Real-world asset tokenization shows resilience amid broader crypto downturn
While much of the crypto market has been struggling lately, there’s one area that seems to be bucking the trend. Tokenized real-world assets—things like U.S. Treasury debt, commodities, and private credit—are actually growing. According to data from RWA.xyz, the sector posted 8.68% growth in distributed asset value over the past month, reaching $24.84 billion.
That’s interesting because it’s happening while decentralized finance is pulling back significantly. DeFi’s total value locked has dropped 25% over the same period to $94.84 billion, according to DeFiLlama. Nearly every major protocol, including Aave, Lido, Eigen Layer, and Binance Staked ETH, has seen double-digit declines in the last 30 days.
Capital rotation rather than retreat
What’s happening here, I think, is capital rotation rather than capital flight. Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch, put it this way: “DeFi yields were compressed, so lending and staking decreased alongside the market. At the same time, tokenized treasuries offer 4% on-chain returns with minimal risk. People are not leaving the space, they’re entering in a slightly less risky way.”
The numbers support this view. Tokenized U.S. Treasury debt is up 10% to $10.7 billion. Commodities have grown 20% to $6.9 billion. Private credit increased 15% to $2.9 billion. These aren’t huge percentages, but they’re moving in the opposite direction of most crypto assets.
The structural shift toward enforceable rights
Rico van der Veen, CEO of Programmable Credit Protocol, sees this as something more structural. “RWA protocols offer what DeFi never could: enforceable rights, regulatory clarity, and cash flows that don’t depend on token emissions,” he explained.
That’s a pretty strong statement, but it makes sense when you think about it. Traditional finance assets come with legal frameworks and established rights. Tokenizing them brings those benefits on-chain. It’s not just about creating new financial instruments from scratch—it’s about bringing existing, proven assets into the crypto ecosystem.
Token prices lag behind fundamentals
Here’s the strange part, though. Despite the growth in tokenized asset value, the tokens linked to these projects haven’t performed well. Both experts attribute this to the broader market downturn. Kunz noted that “prices across the entire market are down. This is not specific to RWA projects.”
He makes a good point about sentiment lagging fundamentals. “TVL is still growing, which shows demand is still there. Sentiment hasn’t yet caught up with the fundamentals. When it does, these projects will likely reprice very quickly.”
Van der Veen offered a more sober perspective. He pointed out that the value is accruing to the instruments themselves, not necessarily to the governance tokens. “BlackRock’s BUIDL has $1.5 billion-plus under management. That value sits in the fund, not in any governance token,” he said. “Most RWA tokens are still utility tokens with no claim on the revenues flowing through the protocol.”
That last part is worth thinking about. If adoption and token price are decoupling permanently, it changes how we evaluate these projects. The success of tokenized real-world assets might not translate directly to token price appreciation in the way we’ve come to expect from crypto projects.
What this means for the market
Looking at the bigger picture, this shift suggests a maturing market. Capital isn’t just fleeing crypto entirely—it’s moving to different parts of the ecosystem. The distributed asset value metric (which tracks tokenized assets that can move between wallets) grew nearly 9%, while represented asset value (for assets that can’t leave their issuing platforms) was basically flat at $372.97 billion.
Maybe this is what a more mature crypto market looks like. Not everything moves in lockstep. Different sectors respond to different incentives. Risk-off capital finds safer havens within the ecosystem rather than leaving completely.
It’s still early days for tokenized real-world assets, but the growth patterns are telling. They’re not immune to market sentiment—token prices show that—but the underlying asset values are holding up better than most crypto-native sectors. That might be the most important takeaway here.
