Real-world asset tokenization has surpassed $32 billion in market value, but industry experts warn the focus on issuance overlooks critical liquidity challenges. Fragmentation across blockchains creates trading inefficiencies, costing investors billions annually, while tokenized markets only recently began tracking their traditional counterparts.
The tokenized real-world assets market exceeded $32 billion in value for the first time, driven by increasing interest from traditional finance. JPMorgan recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a new tokenized money-market fund aimed at stablecoin issuers on Ethereum.
However, critics argue the industry’s focus on market capitalization metrics is misleading. Chris Kim, founder and CEO of liquidity provider Axis, stated that most projects and traditional finance players are “only looking at the issuance layer” while neglecting the liquidity required for trading. He emphasized that issuing a tokenized asset and being able to trade it are fundamentally different.
The market is projected to grow significantly, with McKinsey & Company estimating it could reach $2 trillion by 2030 and Standard Chartered forecasting $30.1 trillion by 2034. Yet, Kim noted the tradability of these assets will be a crucial factor for their future value, acknowledging that currently, “there isn’t that much trading happening around tokenized RWAs.”
Data from Chainalysis indicates that the market cap figure includes illiquid assets like real estate alongside more liquid ones such as tokenized Treasuries. The firm reported that tokenized gold trading volume, tracked at over $40.5 billion, historically showed little correlation with traditional gold markets, only beginning to move in tandem since mid-2025.
A significant problem is fragmentation, where the same asset is issued across multiple blockchains in different formats that cannot interact. A report by RWA.io estimated that moving capital between networks costs investors between 2% to 5% per transaction in fees and slippage, draining $600 million to $1.3 billion from the market annually. If unresolved, these inefficiencies could lead to $75 billion in annual losses by 2030.
Kim views tokenization as an inevitable future standard for global capital markets but acknowledges a long road ahead. He believes the market is in “the early innings” and that success as a true alternative to traditional finance will require sophisticated liquidity providers to synchronize both markets. The International Monetary Fund has also warned that while tokenization may reduce some trading costs, it could amplify systemic risks if institutions become more interconnected while holding lower liquidity buffers.
