regulatory change.

JPMorgan Onyx was rebranded to JPMorgan Kinexys in October 2024. It processes over $1 billion per day in tokenized intraday repo. (Source: JPMorgan press releases, 2024)

BlackRock BUIDL surpassed $2.9 billion in AUM as of early 2025. (Source: rwa.xyz, Securitize) It was launched in March 2024 on Ethereum via Securitize.

BlackRock BUIDL, JPMorgan Kinexys, and Franklin BENJI all demonstrate the co-option strategy: incumbents use regulatory licence, balance sheet, and client relationships to occupy the most defensible position.

Maple Finance incurred approximately $54 million in write-offs in November 2022 following defaults by crypto-native borrowers who were undercollateralised.

If a custodian reports an off-chain asset as intact when it is not, the token is backed by nothing. This is structurally identical to the Wirecard case, where EUR 1.9 billion in cash was fabricated in trustee accounts.

BCG projects $2–16 trillion in tokenized assets by 2030 (Source: BCG/ADDX report, 2022). The wide range reflects high uncertainty in regulatory trajectory and institutional adoption speed.

FOBXX (launched 2021 on Stellar and Polygon) was the first US-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain for share ownership records. (Source: Franklin Templeton)

Global private credit AUM is approximately $1.7 trillion (Source: Preqin, 2024). On-chain private credit (Centrifuge, Maple, Goldfinch) represents a small but growing fraction of this total.