According to data from RWA.xyz, the value of real-world assets on public blockchains has risen to approximately $26.4 billion. In its March 8 report, CoinDesk used the headline figure of “surpassing $25 billion,” compared with roughly $6.4 billion a year earlier. In other words, excluding stablecoins, the on-chain real-world asset market has nearly quadrupled over the past 12 months.
When placed in the context of traditional finance, however, this remains a very small market. Global equities are worth roughly $120 trillion, while the global bond market is approximately $130 trillion. On that basis, current on-chain real-world assets still account for less than 0.02% of global equities and bonds combined. So while the market is far from having meaningful scale, it has already acquired real strategic significance. Capital markets are beginning to accept that bringing assets on-chain is not simply a change in issuance format, it is a change in how assets are distributed, collateralized, settled, and reused.
Current growth in on-chain real-world assets is not evenly distributed. RWA.xyz’s market overview shows that the largest categories are concentrated in private credit, U.S. Treasuries, commodities, corporate bonds, non-U.S. sovereign debt, and institutional alternative funds. Multiple reports also note that six major asset categories have each surpassed the $1 billion threshold.
From a growth perspective, U.S. Treasury-backed products are the easiest to scale: they carry low credit risk, offer transparent yields, and have standardized maturities, making them the most natural starting point for institutional adoption on-chain. Over the longer term, however, the area investors should study most carefully may not be Treasuries, but equities on-chain. The reason is not that equities are safer than Treasuries. It is that equities are inherently better suited to programmable finance.
Treasuries are fundamentally fixed-income instruments. Their cash flow rules are relatively closed, and the main benefits of bringing them on-chain lie in improving settlement efficiency, transferability, and collateral utility. Equities are different. They naturally carry greater price volatility, wider strategic use cases, and stronger portfolio demand. Once equities become on-chain assets, they can be integrated more naturally into lending, collateralization, automated rebalancing, structured yield strategies, and 24/7 trading systems.
Put differently, bringing Treasuries on-chain is primarily about digitizing a low-risk yield instrument. Bringing equities on-chain is about turning capital-market risk assets into programmable financial building blocks. What is commonly referred to as “on-chain equities” does not, at present, usually mean that listed companies are issuing their shares directly on a blockchain. In most cases, a custodian holds the shares in traditional markets, while a platform issues on-chain tokens that correspond to their value.
What investors are typically buying, therefore, is an on-chain representation of the economic value of real shares, rather than natively issued blockchain equity from the company itself. The significance is not merely the addition of another trading venue. It is that equities, for the first time, can be directly accessed by smart contracts in the same way stablecoins can. This creates an important shift: equities move from being assets held passively to assets that can be actively deployed. For example, once an investor holds an on-chain Tesla equity token, the position does not only serve as a directional exposure to price movements. It may also be used as collateral to borrow stablecoins, with that liquidity then allocated into lower-risk yield products. Traditional brokerage accounts can also provide margin financing, but the process is more closed, constrained by market hours, and less efficient in terms of portfolio reuse.
The on-chain environment offers a different advantage: assets, cash, and contractual logic can all exist within the same system. Returns are no longer derived solely from equity appreciation, but may also come from secondary allocation after collateral-based financing.
From an investment perspective, this is the most important implication of the on-chain real-world asset market surpassing $25 billion: the story is no longer just about market size, but about changing how financial assets are used. Over the next several years, U.S. Treasuries may continue to serve as the primary gateway to scale, because they are the easiest product for institutions to adopt. But the assets that could genuinely reshape capital market structure are likely to be equities, fund shares, and other risk assets that can be directly utilized by smart contracts.
As secondary liquidity, custody infrastructure, regulatory compliance, and on-chain collateral systems continue to mature, the growth logic of tokenized assets is likely to shift from simply putting assets on-chain to enabling assets to be reused repeatedly on-chain. That is the direction investors should be seeking to understand now.
Further Reading:
Market Size of On-Chain Equities and Key Platforms
Within today’s roughly $25 billion on-chain real-world asset market, equity-related assets still represent only a small share, though they are growing quickly. According to data from RWA research platforms and industry sources, the market for on-chain equities and related tokenized equity products is estimated at approximately $600 million to $1 billion.
Compared with U.S. Treasuries or private credit, this segment remains at an early stage. Yet it is also one of the most closely watched areas in the market, because equities are among the most natural risk assets to integrate into a programmable financial system.
1. The Current Size of the On-Chain Equity Market
The on-chain equity segment is significantly smaller than other RWA categories, largely because of greater regulatory complexity. Equities are highly regulated securities, so most platforms rely on custodial structures, SPVs, or derivative-based frameworks to create on-chain representations.
Current market estimates are broadly as follows:
- Total on-chain real-world assets: approximately $25 billion–$26 billion
- On-chain equity-related assets: approximately $600 million–$1 billion
- Share of the total RWA market: roughly 3%–4%
Although still limited in size, trading volume in on-chain equities is increasing rapidly, particularly in tokenized products linked to large-cap technology stocks.
2. The Most Actively Traded On-Chain Equities
At present, the most actively traded on-chain equities are concentrated in the world’s most liquid technology names. Because these stocks already have deep liquidity in traditional markets, they are more likely to develop liquidity on-chain as well.
The main on-chain equity names include:
- Tesla
- Nvidia
- Apple
- Microsoft
- Amazon
- Meta
- Netflix
Among these, Tesla and Nvidia tend to show the highest level of on-chain trading activity. Their underlying shares are more volatile and attract greater market attention, making them especially appealing to crypto-native investors.
3. Major Platforms Issuing and Trading On-Chain Equities
At present, the global market for on-chain equity products is concentrated among a relatively small number of platforms.
Ondo Global Markets
Ondo is currently one of the most discussed RWA platforms and is building an on-chain securities marketplace oriented toward institutional investors.
It supports major U.S. equities and ETFs, with the underlying assets held by custodians and corresponding tokens issued on public blockchains.
For now, Ondo’s primary focus remains U.S. Treasury products, although its equity offering is gradually expanding.
Backed Finance / xStocks
Backed Finance is one of the more compliance-focused issuers of tokenized securities in Europe. Its products are commonly marketed as xStocks.
Key features include:
- Issuance of tokenized equities
- Assets held by a custodian
- Tokens typically identified by adding an “x” to the stock ticker or name
Examples include:
- TSLAx
- NVDAx
- AAPLx
Backed Finance products can circulate across multiple on-chain trading venues.
Kraken and Related Trading Platforms
Some centralized trading platforms, including Kraken, are already supporting tokenized equities or planning to launch related products. These platforms typically offer on-chain equity exposure through partnerships with third-party issuers.