Report: RWA Market Surges Over $100 Billion Since Start of 2024

Since January 2024, the market capitalization of tokenized «real-world assets» has surged by over $100 billion, based on a report by CoinGecko analysts.

In their document titled «When Cryptocurrency Becomes Real,» they highlighted the revival of this market segment. According to their assessment, this trend has emerged as one of the «subtly transformative narratives» of 2024.

«While the spotlight was focused on meme coins, Layer 2 ecosystems, and political prediction markets, RWA has steadily evolved from a niche experiment into one of the most reliable and capitalized sectors in the industry,» the experts emphasized.

They pointed out five key insights, including a nearly 68% increase in the market for exchange-traded commodity assets, which reached a record $1.9 billion.

CoinGecko acknowledged that much of the expansion in the commodity token segment is linked to the rally in gold prices amid escalating international tensions and macroeconomic uncertainty. A significant portion of this market capitalization is attributed to gold-backed stablecoins like Tether Gold (XAUT) and PAX Gold (PAXG).

Despite this growth, the total value of the entire sector accounts for only 0.8% of the market of stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies.

From the beginning of 2024 to April 2025, the sector expanded by 76.4%, reaching $224.9 billion.

USDT and USDC together represent 93.5% of the total market capitalization. The market cap for Tether and Circle coins increased by $56.3 million and $37.6 million, respectively.

The most successful newcomers during this period were USDtb from Ethena and USD0 from Usual, achieving market valuations of $1.4 billion and $600 million, respectively. Projects from traditional finance like PayPal’s PYUSD and Societe Generale’s EURCV showed weaker performance. However, CoinGecko anticipates growth in their supply as clarity on stablecoin regulation in the U.S. improves.

As of April 2025, the market for tokenized treasury bonds reached a historic high of $5.6 billion. This segment saw an increase of approximately 545% or $4.7 billion, making it the fastest-growing class of RWA assets over the past year, the analysts noted.

They indicated that one of the primary catalysts for this surge was the deterioration of economic expectations following the announcement of new U.S. tariffs. From March to April, the market capitalization of treasury tokens grew by $2.3 billion.

The leading product in this space is BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, launched in June, which holds a 44% market share.

«Most of the market capitalization for these assets still resides on Ethereum, followed by Stellar. Additionally, the number of consistent holders remains low, with the total number of addresses just over 11,000,» CoinGecko specialists acknowledged.

The sector of private on-chain lending has risen to $546.8 million, yet this is far from its peak of over $1.6 billion reached in 2022, the experts pointed out.

The leading protocol is Maple Finance, accounting for $374 million in active loans, which constitutes 67% of the total. The sector experienced a significant decline in the third quarter of 2024 when the Centrifuge project transitioned to tokenized bond operations; however, the trend toward expansion has persisted, according to CoinGecko.

Since the beginning of 2024, the tokenized equity sector has grown by 297%, or $8.6 million. The main product providers in this market are Backed Finance and Dinari, holding market shares of 77% and 23%, respectively.

This market remains quite small. Experts pin hopes for its expansion on plans by centralized exchanges like Kraken regarding tech giant stocks and Coinbase concerning its own securities.

Earlier, CoinGecko identified RWA as one of the most lucrative narratives of 2024, achieving a return of 820%, second only to AI and meme coins.