Author: MooMs , Co-founder of Steak Studio

Compiled by: Tim, PANews

DeFi development has stagnated, and RWA is keeping the crypto industry alive.

The RWA sector has grown a staggering 695% over the past year, while DeFi has largely stagnated, growing just 3.4%.

According to RWA.xyz, there are currently 10 ecosystems with over $50 million in tokenized assets, a clear sign that institutional adoption is continuing to grow.

In this post, we’ll dive deeper into these ecosystems, analyzing which chains the RWA space is gaining momentum on and what soils are most conducive for it to thrive by comparing their RWA verticals to broader DeFi activity and liquidity.

We will sort each chain from high to low according to the total locked RWA value.

1. Ethereum

Ranked by the total amount of tokenized assets, Ethereum L1 ranks first with a scale of US$5.98 billion, accounting for 56.8% of the total RWA market share.

Additionally, while we won’t delve into this in detail here, it’s worth highlighting that 54.8% of the total stablecoin market cap is held by Ethereum L1, followed by Tron with 29.9%, and Solana with 5.5% of the market share.

TVL

  • DeFi TVL — $46.6 billion
  • Bridge TVL — $349.2 billion
  • RWA TVL – $5.9 billion

Key Ratios

RWA TVL / DeFi TVL — 12.7%

Through this ratio, we are analyzing how much of the chain’s DeFi activity is made up of RWAs.

RWA TVL / Bridge TVL — 1.69%

This ratio helps us understand what fraction of the total liquidity bridged on-chain is actually flowing into RWAs.

A low ratio means that there is unmet demand and idle capital, which can be invested in the RWA track. On the other hand, a high ratio indicates that the chain can effectively capture value and channel it into RWA, thus proving that its value conversion efficiency in the RWA field is higher.

You can also think of this as capital efficiency in RWA applications.

In the case of Ethereum, there is clearly a large amount of capital waiting to be activated.

DeFi TVL / Bridge TVL — 13.3%

Using the same logical analysis framework, we can apply the above indicators to the DeFi field and observe that compared with RWA, a larger proportion of the liquidity bridged to the DeFi ecosystem is actively called by the protocol layer. This ultimately shows that compared with the RWA track, capital in the DeFi ecosystem has higher composability and better capital utilization efficiency, forming a more productive capital network.

While there is still huge room for growth, the growth trend is clearly visible when we compare the development trajectory of DeFi and RWA on Ethereum since the market bottom in 2022.

From November 21, 2022 to April 21, 2025:

  • DeFi TVL grew 100.5%
  • RWA TVL increased by 486.2%

Institutions in the ecosystem

Currently, 8 of the 17 institutional funds are deployed on Ethereum, 7 of which are managed by Securitize and the other 1 is managed by Superstate.

Additionally, the two largest gold-backed tokens, PAXG and XAUT, are also issued on Ethereum.

Despite the criticism surrounding its technology, Ethereum remains the most popular cryptocurrency among institutions, and this trend does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Advantages of asset tokenization on Ethereum

  • High liquidity: makes your assets highly demandable
  • Composability: Relying on the vibrant DeFi ecosystem can increase the opportunities to launch new products and features.
  • Reliability and security: The proven L1 network has always maintained a record of zero safety incidents and operational failures, and is backed by a capital reserve of over US$50 billion to provide underlying security.

2. zkSync

zkSync, which ranks second in total RWA value, saw its metric grow 10-fold in late February, largely due to the launch of private credit protocol Tradable, which now manages more than $2 billion in active loans.

TVL

  • DeFi TVL: $56.3 million
  • Bridge TVL: $472.8 million
  • RWA TVL: $2.2 billion

Key Ratios

RWA TVL/DeFi TVL — 3928.6%

This ratio is significantly high, indicating that the DeFi ecosystem is relatively underdeveloped compared to the amount of RWAs that exist on-chain, even though the majority of these assets come from a single protocol.

RWA TVL/Bridge TVL—465.3%

This ratio is also at a high level, which may have two interpretations: either it indicates insufficient on-chain liquidity, or it indicates that the current RWA products have fully met the current market demand and there is little room for growth.

