Tokenized Real World Asset Primer

Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization is the process of converting tangible and financial assets into digital tokens on blockchains to enable faster settlement than traditional systems. Any asset with intrinsic value, like real estate, art, financial instruments (bonds, loans, funds, etc), and intellectual property, can be tokenized. RWA tokenization does not alter the asset’s economics but changes how ownership and claims are represented and transferred.

This article explains how tokenization links legal rights to tokens, the motivations behind tokenizing certain asset classes, leading platforms and industries, real-world examples, and the remaining technical, legal, and market challenges.

What is a tokenized real-world asset?

A tokenized real-world asset is a digital token on a blockchain that represents fractional ownership, a fund share, a digital bond certificate, or a claim to payments from receivables linked to an RWA. Token representations can coexist with traditional legal documents or be structured so that legal title is managed by custodians, trusts, or regulated entities, while the token provides economic exposure on-chain. Tokenized assets are programmable and can enforce rules such as transfer restrictions, dividend distributions, or automated compliance through embedded code.

What’s the benefit of tokenizing real-world assets?

Digitizing legacy assets in a standardized, programmable, and transferable format compatible with modern infrastructure is pursued for several overlapping reasons:

• Liquidity and fractional ownership: Tokenization divides high-value assets into smaller digital units, increasing investor access and lowering entry barriers. This can expand markets for assets like real estate or fine art.
  ‍
• Operational efficiency: Shared ledgers reduce reconciliation, provide a single source of truth, and enable near-instant settlement, lowering costs throughout the asset lifecycle.
  ‍
• Programmability and composability: Tokens can include business logic, enabling automatic payouts, on-chain collateralization, and integration with other decentralized applications.
  ‍
• Broader capital access: Tokenized securities and other assets can attract new capital pools that prefer digital platforms, including crypto-native liquidity, while remaining appealing to traditional investors.
  ‍
• New product design: Fund managers and issuers can create fund shares, structured notes, or token-based lending products with features like 24/7 settlement or programmable rules. The rise of tokenized funds and money market products demonstrates this potential.

These drivers vary by asset class. Money market funds and short-term instruments can realize immediate operational gains from on-chain settlement, while complex private equity or securitizations may need more legal and infrastructure development before benefits are achieved.

How are real-world assets tokenized?

Tokenization is a workflow that integrates legal structuring, custody, issuance, smart contracts, and on-chain governance. The typical steps include:

1. Legal wrapper and rights design: Lawyers and issuers decide how legal title and economic rights will be mapped to tokens. Common structures include special-purpose vehicles, trusts, custodial receipts, or contractual arrangements that explicitly tie token ownership to underlying assets.
   ‍
2. Custody and asset onboarding: The asset is put under a custodian or held in a legal structure that supports token issuance. For financial assets such as bonds or treasuries, this often means working with regulated custodians or central securities depositories.
   ‍
3. Token contract development: A smart contract is written that defines token behavior: transfer rules, minting and burning conditions, settlement mechanics, and any compliance checks. Standards vary by chain and use case.
   ‍
4. Oracles and off-chain data: Tokens representing real assets depend on accurate real-world data such as price feeds, ownership records, redemption events, and compliance checks. Oracles like Chainlink bridge on-chain contracts to off-chain information to enable correct execution.
   ‍
5. Issuance and distribution: Tokens are minted and distributed to investors, either via private placement, public sale, or secondary markets. Often this involves KYC and AML checks.
   ‍
6. Lifecycle management: Ongoing operations include corporate actions, coupon payments, redemption, reporting to regulators, and maintaining the legal link between the token and asset.

In the section below, we’ll discuss various platforms that offer tools for these steps, with implementation depending on jurisdictional regulations and asset type.

Platforms that tokenize real-world assets

The tokenization ecosystem is diverse. Some firms offer end-to-end issuance, custody, and compliance, while others specialize in smart contracts, marketplaces, or infrastructure for specific asset classes. Below are profiles of the main platforms and services active in current deals and pilots.

