Tokenized U.S. Treasuries still anchor the real‑world asset (RWA) market by value, but the fastest expansion is now happening in tokenized equities, signaling a gradual shift toward fully on‑chain capital markets by 2026.
Recent market data shows that digital representations of U.S. government debt remain the dominant RWA category by market capitalization. However, the most rapid relative growth is now coming from tokenized public stocks, suggesting that the next wave of adoption will not be limited to yield products alone.
Analysts note that 2026 is shaping up as a pivotal year: instead of tokenization being used mainly for conservative, income‑producing assets, a broader range of financial instruments is starting to move on‑chain. This shift points to a more comprehensive, infrastructure‑level integration between traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Treasuries remain the backbone of RWAs
Tokenized U.S. Treasuries continue to hold a clear lead over all other tokenized asset classes in terms of total market value. They have become the de facto foundation of the RWA segment thanks to three core advantages: predictable yield, deep liquidity and relatively well‑defined regulatory treatment.
Their appeal is particularly strong among institutional participants. Asset managers, trading firms and corporate treasuries view tokenized Treasury products as a way to access familiar government debt instruments while benefiting from 24/7 settlement, programmable payouts and integration with DeFi lending markets. The combination of low credit risk and transparent yields makes these instruments an obvious starting point for regulated participants experimenting with on‑chain exposure.
Commodities and private credit sit just behind Treasuries as the next largest RWA categories. Tokenized gold, other metals and commodity baskets cater to investors seeking inflation protection and diversification. Private credit and structured credit products, meanwhile, attract demand for higher‑yielding, income‑generating positions that can be fractionalized and distributed globally.
A diversified RWA stack is emerging
The current RWA landscape is no longer a single‑theme market. According to sector breakdowns, tokenized assets now span:
– U.S. Treasury debt
– Commodities and physically backed instruments
– Private credit and structured finance products
– Institutional alternative funds
– Corporate bonds
– Non‑U.S. sovereign debt
– Public equities
This diversified structure shows that tokenization is moving beyond simple cash‑like instruments. Each segment targets a different problem: liquidity in traditionally illiquid markets, global access to restricted instruments, improved collateral usability, or operational efficiency in settlement and reporting.
Treasuries still anchor the ecosystem, but their role is gradually shifting from being the sole driver of RWA growth to acting as the base layer for more complex on‑chain portfolios.
Tokenized equities: small base, rapid acceleration
Within this broader mix, tokenized public equities stand out as the fastest‑growing segment, even though they remain comparatively modest in absolute size. Their growth is closely tied to improvements in DeFi infrastructure: better custody solutions, more compliant issuance frameworks, and more mature on‑chain trading and lending venues.
Tokenized stocks can increasingly be used in ways that traditional brokerage accounts do not easily permit. Investors can deploy tokenized shares as collateral in DeFi lending markets, include them in automated strategies, or hold them in multi‑asset on‑chain portfolios that settle in real time. For users outside major financial centers, tokenization can also provide synthetic access to global equity markets without the need for local intermediaries or complex cross‑border account setups.
Industry observers highlight this combination of accessibility and composability as a key driver of adoption. Whereas Treasuries primarily deliver predictable yield and capital preservation, tokenized equities add growth potential and equity‑style upside to DeFi‑native strategies.
From yield instruments to growth exposure
The role of RWAs in DeFi is evolving. Early cycles focused heavily on stable, income‑producing instruments – most notably government debt – as a way to generate on‑chain yield backed by real‑world cash flows. That phase helped establish trust in the underlying technology and provided a bridge between traditional markets and digital infrastructure.
Tokenized equities, by contrast, introduce a fundamentally different risk and return profile. They allow DeFi users to gain exposure to corporate earnings, sector growth and market cycles, all within a programmable, on‑chain environment. When used as collateral or integrated into structured products, these tokenized stocks enable more complex strategies that blend fixed income, equities and stablecoins in a single, interoperable stack.
This combination of capital efficiency (reusing the same collateral across multiple protocols) and composability (layering different financial primitives on top of each other) is positioning tokenized equities as a high‑growth vertical within the broader RWA narrative.
RWA narrative: from stability to utility
Market data suggests that the story around RWAs is gradually shifting. The first chapter revolved around stability, yield and institution‑friendly instruments such as Treasury bills and high‑grade debt. The next chapter appears to be about utility: how these assets are used within on‑chain systems, not just whether they exist on a blockchain.
In this emerging phase, value is created by integrating tokenized assets into lending protocols, automated market makers, structured products, derivatives, and risk management tools. Assets are no longer just “wrapped” versions of familiar instruments; they become programmable building blocks that can interact with each other without manual intervention or legacy infrastructure bottlenecks.