DeFi TVL / Bridge TVL — 11.9%

Looking at this ratio, we can see that it is very similar to Ethereum.

However, it should be noted that the $2 billion total value from Tradable significantly inflates these metrics and may not accurately reflect the true status of zkSync.

If Tradable's $2 billion is excluded from the calculation, zkSync's total RWA value is about $191 million.

  • RWA TVL/DeFi TVL — 241%
  • RWA TVL/Bridge TVL—40%

These adjusted ratios suggest that the RWA space is more mature than DeFi, and that a significant portion of “active” liquidity is flowing into real-world assets.

Advantages of Tokenizing Assets on ZKSYNC

  • Ability to launch your own elastic ZK chain
  • Interoperability between ZK chains
  • ZKSync’s technology stack is state-of-the-art, but the ability of institutions to independently launch zero-knowledge proof driven chains is still severely underestimated.

We may see a future where two banks each operate their own ZK chain, while being able to share data and funds between each other, and keeping the transaction amounts strictly confidential during this transfer.

Privacy protection enabled by ZK technology is being actively explored by institutions such as Deutsche Bank, Sygnum, and UBS.

It would not be surprising if more institutions join this ecosystem in the near future.

3. Stellar

Stellar, which ranks third in the RWA TVL ranking, has established in-depth cooperative relationships with many companies, traditional financial institutions and governments by virtue of its deep cultivation in low-cost cross-border payment and asset issuance.

TVL

  • DeFi TVL — $48.6M
  • RWA TVL—$476.4M

Key Ratios

RWA TVL/DeFi TVL—980.3%

The sheer size of the ratio says it all: the size of tokenized assets on Stellar is almost 10 times that of its DeFi ecosystem.

Tokenized assets on the Stellar blockchain are dominated by BENJI, an on-chain fund issued by Franklin Templeton that focuses on U.S. Treasuries. The fund accounts for 98% of the RWA TVL on the Stellar chain.

It is also worth noting that WisdomTree Funds launched a gold-backed token WTGOLD on the Stellar blockchain, but the token currently has a market value of only $1 million and market attention is still relatively low.

Advantages of asset tokenization on Stellar

The blockchain platform is known for supporting permissioned DeFi or "semi-private" markets, a feature that is highly valued by traditional financial institutions.

At the same time, it also has rich successful cases of cooperation with well-known companies such as Money Gram, Circle, and Velo.

Overall, Stellar focuses less on the composability of DeFi and more on building foreign exchange remittance channels and infrastructure that institutions are already familiar with.

4. Aptos

Aptos has been one of the fastest growing blockchains by TVL over the past 6 months. A large part of this growth has come from RWA, which has seen its TVL surge by 50%.

TVL

  • DeFi TVL — $1.1B
  • Bridge TVL — $654.3M
  • RWA TVL—$331.8M

Key Ratios

  • RWA TVL/DeFi TVL — 30.2%
  • RWA TVL/Bridge TVL—50.7%
  • DeFi TVL/Bridge TVL — 168.1%

The fact that tokenized assets account for nearly 30% of DeFi activity on a blockchain with a TVL of $1 billion shows that the RWA ecosystem is showing strong momentum.

This is even more evident when we look at the number of traditional financial players building on Aptos. Here is a look at their RWA TVL:

  • PACT's active loan book—US$219 million
  • BlackRock's BUIDL Fund - $53 million
  • BENJI by Franklin Templeton – $22 million
  • Libre Capital’s three on-chain funds — $20 million
  • ACRED issued by Securitize − $10 million
  • Ondo USDY - $7 million

It is worth adding that Aptos is the second largest underlying chain for the BUIDL fund (after Ethereum).

Advantages of Aptos Asset Tokenization

1) The programming language used by Aptos is Move, not Solidity.

This makes it extremely safe for use in financial applications, where vulnerabilities such as reentrancy vulnerabilities or overflow errors cannot be tolerated.

2) While I try not to dwell too much on the technical details, Aptos set a record of processing 326 million transactions in a single day in August 2024, with no system failures, transaction delays, or gas fee surges.