Securitize

Securitize positions itself as a full-stack platform for issuing, managing, and trading tokenized securities. They offer issuer-facing tooling for onboarding investors, automating KYC/AML, minting permissioned tokens, and supporting secondary trading through regulated broker-dealer and exchange partners. The company stresses regulatory fit and institutional workflows, and in 2025 moved toward a public listing that highlighted its track record of tokenizing large fund shares and institutional products.

Tokeny

Tokeny focuses on lifecycle management for tokenized securities, with a stack that includes investor onboarding, on-chain identity, and smart-contract templates (they are the team behind the ERC-3643 permissioned token pattern). Their product is used by asset managers who want a replicable, multi-chain issuance flow that enforces transfer rules on-chain while integrating with off-chain legal structures. Tokeny leans into standardization and middleware to make secondary markets and corporate actions easier.

Figure

Figure developed one of the earliest large-scale use cases by digitizing loans and HELOCs for on-chain use. They offer an origination-to-tokenization platform that reduces paperwork and accelerates loan trading, and have expanded into other consumer and small business lending areas. Figure’s approach shows how originators can maintain traditional regulatory relationships while benefiting from tokenized asset distribution.

Centrifuge

Centrifuge is a protocol-first solution that brings off-chain receivables and real-world debt onto blockchains by converting asset cash flows into tokenized instruments for on-chain financing. Centrifuge provides tools for asset onboarding, legal wrappers, and an investor marketplace, focusing on connecting asset originators to DeFi liquidity. It is notable for protocols seeking native composability with lending markets and automated pools.

Ondo

Ondo develops tokenized cash and fund products, including a dedicated chain (Ondo Chain) for institutional-grade RWAs. They combine treasury-grade asset design with custody integrations and marketplace connectivity, targeting asset managers seeking tokenized fund shares and short-term instruments tradable around the clock. Ondo’s public filings and regulatory efforts highlight its focus on integrating tokenized products into regulated capital markets.

Maple Finance

Maple is an on-chain lending marketplace connecting institutional borrowers with capital from vetted lenders. While known for corporate and crypto-native loans, Maple’s platform is also used for tokenized credit exposure, where loans are represented as pool shares or tokenized notes. Its model appeals to institutions seeking transparent loan performance, programmable payment flows, and managed credit underwriting.

tZERO

tZERO provides broker-dealer-grade infrastructure for tokenized securities, combining issuance, custody, and a regulated trading venue. Operating under U.S. regulatory frameworks, tZERO serves as a custodian and broker-dealer for on-chain securities, making it a preferred choice for issuers seeking a compliant path to list and trade tokenized equity or debt within U.S. securities rules. The platform is frequently included in issuer plans that require a domestic regulated trading option.

ADDX

ADDX (formerly iSTOX) is a Singapore-regulated exchange and issuance platform that tokenizes private market products, including private equity, private credit, and funds for accredited investors across APAC. Licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and focused on institutional processes, ADDX automates issuance, custody, and distribution to lower investment minimums and broaden access to private assets.

RealT

RealT is a retail-focused real estate tokenization platform that issues legally-backed tokens representing fractional ownership of specific U.S. rental properties. Its user-friendly interface allows small investors to purchase property fractions and receive rental income via stablecoin or fiat. RealT highlights retail demand for tokenization, though property operations and tenant management remain practical challenges for real estate on-chain models.

Lofty.ai

Lofty specializes in tokenized residential rentals, offering a marketplace where accredited and retail investors can acquire fractional shares of residential assets. The platform manages property acquisition, token issuance, and rent distribution, providing an accessible entry point for those seeking real estate exposure without significant capital or management requirements.

Polymath

Polymath develops white-label tools and Polymesh, a dedicated chain for regulated security tokens. The platform integrates identity, governance, and compliance features into token structures, enabling issuers to enforce jurisdictional restrictions with standard issuance processes. Polymath focuses on regulatory integration and institutional workflows, appealing to banks and fund managers.

Kaleido

Kaleido offers a cloud-hosted platform for enterprises seeking digital asset and tokenization solutions. Rather than serving as an exchange or fund manager, Kaleido provides a plug-and-play system for building tokenization solutions across public and private chains, with APIs, analytics, and custody integrations for banks and corporates. Enterprises use Kaleido to quickly prototype and operate tokenized asset workflows without developing in-house infrastructure.

