RWAs Breach $21B: Treasuries Dominate as BlackRock & Franklin Templeton Scale
Tokenized RWAs hit $21.35B as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton drive a $9B treasury boom, validating the shift from pilots to production.
Tokenized Real-World Assets (RWAs) on public blockchains officially crossed the $21.35 billion threshold on Jan. 19, marking a 5% surge in 2026’s opening weeks. Data from rwa.xyz confirms the sector is no longer powered by experimental pilots but by production-grade institutional flows, with tokenized U.S. Treasuries accounting for nearly 43% of the total value.
The Treasury Anchor
The transition from DeFi-native collateral to sovereign debt is absolute. Of the $21.35 billion total, $9.05 billion is locked in tokenized U.S. Treasury debt. This flight to quality is led by BlackRock’s BUIDL and Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX, which have successfully migrated traditional money market mechanics onto chains like Ethereum and Stellar.
The breakdown of the remaining capital reveals the sector’s maturing risk appetite:
- Commodities: $3.77 billion
- Private Credit: $2.44 billion
- Institutional Alternative Funds: $2.19 billion
While U.S. debt provides the floor, the accelerated growth in private credit signals that investors are beginning to hunt for yield beyond the risk-free rate, leveraging on-chain transparency for typically opaque credit markets.
Market Reaction: Divergent Price Action
Despite the macro milestone, governance tokens tied to RWA infrastructure showed mixed reactions, highlighting a disconnect between protocol usage and speculative value.
Ondo Finance (ONDO), a key player in the tokenized yield space, slipped to $0.33 (-4.9%) amid broader market chop. Conversely, Centrifuge (CFG), which specializes in structured credit on-chain, rallied to $0.13 (+4.4%), outperforming its sector peers.
The tokenized asset market nearly quadrupled through 2025 to reach approximately $20 billion by year-end, signaling explosive growth momentum.
Institutional Context: The $2 Trillion Roadmap
The $21 billion mark is a validation of the “production era” for bank-backed digital assets. Major custodians like BNY and asset managers like JPMorgan are moving beyond internal ledger tests to public mainnet deployments. This trajectory aligns with McKinsey’s forecast, which projects the market for tokenized financial assets could scale to $2 trillion by 2030.
For 2026, the directive is clear: infrastructure is set. The race is now for liquidity, with stablecoins expected to act as the primary settlement rail for these regulated securities.
