Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization has seen strong growth out of an experimental DeFi corner case to reach an up-to-$45 billion market. This is along with billions already traded on-chain. No matter if a market participant is a bond investor, a gold enthusiast, an owner of real estate and invoices, or an equities trader, it is possible they are personally using tokenized versions of these assets in numerous chains. Here are the five projects leading this year in the highest value positions based on adoption, ecosystem size, and their place in bridging traditional finance to Web3.
Chainlink (LINK)
Chainlink is not a tokenization platform, but it functions as a data layer on which a number of RWA platforms primarily depend. The project makes use of its oracle network to provide smart contracts with real-world information such as market data, interest benchmarks, or proof-of-reservation attestation. Anyone that purports to back a token with real-time gold reserves or treasuries uses Chainlink for verification by default.
The project Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol is also making it possible for the banks and enterprise ledgers to interact with public blockchains, and this development will likely be crucial for large firms that are looking to gain access to RWA and all of this without the need of migration completely on-chain. SWIFT, Mastercard, and various central banks are equipped with already tested Chainlink infrastructure.
Maker (MKR)
Since the year 2025, DAI, which was MakerDAO’s stablecoin, has gone for a heavy adoption of RWA (real-world assets) as collateral. The thing to note here is that DAI is no longer solely collateralized against crypto collateral but rather by the lending and borrower facilities provided through its fintech partners.
Maker has managed more than $1 billion in real-world assets. The assets are structured by the means of trusts or special-purpose entities, and all of this is to align with the legal requirements and include assets like bonds and loans.
Ondo Finance (ONDO)
Ondo, on the other hand, is just purely focused on delivering regulated, yield-bearing real-world assets on-chain, and all of this using their flagship offerings of OUSG for investors to get a broad exposure to short-term treasuries and USDY, which is a stablecoin paying interest on U.S. Treasuries and bank deposits. They opt out of the speculative yields in DeFi to focus on real-world assets with steady, secure yields.
The exchange hasn’t confined itself to Treasuries either. It’s tokenized assets across a range of popular tech stocks (including Nvidia and Pfizer). To that point, Ondo now counts roughly $1.4 billion in total value locked and has established itself as one of the biggest real-world asset platforms on DeFi. The aim here is to give easy access to institutional-style trades on-chain without needing those traditional brokers and still keeping exposure through well-known assets.
Stellar (XLM)
Stellar started over a decade ago with a focus on low-cost cross-border payments. That same infrastructure now supports real-world asset tokenization. Franklin Templeton’s BENJI tokenized money market fund makes up most of Stellar’s RWA value, while stablecoins and tokenized bonds from firms like WisdomTree also run on the network.
In spite of the heavy concentration of its RWA activity on a handful of key projects, the project’s low fees and speedy settlement continue to offer an attractive option for enterprise asset issuance.
Centrifuge (CFG)
Years prior to when tokenizing real-world assets became popular, Centrifuge was doing it. The protocol has developed an infrastructure for businesses to denote the assets, like invoices, mortgages, or trade receivables, as blockchain tokens to enable easy financing in DeFi. MakerDAO, for example, is one of the first to utilize Centrifuge-backed assets to back DAI.
In 2024, Centrifuge made its entrance into the U.S. Treasury token market by partnering up with Janus Henderson. Together, Centrifuge released both the JTRSY tokenized Treasury and its JAAA, a tokenized CLO product. Despite being a much smaller total value locked (TVL) product as compared to Ondo, it is also one of the most experienced in terms of its capabilities of bringing private credit on-chain.
