DWF Labs released a report finding that more than $31 billion in tokenized real-world assets is onchain, but less than 10% of that capital is active in decentralized finance. The research highlights that roughly $3 billion in RWAs circulates through lending markets, trading venues, or collateral systems, while the majority sits in wallets as long-term holdings. Three structural barriers limit secondary activity: pricing challenges from delayed net asset value updates, settlement and redemption delays that can take days, and regulatory transfer restrictions including know-your-customer checks. The findings raise questions about whether tokenized capital is becoming more productive or simply digitized, as major funds like Blackrock's BUIDL see fewer than 30 transfers per month despite holding billions in assets.
DWF Labs Identifies Three Structural Barriers to RWA Liquidity
The report points to pricing as the first barrier. Private credit and real estate assets often rely on net asset value updates that arrive daily at best, making it difficult for market makers to quote large trades tightly.
Settlement and redemption form the second barrier. Many tokenized products take days to redeem, while onchain liquidity remains too thin for institutional-sized flows. Over-the-counter markets exist but are fragmented and often inaccessible to retail users.
Regulation creates the third barrier. Transfer restrictions, know-your-customer checks, and accreditation requirements make tokenized assets hard to plug into permissionless DeFi.
"Liquidity is the binding constraint on scaling tokenization onchain," said Andrei Grachev, managing partner at DWF Labs. "What's missing is the infrastructure to make those assets tradeable at scale. Solve that, and tokenization becomes a wider market story instead of an institutional one."
The constraint has shaped value capture. Asset managers issuing tokenized products have benefited most, while crypto-native infrastructure providers including lending protocols, pricing oracles, market makers, and redemption venues have captured less of the upside.
Maple Finance and Figure Build Infrastructure to Unlock RWA Trading
Maple Finance has attracted more than $3.6 billion in total value locked by wrapping tokenized credit into stablecoin collateral products. Pyth and Redstone are building a 24/7 pricing infrastructure for tokenized stocks and commodities.
Symbiotic's Liquid Lane uses an RFQ model in which market makers compete to price redemption discounts. Figure is integrating origination, secondary price discovery, and settlement into one stack.
Emerging-Market Debt and Tokenized Commodities Present Growth Opportunities
More than 94% of tokenized assets are dollar-denominated, even though non-dollar sovereign bonds make up a large share of traditional fixed income. DWF Labs highlights emerging-market debt, including Brazilian real bonds yielding around 10% and Turkish lira bonds near 15%, as a gap waiting to be addressed.
The firm sees room in tokenized commodities and equities. Commodities have shown demand, while tokenized stocks have grown to more than $1 billion with 185,000 holders in about a year.
FAQ
What did DWF Labs find about tokenized real-world assets?
DWF Labs released a report stating that more than $31 billion in tokenized real-world assets is onchain, but less than 10% of that capital, roughly $3 billion, is active in decentralized finance. The majority sits in wallets as long-term holdings rather than circulating through lending markets, trading venues, or collateral systems.
Why is most tokenized capital not active in DeFi?
DWF Labs identifies three structural barriers: pricing challenges from delayed net asset value updates that make it difficult for market makers to quote large trades, settlement and redemption delays that can take days while onchain liquidity remains thin, and regulatory transfer restrictions including know-your-customer checks and accreditation requirements that make tokenized assets hard to plug into permissionless DeFi.
How much has Maple Finance attracted in total value locked?
Maple Finance has attracted more than $3.6 billion in total value locked by wrapping tokenized credit into stablecoin collateral products, according to the DWF Labs report.