I believe these two reasons are exactly why blockchain is attractive to traditional financial engineers.

5. Algorand

TVL

  • DeFi TVL – $41.9M
  • RWA TVL - $328.7M

Key Ratios

RWA TVL / DeFi TVL - 784.5%

I think Algorand’s positioning is quite similar to Stellar. This blockchain has not devoted too much energy to the DeFi field, but has placed its strategic focus on cooperation with enterprises and government agencies, such as FIFA, the Bank of Italy, the United Nations and other organizations to launch a series of cooperation projects.

Currently, 100% of its total RWA value is derived from tokenized shares of the Exodus platform.

Interestingly, Securitize is once again the infrastructure partner responsible for the distribution and backend processing of this product.

​​Advantages of Algorand Platform Asset Tokenization​​

1) One of the main advantages of tokenization on Algorand is its close partnership with European governments and central banks.

2) At the same time, Algorand adopted its native tokenization standard - Algorand Standard Assets (ASAs), which significantly simplified the technical process for developers to issue tokenized products.

A good example is ZTLment, a European fintech company that migrated from Ethereum to Algorand. At ETHDenver, they explained how Algorand’s built-in features, such as atomic transactions and multi-signature approval mechanisms, helped them significantly reduce the need for custom development.

6. Solana

Surprisingly, Solana ranks sixth in the on-chain RWA TVL ranking.

TVL

  • DeFi TVL — $7.4B
  • Bridge TVL — $26.2B
  • RWA TVL—$301.3M

Key Ratios

  • RWA TVL/DeFi TVL — 4.1%
  • RWA TVL/Bridge TVL—1.2%
  • DeFi TVL/Bridge TVL — 28.2%

As expected, Solana exhibits a more mature DeFi ecosystem than most of the public chains discussed so far, and this development advantage is directly reflected in its lower ratios of the first two indicators.

Considering Ethereum and Aptos, two of the already mentioned blockchains with TVL exceeding $1 billion, Solana’s RWA ecosystem appears underdeveloped relative to its network size.

Going deeper, the distribution of RWA TVL is as follows:

  • USDY issued by Ondo — $173 million
  • OUSG issued by Ondo – US$79 million
  • ACRED issued by Apollo Global – $25 million
  • BUIDL Fund issued by BlackRock - $20 million
  • Libre Capital Funding Size - Approximately US$4 million

Advantages of Tokenizing Assets on Solana

1) As the most dynamic DeFi ecosystem after Ethereum, Solana provides a high degree of composability for institutions seeking to explore new application scenarios for tokenized assets.

2) Similar to Aptos, Solana also has the advantages of high transaction speed and low cost, making it very suitable for high-frequency trading.

In addition, Solana’s developer community and ecosystem initiatives (such as Superteam covering multiple regions) are growing rapidly, and the resources and support provided to developers are also increasing.

7. Polygon

TVL

  • DeFi TVL — $784.5M
  • Bridge TVL — $4.9B
  • RWA TVL—$277.5M

Key Ratios

  • RWA TVL/DeFi TVL — 35.4%
  • RWA TVL/Bridge TVL—5.7%
  • DeFi TVL/Bridge TVL — 16.0%

What makes Polygon stand out is that its RWA ecosystem is relatively mature compared to its DeFi ecosystem, but due to the existence of liquidity that has not yet been released, the ecosystem still has greater room for growth.

In Polygon’s case, a significant portion of RWA TVL comes from Treasuries, and this time it’s no longer just U.S. Treasuries.

  • $110 million (40% of the total value) came from Spiko’s issuance of Eurotreasury bonds, EUTBLS.
  • Another $17 million came from Spiko’s tokenized U.S. Treasury bills.

The other half of the chain’s RWA ecosystem consists of:

  • $65 million equally divided between BENJI and BUIDL funds
  • $15 million from two Hamilton Lane funds
  • The remaining $67 million came from active lending operations at Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin.

Advantages of asset tokenization on Polygon

1) Polygon is the first stop for many institutions to explore real-world assets on public chains.

