CoinDesk
Tokenized real-world assets have crossed $30 billion in on-chain value, roughly six times the level at the start of 2025, with the conversation at TokenizeThis 2026 shifting from whether RWAs belong on-chain to whether anyone is actually using them. Bitcoin hovered near $60,000 for most of the conference and almost nobody on stage cared; the crypto and tokenization narratives have decoupled. During their keynote, RedStone's founders cited an EY and Coinbase Institutional survey showing 64% of asset managers now want to tokenize, up from 40% a year earlier.
Why it matters
Regulation is what moved the mood. The GENIUS Act gave payment stablecoins a federal framework, but speakers repeatedly pointed to the still-pending CLARITY Act as the bigger unlock. RedStone co-founder Marcin Kazmierczak framed it bluntly: CLARITY could be a 10x or even 100x moment relative to GENIUS, because it opens the door to the full range of asset classes rather than just payment rails.
Market impact
The traction is showing up in working infrastructure. Broadridge moves roughly $370 billion of tokenized repo a day on the Canton network, a sliver of the $12 trillion US repo market but a live one, with the pitch distilled by Ownera CEO Ami Ben-David: if you want to borrow for five minutes, you pay for five minutes instead of a full day. Apollo's Christine Moy said the firm's tokenized private credit fund has confirmed the superpowers of on-chain assets: secondary liquidity for otherwise illiquid products, and the ability to post private credit as collateral in DeFi protocols like Aave and Morpho. On the treasury side, WisdomTree's Maredith Hannon described a US construction company paying an Argentine vendor through a tokenized money market fund behind a familiar web interface, with the treasurer earning yield while the money moves, and Citi's Ryan Rugg pointing to 24/7 dollar clearing.
Gaps remain real. Fidelity's Jasmine Jia told the room about a manager whose compliance team scrambled when a client received a token as an airdrop, a trivial sum that still tripped internal alarms. The same EY and Coinbase Institutional survey found 49% of asset managers naming integration of blockchain into traditional portfolio and risk frameworks as their biggest readiness gap. On the settlement panel, Stellar's Raja Chakravorti called interoperability the single greatest long-term unlock, since assets stuck on a single chain cannot move freely, and Ripple's Lauren Berta noted that finality varies across chains and a trade counted as settled can still reverse.
Frequently asked questions
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How big is the tokenized real-world asset market right now?
Tokenized RWAs have crossed $30 billion in on-chain value, roughly six times the level at the start of 2025, per data cited at TokenizeThis 2026.
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What is the CLARITY Act and why does it matter for tokenization?
The CLARITY Act is the pending US market-structure bill working through the Senate. RedStone's Marcin Kazmierczak said it could be a 10x or 100x moment relative to the GENIUS Act because it opens the door to the full range of asset classes, not just payment stablecoins.
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Which institutions are already using tokenized infrastructure in production?
Broadridge moves roughly $370 billion of tokenized repo a day on the Canton network, Apollo runs a tokenized private credit fund posted as collateral on Aave and Morpho, and WisdomTree and Citi have live tokenized money-market and deposit products in treasury use.
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What are the biggest gaps blocking broader RWA adoption?
Per the EY and Coinbase Institutional survey cited at the conference, 49% of asset managers name integration of blockchain into traditional portfolio and risk frameworks as their biggest readiness gap. Interoperability and inconsistent cross-chain finality were the structural blockers named on the settlement panel.
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Are tokenized equities the same as the underlying shares?
Not always. In issuer-sponsored structures the token carries ownership, voting rights and dividends; in synthetic wrappers the holder owns a contractual claim against another entity, with counterparty and tracking risk. The SEC's January 2026 staff statement drew this distinction explicitly.
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