Tokenized real-world assets reach US$32 billion, dominated by treasury bonds

The scale of tokenized real-world assets exceeded US$32 billion, and treasury bonds led the market.

As of August 2026, the total value of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) on the chain has exceeded US$32 billion., more than double that of a year ago. This data is based on a dataset compiled by the Dune platform covering 21 blockchains and approximately 3,000 products. Although U.S. Treasurys remain the core focus of the market, the most dynamic capital flows have quietly shifted to assets and instruments that were almost ignored 12 months ago. Today, the key to distinguishing mature markets from early experiments is no longer just the size of the headline number, but the asset composition behind the $32 billion.

The smallest category has the broadest holder base

Fixed income assets account for half of the market, growing by 111% in the past year, with U.S. Treasuries accounting for 88%. The scale of credit assets is US$7.6 billion. Although they are small, the proportion of collateral used in real-world asset lending reaches three-quarters, and the performance exceeds expectations. Commodity assets are US$5.5 billion, of which about one-third are deposited on exchanges. In comparison, equity assets are the smallest category with a market capitalisation at just $2.5 billion, but there is an interesting divergence: the number of holders of tokenized stocks is approximately 872,000, compared with only 69,000 holders in the fixed income category. The thinnest category by market value has the broadest holding base. Retail investors are flocking to the stock market, while institutional funds remain largely in the treasury bond sector.

Asset Class Supply on the chain Distinctive characteristics Fixed Income US$16.5 billion 88% is U.S. Treasury bonds, a year-on-year increase of 111% Credit US$7.6 billion Hold 76% of all RWA loan collateral Commodities US$5.5 billion Approximately 30% is deposited on the exchange Stocks US$2.5 billion Holders are 872,000, far exceeding the fixed income category of 69,000

Traders skip tokens and flood into perpetual contracts

Supply data only tells half the story, as more and more on-chain positions do not involve physical tokens at all. Currently, there are two main ways to make bets on stocks or gold: one is to hold tokens backed by real assets, and the other is to trade perpetual contracts that only track their price. On the Hyperliquid platform, the second approach has surpassed the first. Trading volume of perpetual contracts in stocks and commodities soared from 0.2% in October last year to 51% in July this year, and trading volume of perpetual contracts in gold and stocks increased about 30 times to US$114 billion per month. In both markets, nearly 97% of trading volume is completed through perpetual contracts rather than tokens. The total open interest in these real-world asset perpetual contracts is close to US$2 billion, with equity exposure climbing monthly since October last year to US$1.54 billion; commodities stabilizing after peaking at about US$500 million in April.

This exposure comes with ongoing costs. Because perpetual contracts have no expiration date, there is a regular payment mechanism called a "funding rate" that is used to anchor their price to the underlying asset. When the rate is positive, bullish traders pay fees to bearish traders; when the rate is negative, the flow of funds reverses. Over the past year, the annual cost of holding these contracts has varied by market, ranging from 5% to 14%.

Market Annual cost of holding Significance for holders Copper 8-14% Positive since February; long positions continue to pay Nvidia and Gold 3-9% Maintain a stable premium for long positions S & P 500 About 0% Close to zero, holding almost free throughout the year SpaceX -7.7% Reverse from 11.5% in July; shorts now pay out to bulls

Why did a Robinhood battle bring structure back into view

The gap between real tokens and synthetic tokens is not an academic discussion, and the contradiction became public this month. Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev published an article on social media X that defines the circumstances under which a listed company can block stock tokens linked to its shares. Previously, AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron asked Robinhood to stop trading tokens bearing the AMC name and threatened to file a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Tenev's answer drew a line: If the product changes the rights attached to the shares, replaces the company's official books, or adds new obligations to the issuer, then the company has the right to participate in the discussion. But he believes that consent should not be required if the product simply creates an independent tool that only cites freely transferable shares.

Robinhood's stock token is firmly on the second side of the line. They are tokenized debt securities issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited rather than AMC, and each is backed one-on-one by shares held by U.S. custodian Alpaca Securities. Holders receive price exposure and reinvest dividends, but have no voting rights and cannot file legal claims against the underlying company. These products are circulated outside the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Switzerland, and more than 190 are currently traded. Arone counters that the structure decouples token ownership from the company's control of its own financing, and whether he has the power to force a halt remains a legal issue.

India tokenizes the bonds themselves and settles them by the central bank

Composite models are not the only expansion path currently available. India has taken the opposite direction. On September 10, the Securities and Exchange Commission of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched a pilot project called "Demat 2.0" at the Global FinTech Festival in Mumbai to issue corporate bonds as native digital tokens on licensed ledgers operated by regulated market institutions. The cash portion is settled in RBI wholesale digital currency, allowing bonds and payments to be synchronized, thereby eliminating settlement risk on that side. India became the first jurisdiction to issue native tokens for corporate bonds on its own ledgers owned by a regulated body.

Three issuers took the lead: state-owned electricity lender REC Limited raised approximately US$56 million;Larsen & Toubro also raised US$56 million; and IIFL Finance increased by Rs 250 million (approximately US$2.8 million), totaling nearly US$116 million. CDSL, NSDL, BSE, NSE, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and NPCI all participated in this pilot. Secondary market transactions are expected to start in December 2026, and retail visits will be left for a later stage. The pilot aims to cover the corporate bond market worth approximately $620 billion. If Robinhood wraps its shares in overseas debt securities, India puts the actual instruments on the ledger and has the central bank liquidates the funds, which is at the opposite end of the structural spectrum.

SEC rewrite proposal that may remove "second ledger"

Most current tokenization models (including Robinhood's model) run two records simultaneously: tokens on the chain and authoritative shareholder registers located elsewhere. The SEC has proposed a plan to merge the two. On September 1, the agency proposed a substantive rewrite of transfer agent rules for the first time in four decades, including a provision that would allow registered transfer agents to retain their major security-holder documents as official records on their blockchain, provided that the agent retains exclusive control. The proposal does not transform blockchain into a transfer agent, retains the status of the Uniform Commercial Code and state laws, and embeds identity checks and transfer restrictions into tokens. The comment period will end on November 3.

Market direction after November 3

The $32 billion figure will continue to climb, but the more decisive question is which structure the rules ultimately favor. This comment window will begin to delineate the boundaries between issuer securities and third-party products, the exact line exposed by the Robinhood dispute. Capital is not waiting for answers. Nasdaq's venture capital arm committed to investing US$100 million to Kraken's parent company Payward on September 10 to build Nasdaq equity tokens on the xStocks platform, with a target trading time of mid-2027; Wells Fargo Bank has also arranged to launch a pilot of cross-border tokenized deposits based on Cosmos this fall. For those who hold these products, the structure they choose determines what they really have and whether the court can lift the agreement. The market has proven its ability to grow. What has not yet been determined is whether the future belongs to real tokens, synthetic packaging, or bonds cleared by the central bank.