If current growth trajectories hold, 2026 may mark the moment when tokenization ceases to be a niche experiment and becomes a foundational layer for multi‑asset financial markets, spanning government debt, credit, commodities and equities.
Why Treasuries still dominate — and why that might change
The continued dominance of tokenized Treasuries is not accidental. They align well with regulatory expectations, offer clear valuation models and face limited credit risk. For compliance teams and risk officers, that makes them a relatively simple category to approve. In addition, on‑chain Treasury products have benefited from macroeconomic conditions where yields on short‑term government debt are attractive in nominal terms.
However, as technology and regulation mature, this early advantage may narrow. If tokenized equities, bonds and alternative funds gain clearer legal treatment and better secondary market liquidity, the share of RWAs accounted for by Treasuries could slowly decline in relative terms, even if their absolute size continues to grow.
A plausible scenario for 2026–2028 is not the displacement of Treasuries, but their repositioning: from being the main story of RWAs to serving as the risk‑free or low‑risk leg around which more varied tokenized portfolios are constructed.
Key drivers behind the rise of tokenized equities
Several structural forces are helping tokenized equities accelerate:
1. Infrastructure maturity: More reliable custodians, on‑chain registries and compliance tools make it feasible to issue and manage tokenized shares at scale.
2. Composability with DeFi: Equities can plug into lending, derivatives and structured products protocols, expanding their utility beyond simple buy‑and‑hold exposure.
3. Global investor access: Tokenization can lower barriers for international investors who face restrictions or high costs accessing certain foreign markets via traditional brokers.
4. 24/7 markets: On‑chain trading is not bound by traditional market hours, enabling continuous price discovery and risk management.
5. Programmable ownership: Features such as automated dividend distribution, voting mechanisms and corporate actions can be encoded directly into smart contracts, reducing friction.
These factors collectively make tokenized stocks not just a digital copy of traditional shares, but a more flexible instrument that can be integrated into sophisticated, automated workflows.
Challenges that could slow adoption
Despite the momentum, several obstacles could temper the pace of tokenized equity growth:
– Regulatory fragmentation: Differences in securities laws across jurisdictions complicate global issuance and distribution.
– Custody and legal finality: Aligning on‑chain records with legally recognized ownership remains a nuanced challenge.
– Market structure: Liquidity is still concentrated in a limited number of venues, and order book depth lags traditional exchanges.
– Education and risk perception: Many institutional investors are still in early discovery phases regarding smart contracts, protocol risks and operational dependencies.
How these issues are addressed over the next few years will largely determine whether tokenized equities become a mainstream pillar of capital markets or remain a parallel, specialized channel.
What 2026 could look like for on‑chain capital markets
If current trajectories hold, the 2026 on‑chain financial landscape may include:
– Tokenized Treasuries serving as the primary base collateral for DeFi money markets and institutional liquidity pools.
– Tokenized equities integrated into margin lending, options strategies and index‑like products that rebalance algorithmically.
– A wider array of tokenized corporate and sovereign bonds forming the mid‑risk spectrum between Treasuries and equities.
– Commodities and alternative funds used for diversification and inflation hedging within automated portfolio strategies.
– Cross‑protocol standards enabling these assets to move fluidly between applications while preserving compliance constraints.
In such an environment, tokenization is no longer simply a technical novelty. It underpins a more continuous, programmable and globally integrated capital market, where issuance, trading, collateralization and settlement can occur within a single interoperable fabric.
Strategic implications for market participants
For institutions already experimenting with RWAs, the current data points to a strategic adjustment. Limiting tokenization efforts to Treasuries and cash equivalents may underutilize the potential of on‑chain infrastructure. A more forward‑looking approach would be to:
– Treat tokenized Treasuries as a foundational liquidity and collateral layer.
– Explore tokenized equities and credit products as complementary growth and yield engines.
– Design portfolios and risk frameworks around the unique features of composability, instant settlement and 24/7 markets.
– Prepare operational and legal processes for a world where securities issuance, transfer and lifecycle events are increasingly executed on‑chain.
For individual and professional DeFi users, the continued rise of tokenized equities offers the opportunity to blend traditional market exposure with the flexibility and automation of crypto‑native tools.
As 2026 approaches, the central question is no longer whether real‑world assets will move on‑chain, but how deeply they will integrate into the core architecture of global finance — and whether the balance of power within RWAs will remain with Treasuries or gradually tilt toward a more diversified, equity‑heavy mix.