RWA is not a fleeting crypto fad but a crucial bridge connecting Web3 with the trillion-dollar traditional financial market. Real World Assets (RWA) are becoming a new favorite of global capital, turning assets such as houses, bonds, stocks, art, private loans, and carbon credits into tradable, programmable crypto assets on the blockchain. This enables on-chain trading anytime, anywhere, at low cost. OKX Research believes that RWA is not a trend, with development traced from asset securitization in the 1970s to today’s RWA-ization, focusing on liquidity, lower costs, and expanding the user base.
The development of RWA can be roughly divided into three stages: the initial stage from 2009 to 2018, during which Bitcoin and Ethereum were born, initiating early explorations of asset tokenization and STO; the application exploration stage from 2019 to 2022, during which RWA was introduced into DeFi as collateral, and assets such as real estate and art began to be piloted on the blockchain but still faced liquidity and compliance challenges; since 2023, with investors pursuing stable returns and institutions actively issuing tokenized products, the RWA market has entered a period of rapid development, with its scale continuing to expand, and moving toward a trillion-dollar new financial market. From a macro perspective, RWA is poised to first improve payment and collateral efficiency, then expand into lending, and ultimately support AI wallet transactions, potentially reshaping the capital market over the next five to ten years. The RWA market has experienced exponential growth since reaching $50 million in 2019, with particularly significant growth expected in 2024–2025. As of November 3, 2025, the total on-chain RWA (excluding stablecoins) reached $35 billion, while the total market capitalization of stablecoins exceeded $295 billion and more than 199 million users held tokens.
The on-chain RWA asset structure shows private lending and U.S. Treasury bonds as core assets, with the former accounting for a large share due to high yields and the latter serving as an entry-level product for institutional capital. As of November 7, 2025, private lending volume was about $18.66 billion, with an average annualized rate of 9.79% across 2,710 loans, and the Figure platform holding roughly 92% of the market with $17.2 billion in volume. In commodities, gold-based tokens dominate the sector, with XAUt about $2.1 billion (56.8% of the market) and PAXG around $1.12 billion (30.3%), and gold prices reaching about $4,075 per ounce. In tokenized stocks, total value locked was around $661 million, with high monthly trading volume and tens of thousands of holders, while liquidity and regulatory risks remain key challenges.
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