Is the RWA Boom an Illusion? Experts React to Tokenization’s Liquidity Gap
The tokenized real-world asset market has reached greater than $60 billion, however most of that worth stays concentrated, restricted, or inactive on-chain.
BeInCrypto Intelligence’s Real State of Tokenization in 2026 report, constructed with market information from RWA.xyz, tracked greater than 7,000 merchandise throughout 12 asset lessons. It discovered that simply 62 property maintain 88% of the market worth, whereas 5 merchandise account for roughly half.
The activity gap is even sharper. Of 1,289 tokenized property price greater than $100,000, solely 910 property representing $32.9 billion recorded zero weekly transfers.
Meanwhile, 97% of the market stays outdoors US retail entry. BeInCrypto requested members of its Expert Council what these findings reveal about the state of tokenization.
Archax: Institutions Should Not Have to Choose a Chain
Graham Rodford, CEO and Co-Founder of Archax, mentioned blockchain fragmentation is making institutional adoption more durable than vital.
“The fragmentation drawback is actual and it’s not going away,” Rodford mentioned. “Every main asset supervisor we communicate to is coping with the similar operational query: which chain do I decide, and what occurs when the subsequent one emerges? The trustworthy reply is that they shouldn’t have to decide.”
Rodford argues that establishments want a regulated layer above particular person networks. It would deal with issuance, buying and selling, custody, and settlement with out tying corporations to a single blockchain.
He additionally rejected the concept that public blockchains are routinely unregulated.
“What determines regulatory security isn’t the chain – it’s the gateway.”
Theo: Dormant Assets Show a Half-Built Market
Iggy Ioppe, CIO of Theo, mentioned the $32.9 billion in dormant worth doesn’t show tokenization has failed. Instead, it exhibits that a lot of the market has stopped at illustration.
“Wrapping an asset and parking it’s ‘tokenization theater’. The actual work is making tokens usable – as collateral, in DeFi, in stay settlement.”
The report distinguishes between Distributed property, which may transfer throughout public blockchain rails, and Represented property, which primarily use blockchain as a digital file.
Around $27 billion of the dormant worth got here from Represented property. Many have been designed for recordkeeping and institutional settlement fairly than public buying and selling.
Still, Ioppe mentioned the subsequent stage will rely upon whether or not tokenized property can transfer, earn yield, settle round the clock, and join to wider monetary infrastructure.
“The property are on-chain; the subsequent section is making them work.”
Sygnum: Regulation Could Create Regional Liquidity Silos
Fabian Dori, CIO of Sygnum Bank, mentioned the market dangers splitting into remoted swimming pools as jurisdictions develop totally different guidelines and requirements.
“A regulated asset financial institution may help forestall tokenized markets from hardening into remoted regional liquidity swimming pools by performing as a compliant interoperability layer fairly than making an attempt to pressure one common token throughout all jurisdictions.”
The report discovered that EU-regulated merchandise account for under $3.3 billion, or 6% of the core market.
Dori’s argument is that regulated platforms should join issuers and buyers throughout chains whereas preserving native authorized and compliance necessities.
WAODAO: Tokenized Assets Need a Liquidity Network
Aleksandr Cryptoved, Founder of WAODAO, mentioned the report exposes the distinction between placing an asset on-chain and making a functioning market round it.
“The report’s $32.9B in property with zero weekly switch exercise highlights the hole between tokenized existence and tokenized market exercise.”
He proposed a “liquidity graph” through which tokenized property join by means of a number of smaller buying and selling pairs fairly than counting on one deep market towards a stablecoin.
“In my view, the lacking layer is a liquidity graph.”
Such a construction might generate exercise by means of rebalancing, arbitrage, collateral actions, and institutional portfolio administration.
Tokenization’s Next Test Is Usefulness
The specialists differ on why a lot tokenized worth stays inactive.
Rodford factors to blockchain fragmentation. Ioppe sees a market caught at digital illustration. Dori focuses on regulatory silos, whereas Cryptoved argues that tokenized property want higher liquidity connections.
Their conclusions converge on one level: issuing extra tokens won’t resolve the market’s structural gaps.
The subsequent section is dependent upon whether or not tokenized property can transfer throughout networks, meet regulatory necessities, attain buyers, and plug into actual monetary workflows.
The market has proved that property may be recorded on-chain. It has not but proved that almost all of them can operate as energetic markets.
Read the full BeInCrypto Intelligence report.
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