Polygon is one of the earliest networks built on Ethereum. It inherits the high security of Ethereum while providing a faster and more efficient infrastructure. This dual advantage makes it the preferred solution for many institutions to explore tokenized RWA on the public chain.

2) Polygon’s zero-knowledge proof digital identity system.

Polygon launches Polygon ID, a digital identity infrastructure that allows users to verify their identity without revealing personal data.

As I discussed in my previous article on tokenized securities, building digital identity infrastructure is critical for traditional financial businesses and institutions looking to tokenize their assets.

3) Polygon’s CDK is used for customized zk Rollup development.

Polygon’s CDK allows developers to build their own zk Rollup chains and customize them to their needs. For traditional financial institutions, this can include enabling specific privacy features or enforcing KYC verification.

8. Arbitrum

TVL

  • DeFi TVL — $2.2B
  • Bridged TVL —$10.8B
  • RWA TVL—$164.8M

Key Ratios

  • RWA TVL / DeFi TVL — 7.5%
  • RWA TVL / Bridged TVL - 1.5%
  • DeFi TVL / Bridged TVL - 20.4%

Some of Spiko’s products are already live on the Arbitrum chain, with its $25 million fund invested almost equally between European and U.S. Treasuries.

$137 million, or approximately 83% of RWA TVL, comes from short-term U.S. Treasury bonds issued by the aforementioned institutions, while the remaining approximately $3 million in assets comes from tokenized stocks issued by the Dinari platform.

It is worth noting that although the total amount is not high, Arbitrum is one of the few blockchains that can demonstrate actual application value of tokenized stocks within the ecosystem.

Advantages of Tokenizing Assets on Arbitrum

1) The booming DeFi ecosystem

Arbitrum’s biggest advantage is its mature and extensive DeFi ecosystem. For asset tokenization projects, this opens up a broad space for various integrated applications and innovative use cases by leveraging the vast protocols and liquidity resources already on the network.

2) Orbit Stack

Similar to other ecosystems, Arbitrum allows developers to launch their own L3 chains and perform chain-level configuration based on their own needs.

3) Support measures focused on the RWA sector

One of Arbitrum’s strengths is its public commitment to supporting developments in the on-chain RWA space.

In June 2024, the foundation invested $27 million in six products as part of the DAO treasury diversification strategy. Two months ago, an additional $15.5 million was invested, and these investments have always been aimed at expanding the scale of RWA within its ecosystem.

9. Avalanche

TVL

  • DeFi TVL — $1.3B
  • Bridge TVL — $5.8B
  • RWA TVL—$162.9M

Key Ratios

  • RWA TVL/DeFi TVL — 12.5%
  • RWA TVL/Bridge TVL—2.8%
  • DeFi TVL/Bridge TVL — 22.4%

In terms of proportion, Avalanche is neither biased towards DeFi nor focused on RWA.

What makes Avalanche unique, however, is the diversity of institutional participation in its ecosystem, which is more extensive than the other blockchains mentioned so far.

Once again, we see the likes of Securitize, BlackRock, and Franklin Templeton, as well as unique RWA protocols such as:

  • OpenTrade - $31 million invested in U.S. and global bonds
  • Re—US$12 million allocated to insurance products
  • Republic - $21 million venture capital investment

Avalanche is also the third largest blockchain platform for BlackRock's BUIDL Fund, second only to Ethereum and Aptos, and its market share is almost the same as Aptos.

Advantages of Tokenizing Assets on Avalanche

1) Subnet

Similar to other ecosystems, in Avalanche, developers can create their own chains (specifically, first-layer blockchains) that can:

  • Select a validator
  • Set compliance requirements (KYC, access control)
  • Customize virtual machine logic or adopt EVM compatible solution

For example, Avalanche Protocol’s Evergreen subnet is known for being tailor-made for institutions, “while retaining the benefits of public network development, enabling specific capabilities that were previously only possible in enterprise-grade solutions.”

2) The Avalanche protocol is often incorporated into institutional R&D and pilot projects.

