Tokenized Real-World Assets Exceed $10 Billion

The tokenized real-world assets (RWA) sector surpassed $10 billion in total value locked (TVL) for the first time on March 18. It registered an all-time high of nearly $10.4 billion TVL on March 21.

Along with the growth in TVL, the RWA sector has become the best-performing segment of the crypto market in 2025. The TVL of RWA protocols jumped 30% this year and almost 140% year-on-year. This leap is notable compared to March 2023 when RWA protocols had less than $1 billion in TVL, showcasing 1,054% growth.

Tokenization represents assets from the real world in the blockchain’s digital environment.

Leading Protocols

BlackRock’s tokenized money fund BUIDL leads the market with over $1.4 billion in TVL, growing 140% in the past 30 days. BUIDL is closely followed by MakerDAO’s RWA vault at $1.3 billion, despite a 30% decrease during the same period.

Ethena Labs’ stablecoin USDtb is the third-largest RWA protocol by TVL, surpassing $1 billion almost three months after launch, reaching nearly $1.2 billion as of press time with a total value locked soaring by 1,222% in the past month.

Patrick Scott, head of growth at DefiLlama, highlighted that most RWA protocols tokenize treasury bills but believes that “bonds, equities, and the entire financial markets” will eventually transition on-chain.

> “Hyper-tokenization isn’t a theory, it’s already happening. The question isn’t if more assets will be tokenized, but how fast it will scale.”

DeFi Propels Traditional Finance

The growth of BUIDL and USDtb is connected. Ethena’s stablecoin holds 90% of its backing in BUIDL shares. According to USDtb’s transparency page, over $1 billion of its backing consists of BUIDL, meaning 76% of BlackRock’s fund TVL is driven by a DeFi application.

BUIDL could soon receive a $500 million boost from MakerDAO’s Spark protocol. BlackRock, along with Centrifuge and Superstate, won the Tokenization Grand Prix competition, earning investment intentions from Spark. The allocation depends on Sky (formerly MakerDAO) governance approval, with a vote scheduled for April 3.

RWA Outperforms Market Average

According to Artemis data, RWA-related tokens are down 1% year-to-date. Despite this, the sector outperformed the year-to-date average of the crypto market, which is down 39%.

Mantra (OM) is the best-performing RWA token, with a price increase of 83% this year. The recently launched Plume (PLUME) is up 30% over the past 30 days, making it the second-best performer in the sector.

The RWA sector’s performance is even more remarkable compared to other popular crypto narratives, with memecoins down roughly 47.5% this year and AI-related tokens losing nearly 58% of their value over the same period.