$400T TradFi market is a huge runway for tokenized RWAs, says Animoca
Animoca researchers say tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) have surged to an all-time high and still represent only a tiny fraction of a much larger traditional finance opportunity. According to an August research paper by Andrew Ho and Ming Ruan of Animoca Brands, the addressable TradFi market for tokenization is roughly $400 trillion, suggesting a very large potential runway for RWA growth.
The RWA tokenization sector recently reached an all-time high valuation of about $26.5 billion and has grown roughly 70% since the start of the year, signaling rising momentum and increasing institutional interest in tokenized assets.
Today’s tokenized market is concentrated: private credit and U.S. Treasurys together make up nearly 90% of on-chain RWA value. Other asset classes that Animoca’s analysis includes in the $400 trillion addressable market are commodities, equities, global bonds, alternative funds and treasury debt.
Ethereum remains the market leader for RWA tokenization, holding roughly 55% market share on its own and about 76% when major layer-2 networks such as ZKsync Era, Polygon and Arbitrum are counted. Animoca’s researchers attribute Ethereum’s lead to its security, liquidity and the depth of its DeFi ecosystem, while noting that high-performance and purpose-built networks are increasingly competing for share.
The growth of RWA tokenization is also expected to lift demand for related crypto infrastructure and assets, with the report calling out potential upside for assets like Ether and oracle providers such as Chainlink as RWA activity expands across a multichain landscape.
Animoca Brands has been active in the space: the firm launched a tokenized RWA marketplace called NUVA earlier this month as part of its push into digital property and tokenized asset infrastructure.
Overall, the researchers argue there is an ongoing strategic race among large asset managers to build full-stack, integrated platforms for RWAs. Long-term value, they contend, will accrue to those able to control the full asset lifecycle — from origination and tokenization to custody, compliance and secondary-market liquidity.
