The real-world asset has transitioned from a niche cryptocurrency narrative to something much closer to a full-fledged market category over the past two years, but CoinGecko’s latest report suggests that the transition is no longer theoretical. In its newly released RWA Report 2026, CoinGecko states that the resurgence of RWA and regulatory clarity that began in 2024 has brought in larger traditional financial players and pushed tokenization into a faster development phase.
The report argues that what started as an early experiment has now grown into a set of practical playbooks, and that 2025 is the year the field makes real progress. It’s hard to ignore the numbers in the headline. According to CoinGecko, the overall market value of tokenized RWA increased by 256.7% in 15 months, increasing from $5.42 billion at the beginning of 2025 to $19.32 billion by March 31, 2026.
This means the sector has more than tripled since the beginning of last year. Even after that expansion, RWA remains much smaller than stablecoins, but the gap has narrowed. Tokenized RWA accounted for 6.4% of the stablecoin market size by the end of Q1 2026, up from 2.7% at the beginning of 2025.
CoinGecko says this data shows that RWA growth has outpaced stablecoins over the past year. Much of that growth has come from tokenized U.S. Treasuries, which added $9 billion and still accounts for the largest share of the market, but its dominance is waning as other asset classes emerge.
Tokenized products are heating up
This change in composition is important because it indicates that the market is becoming more diverse. Tokenized government bonds still make up the largest slice of the RWA pie, but their share has fallen from 73.7% to 67.2% as commodities, stocks, and ETFs have started taking up more room. By the end of Q1 2026, tokenized products accounted for 28.7% of the sector, tokenized stocks accounted for 2.5%, and tokenized ETFs accounted for 1.5%.
In other words, the market is no longer just about government bonds. CoinGecko sees this as a sign that the RWA stack is expanding, with issuers now competing not only on who can launch first, but also on regulatory infrastructure, asset coverage, and the ability to distribute products across major venues.
The strongest breakout on the commodity side came from gold. According to CoinGecko, tokenized products rose 289.1% from $1.43 billion to $5.55 billion, with gold-backed tokens driving nearly all the movement. Tether XAUT and Paxos $PAXG They accounted for 89.1% of the expansion, adding $1.87 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively.
$PAXG Although it expanded its share during this period, XAUT remained the largest tokenized product overall. Smaller precious metal tokens such as KAG and KAU, which are backed by silver, also grew in absolute terms, but their market share declined as more attention focused on trading gold. CoinGecko says this rally reflects the broader rally in physical gold over the past year, which has helped make tokenized gold one of the clearest winners of the RWA boom.
Trading activity tells an even more surprising story. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, tokenized gold spot trading volume reached $90.7 billion, already exceeding the full year 2025 trading volume of $84.6 billion. CoinGecko says this surge is indicative of both growing demand from crypto users seeking exposure to well-performing assets and increased access through centralized exchanges, which still dominate spot trading of tokenized assets.
The report notes that while monthly gold token trading can fluctuate widely depending on market conditions, the broader trend is unmistakable: tokenized gold is moving from curiosity to one of the most actively traded asset classes in the space. $PAXG and XAUT were again the main drivers, accounting for the majority of the trading volume for the entire period.
Tokenized stocks and ETFs are on the rise
Another notable development is the rapid rise of tokenized stocks. The category, which started rolling out in mid-2025, grew from just $2.09 million on June 30, 2025 to $486.69 million on March 31, 2026, according to CoinGecko. The first wave of launches came through Backed Finance’s xStocks, bringing names like Tesla, Circle, Nvidia, and Alphabet on-chain, with subsequent launches from Ondo helping to further expand the category.
With a market capitalization of $171.39 million, Circle has emerged as the largest tokenized stock so far, although Tesla has faded somewhat from its peak despite being an early leader. Nvidia, Alphabet, and Strategy also hold significant positions, but the report reveals that technology names drove much of the early enthusiasm.
The same pattern can be seen in trading volumes. Tokenized stocks generated $15.12 billion in spot trading volume in the first quarter of 2026, surpassing the $14.84 billion recorded in the second half of 2025. According to CoinGecko, the asset class started with a strong initial explosion, briefly cooled, and then surpassed the $4 billion level for four consecutive months.
Tesla, Circle, and Nvidia were the biggest contributors by trading activity. Still, the report notes that the volume of the top five tokenized stocks remains small compared to real-world stocks, accounting for less than 1% of the total trading volume of traditional stock markets. This gap indicates that the market is still in its infancy, even though momentum is clearly building.
Tokenized ETFs are similar but follow a slightly different path. According to CoinGecko, the category grew from just $0.62 million in July 2025 to $297.5 million by the end of Q1 2026. Unlike tokenized stocks, which have already produced some standout winners, tokenized ETFs are growing in a more balanced manner, with no single asset dominating the category.
Ondo’s tokenized SPDR S&P 500 and iShares Silver Trust are the two biggest names, but the report highlights that a significant long tail of smaller ETFs is also emerging. This spread widening could prove significant over time. This is because it suggests that tokenization will go beyond capturing one hot stock trend and open the door to a wide range of packaged products that have already established demand in traditional markets.
Perhaps the clearest sign that RWA has become more than a spot market story is the explosive growth in permanent issuance. According to CoinGecko, total RWA perpetual transactions reached $524.79 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone, exceeding the $313.02 billion recorded in all of 2025. That means the market is already running at more than twice the pace of last year’s total.
Growth has been steady for four consecutive quarters, still dominated by commodities, but with stocks and ETFs taking a larger share. The report also highlights the rise of Hyperliquid’s HIP-3, with the company’s share of monthly RWA perps volume rising rapidly since its launch. Open interest has also skyrocketed, with daily RWA Purps open interest increasing from just $140 million at the beginning of 2025 to $6.68 billion by March 31, 2026.
Taken together, CoinGecko’s report paints a picture of a market well beyond the proof-of-concept stage. While government bonds still underpin the sector, commodities, equities, ETFs and PERP are all gaining momentum, and increased trading activity suggests that tokenization is becoming more than a balance sheet story for financial institutions.
The broader message of this report is that this competition is no longer just about acquiring RWA on-chain. What matters is who can gain trust, build circulation, and turn tokenization into something that traders can actually use at scale. If 2024 is the resurgence and 2025 is the breakout, the latest data from CoinGecko suggests that 2026 could be the year that RWA starts to look like a market in its own right.
