Only 10% of RWA Liquidity Is Actually Active in DeFi Protocols

The RWA sector is expanding rapidly, but DeFi is capturing almost none of the upside. Research by Tanaka finds that only around 10% of RWA liquidity is currently active in DeFi protocols — a striking gap that points to deep structural friction between tokenized assets and decentralized finance.

The numbers illustrate the disconnect clearly: tokenized gold and commodities now represent roughly $7 billion in on-chain value, yet only $184 million of that is actively deployed within DeFi. The rest sits idle, locked behind compliance wrappers that make it functionally inaccessible to permissionless protocols.

Most tokenized Treasury products — including BUIDL, FOBXX, USTB, and OUSG — are, in practice, on-chain PDF files with KYC requirements attached. Whitelists, transfer agents, qualified purchaser checks, and redemption windows mean these products can't move freely through DeFi rails,…