Canton Network

Canton provides a permissioned, privacy-focused ledger designed to connect institutional participants and market utilities with tokenized assets and confidential workflows. Its architecture supports private settlement, ecosystem composability, and collateral mobility for bank-grade participants. Canton is often selected for institutional pilots requiring privacy-preserving, cross-institution transactions for high-value tokenized instruments.

DTCC

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, in collaboration with the Canton Network, demonstrates how traditional market infrastructure providers are entering tokenized custody and settlement. These initiatives typically tokenize custody-held securities, such as DTC-custodied U.S. Treasury positions, to test settlement efficiency, collateral reuse, and integration with existing post-trade workflows. Adoption by market utilities reduces integration risk for other participants.

Industries that benefit from tokenized RWAs

Real-world asset tokenization is gaining traction across the economy, as digital tokens can represent a wide range of assets while improving liquidity, accessibility, and settlement efficiency. Below are the major industries already using tokenization, with examples of tokenized assets currently being issued or traded.

Financial services and capital markets

The financial sector was among the earliest adopters, as bonds, money market funds, and debt instruments are well-suited for digital representation. For example, tokenized U.S. Treasury bills and bonds allow each on-chain token to correspond to a specific government bill held offline, enabling faster settlement and continuous trading. Retail and institutional funds have also moved on-chain. For example, Goldman Sachs has piloted bond issuance programs to streamline trade finance and debt markets.

Real estate and property

Real estate is a prominent category for tokenization, as property is often illiquid and costly for small investors. Tokenization divides ownership into fractions recorded on a blockchain, increasing accessibility. Examples include tokenized luxury condominium developments in major cities, allowing global investors to buy fractional interests via digital tokens. In Dubai, DAMAC Group agreed to tokenize over $1 billion in real estate assets on the MANTRA blockchain, converting apartment and data-center holdings into tradable tokens.

Commodities and physical goods

Tradable commodities such as precious metals, agricultural products, and energy are increasingly tokenized to expand market access. For example, PAXG (Paxos Gold) is a token backed by a troy ounce of physical gold stored in accredited vaults, allowing crypto traders to gain gold exposure without holding physical bars. Tokenized oil, silver, and grain products are also emerging, with each token backed by a specific quantity of the commodity. This approach increases accessibility to price exposure and trading while recording provenance on-chain.

Art, collectibles, and luxury assets

The art and collectibles markets have used tokenization to fractionalize ownership of high-value items. Early examples include splitting a valuable painting into blockchain tokens, allowing investors to own digital shares rather than purchasing the entire piece. Other luxury goods, such as fine wine, rare collectibles, and even prized trees and cultural assets, have been tokenized. For instance, projects in China have issued tokens representing ownership of rare Huanghuali rosewood trees and premium Pu’er tea cakes.

Trade finance and supply chains

Trade finance relies on documents, letters of credit, and working capital commitments that are often slow to process. Tokenization accelerates and increases transparency for these rights. For example, banks such as Citigroup have piloted tokenized bank deposits linked to letters of credit to automate cross-border trade payments.

Private corporate debt and credit

Private credit funds and non-bank lenders use tokenization to make illiquid loan tranches more accessible and tradable. Examples include tokenized debt notes tied to microfinance portfolios and commodity finance funds, where investors receive tokenized shares linked to pools of receivables or loans. These tokens enable institutional and professional investors to access exposures that were previously difficult to trade or required high minimum investments.

Intellectual property and intangible rights

Intellectual property rights, including patents and royalties, are being tokenized to convert intangible economic value into tradable digital units. Some initiatives have tokenized patent portfolios or future royalty streams, allowing holders to sell or price revenue-generating rights via blockchain tokens and create new liquidity for assets that traditionally remained on corporate balance sheets.

Emerging retail and consumer asset use cases

Beyond institutional finance, tokenization is enabling new consumer and micro-ownership models. For example, a car-sharing service tokenized parts of its Tesla fleet, allowing token holders to share in ride revenue, combining fractional ownership with revenue rights. While these consumer applications are still emerging, they show how tokenization extends beyond large financial transactions to everyday commercial assets.

