The DL Research team and on-chain analytics platform DefiLlama released a report on April 23rd, “The State of RWAfi Q1 2026,” in which they stated that the market for tokenized real-world assets (RWA) has reached $25.222 billion, but only $3.69 billion is operated within decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
Analysis shows that RWA usage has increased five-fold in just over a year, from approximately USD 4.1 billion at the beginning of 2025 to USD 25.222 million today. Approximately 86% of all tokenized capital remains unused within the DeFi ecosystem.
For the authors, the growth of the RWA market It is not equivalent to effectively using those assets within the DeFi ecosystemBecause “much of what is called RWAfi today is actually just tokenization. “Putting assets on a blockchain and actually using them are two completely different things.”
To measure this gap, DefiLlama uses a proprietary metric called DeFi Active TVL (Total Active Locked Value in DeFi), as shown in the image below.
According to the report, this measurement captures how much of the tokenized capital is actually used within DeFi protocols. Includes loan collateral, permanent market positions, and revenue sources.
Why is this gap structural, according to the researchers?
This report reveals several factors that explain why tokenized capital is not converted to use in DeFi. One is the lack of an active, unified market for buying and selling these assets.
According to the analysis, Operations will be split between different publishers, chains and platforms. The authors also caution that the actual portion in circulation is typically much smaller than the total supply available on the network, making integration with lending protocols difficult.
This is in addition to the structural limitations of the model. DL Research and DeFiLlama claim: RWA tokens do not eliminate dependence on legal infrastructure and off-chain operations (off chainin English).
Each token represents an underlying right mediated by an issuer, custodian, legal entity, or external registry. Rather than obtaining direct ownership of the physical or financial assets backing the token, users obtain a contract with the organization issuing the token.
Considering these factors, the authors conclude that the next stage in this field will depend not on issuance volume, but on the effective utilization of tokenized assets. Under that interpretation, the 86% difference represents a starting point for the challenge, not a temporary number.
(Tag to translate) Blockchain