Several major financial institutions have chosen Avalanche as part of their tokenization proof-of-concepts. For example:

  • JPMorgan Chase and Apollo Global conducted a tokenization pilot using Avalanche’s testnet infrastructure through Onyx Digital Assets and the Partior platform.
  • Citigroup highlighted the Avalanche blockchain in its programmable finance research report.

Regular participation in high-level R&D activities can enhance the reputation of the chain and help attract more high-level institutions to join.

3) Support measures and investment funds focused on real-world assets

Along with Arbitrum, Avalanche is the only ecosystem on this list that has publicly announced plans for RWAs.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, Avalanche launched the Avalanche Vista Fund with a scale of US$50 million to accelerate the adoption of RWA. The fund focuses on purchasing tokenized assets minted on the Avalanche chain and promotes ecological development by injecting initial liquidity into the on-chain RWA.

10. Base

Finally, based on RWA TVL, Base is the network with the fastest growth in TVL and on-chain activity over the past 18 months.

TVL

  • DeFi TVL — $2.9B
  • Bridge TVL — $12.1B
  • RWA TVL—$51.9M

Key Ratios

  • RWA TVL/DeFi TVL — 1.8%
  • RWA TVL/Bridge TVL—0.43%
  • DeFi TVL/Bridge TVL — 23.9%

Data shows that on-chain DeFi activity is highly active, while RWA growth is still in its early stages.

The RWA TVL of the Base chain mainly comes from Franklin Templeton’s U.S. Treasury bond fund BENJI, which has a size of US$46 million.

The remaining approximately $6 million is managed by Centrifuge and is also held in the form of U.S. Treasuries.

Interestingly, Dinari shares also have supply on the Base chain, but trading activity is extremely low compared to the Arbitrum chain.

Advantages of asset tokenization on Base

1) Coinbase Ecosystem Advantages

Although Base operates independently, it benefits from deep integration with the Coinbase product matrix. Developers can take advantage of resources such as Coinbase Wallet wallet services, native USDC support, and Prime Custody custody solutions to significantly improve user experience, obtain institutional-grade custody services, and optimize market entry strategy support.

2) Good DeFi composability

As mentioned above, while the RWA space is still in its early stages of development, issuers on Base can rely on the mature DeFi ecosystem to explore use cases for their assets, including potential integration with Coinbase itself.

For example, imagine a scenario where Coinbase Wallet supports Bitcoin lending.

3) Members of the OP ecosystem

Although this is a long-term vision, Base is a core member of the OP super chain, and its goal is to develop into an interoperable second-layer network. As this vision is gradually realized, tokenized assets and users on Base will be able to interact with other OP chains, creating an extremely attractive ecological prospect for institutions to build their own chains.

Conclusion

All in all, I think configurable environments like Avalanche’s subnets, Arbitrum Orbit, zkSync elastic chains, and Polygon CDK are critical.

Institutions want to maintain control over their own environment without sacrificing the advantages of the public network. The ability to "isolate" part of the on-chain ecosystem while maintaining composability with DeFi protocols is an extremely attractive core selling point.

Another key element is digital identity infrastructure. Whether adopting Polygon’s DID solution or other emerging standards, institutions need robust identity solutions to meet KYC, AML (anti-money laundering) and compliance requirements while protecting user privacy.

If I were to rank the key factors to consider when evaluating an ecosystem and its suitability for asset tokenization, I would rank them as follows:

1. Regulatory compliance

2. Configurable environment

3. Scalability and cost

4. DeFi composability

5. Proven Security

While all of these elements are essential, for institutional players, meeting regulatory requirements and providing a secure, customizable environment are the bottom lines that must be adhered to.

It is also important to remember that other factors, although not the focus of this article, play a vital role. For example:

  • Integrated Oracle Network
  • Partner Hosting Agency
  • Native stablecoin support
  • Available tokenization infrastructure
  • Cross-chain interoperability

Finally, I would not underestimate the role of ETFs. Public chains like Avalanche and Solana that have publicly submitted ETF applications may benefit from the increased legitimacy and market attention brought by these applications, thereby attracting more institutional investors and partners to join.