Challenges and risks

While tokenized RWAs are gaining traction, they are still hindered by technical, legal, and market risks such as:

• Legal uncertainty: The legal enforceability of tokens as evidence of ownership is not uniform across jurisdictions. The strength of a tokenized claim often depends on the quality of legal wrappers and custodian arrangements.
  ‍
• Counterparty and custodial risk: If the underlying asset is mismanaged, lost, or misrepresented by a custodian, token holders can suffer even when on-chain records appear correct.
  ‍
• Oracles and data integrity: Tokens depend on off-chain data for valuation and triggers. Compromised oracles can lead to mispriced actions and automated losses.
  ‍
• Interoperability and fragmentation: Multiple chains and token standards can fragment liquidity unless bridges and standards mature.
  ‍
• Regulatory hurdles: Securities laws, tax treatment, AML/KYC requirements, and market conduct rules add complexity and may slow issuance and secondary trading.
  ‍
• Market and liquidity risk: Tokenization alone does not guarantee liquidity. A fragmented or underdeveloped secondary market can leave token holders with illiquid exposures.
  ‍
• Operational complexity: Issuers, custodians, and platforms must maintain robust processes for corporate actions, reporting, and investor servicing.

These risks can be addressed but require coordinated efforts from legal teams, market infrastructure providers, regulators, and technology vendors.

Tokenized RWA adoption trends

Tokenized RWA adoption is progressing in both traditional finance and digital markets, shifting from isolated pilots to institutional deployments and broader market activity.

A key sign of adoption is the entry of major institutions into tokenized products. Large asset managers like BlackRock have issued tokenized funds, which held over $2.3 billion in tokenized value by late 2025. This fund is one of the largest institutional examples of RWA tokenization on a public blockchain, representing cash and short-duration treasury exposure through digital tokens that trade on-chain and pay yield automatically.

Traditional market infrastructure providers are also entering tokenization. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) received regulatory approval in December 2025 to offer a tokenization service for custody-held assets, bridging traditional securities settlement and blockchain networks for institutional investors. Strategic partnerships and institutional investments in tokenization platforms, such as Canton Network’s backing from global financial institutions, further indicate that major incumbents are preparing to support tokenized assets at scale.

Regulatory developments are supporting this shift. Central banks are considering tokenized assets as eligible collateral for monetary operations. For example, theBank of England is exploring expanding the types of tokenized collateral it will accept, and the European Central Bank will allow tokenized assets as eligible collateral in credit operations starting March 2026. These actions indicate a willingness to integrate tokenized instruments into core financial systems.

Other notable institutional examples include new tokenized funds launched by banks. In late 2025, JPMorgan Chase introduced the My OnChain Net Yield Fund (MONY), a tokenized money-market fund deployed on Ethereum that offers institutional-style yield with blockchain settlement features. This marks a significant change given the firm’s previous skepticism toward digital assets.

Market data shows rapid growth in tokenized asset totals.Research estimates the tokenized RWA market at $18 billion to $37 billion by early 2026, with projections to reach around $80 billion by the end of 2026 as tokenized funds, bonds, and credit products expand. Standard Chartered and other research firms expect tokenized RWAs to grow to about $2 trillion by 2028, highlighting forecasts that this technology will become a core part of market infrastructure.

Within the blockchain ecosystem, new networks and protocols are developing infrastructure for RWAs. For example, Plume Network launched real-world yield products on Solana to broaden access to tokenized asset yields, allowing institutions and DeFi users to trade and earn on tokenized RWAs directly on-chain.

Adoption is also expanding beyond financial assets to unconventional and localized use cases. As mentioned earlier, companies in China have tokenized biological and cultural assets, such as prized Huanghuali trees and pu’er tea cakes.

These developments show that tokenization is gaining traction, with regulators adapting, incumbents building products, markets issuing instruments, and both traditional and digital systems integrating more RWA activity.

For a practical snapshot of what those marketable instruments look like today, a useful resource is our roundup of the top RWA coins, which lists tokens tied to physical assets and the ecosystem tokens that enable RWA workflows. That page gives concrete examples you can track to see how asset-backed tokens and infrastructure tokens are being priced and traded in real markets, complementing the issuance and custody narratives covered earlier in the article.