Market maker Keyrock and tokenization platform Securitize today released a new report on the future of real world asset (RWA) tokenization. According to the study, the decentralized RWA market (meaning tokenized assets that can be freely transferred on-chain) is projected to grow from around $29 billion today in the base case to $400 billion by 2030, an increase of more than 1000%.
The joint report also notes that perpetual futures are the fastest growing on-chain channel for RWA exposure and are already on track to dominate derivatives by 2028.
The report, titled “The $400 Trillion Future of Tokenized Assets,” covers five RWA classes (treasury bonds, private credit, equities, commodities, and alternative funds) and maps the regulatory, liquidity, and infrastructure requirements needed for each scale.
According to the report, tokenized RWA currently represents less than 0.1% of the $400 trillion global market eligible for tokenization. In the base case, Keyrock and Securitize predict that the broader market for blockchain-tracked RWA (often referred to as representative RWA) will reach $5 trillion by 2030.
While stocks nominally show the most upside, U.S. Treasuries are positioned to lead in the near term, receiving the highest score in the report’s Readiness Framework, which rates asset classes on aspects such as standardization, liquidity, valuation frequency, redemption speed, regulatory clarity and on-chain demand.
Demand for RWA Perp
RWA perps, or perpetual futures tied to commodities such as oil, gold and silver, have soared in popularity in recent months, driven by widespread adoption of on-chain derivatives and demand for 24/7 macro exposure. Geopolitical tensions, and more recently the escalation of wars in the Middle East, likely contributed to the short-term surge in trade activity.
RWA perpetual trading volume increased 40x in six months to $67 billion in monthly trading volume, even as trading volume across the broader on-chain derivatives market fell by half, according to a new report.
Specifically, since October 2025, RWA’s PERP has jumped from 0.1% to 10.1% of all on-chain derivatives trading volume, the report said. At current pace, RWA criminals could account for 50% of all on-chain derivatives trading volume by 2028, the report predicts.
This growth is primarily driven by Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 upgrade. This upgrade will be launched in October 2025 and will enable the development of a license-free futures market.
According to the report, HIP-3’s monthly equity PERP amount increased from $760 million in October 2025 to $20 billion by last month. Profits from commodities, including gold, silver, copper and oil, reached $40 billion in March alone. The report positions this issue not as a workaround, but as a crypto-native evolution of tokenization, total exposure to real-world assets without the compliance overhead of direct ownership.
US Treasuries and DeFi yields
The report also highlights yields on tokenized US Treasuries, especially against the backdrop of falling DeFi yields. According to the report, since mid-2024, tokenized T-bills have paid out more than the DeFi benchmark stablecoin lending rate on 64% of all days. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, this number reached 98%, making yield volatility 3.6 times lower than DeFi lending rates over the same period.
Keyrock and Securitize say 2027 is the first year in which regulation, market depth, liquidity infrastructure, and distribution are likely to mature simultaneously. They say a “window of convergence” will concentrate growth in asset classes that reach all four milestones first.
The findings come amid increasing institutional pressure against tokenization. While the IMF recently claimed that tokenization represents a “tectonic shift in financial architecture,” The Defiant previously reported on how RWA will become Wall Street’s gateway to crypto in 2025, with tokenized assets transitioning from wrappers to DeFi building blocks.
This article was written with the help of AI Workflow. All of our stories are hand-picked, edited and fact-checked by humans.
