# Real-World Assets: Bringing TradFi Onchain

> Mapping the Growth of RWAs and Institutional Adoption

- Source: https://castlelabs.io/research/reports/real-world-assets
- Published: June 2026, 85 pages; data as of June 2026
- Authors: Francesco, Noveleader, Atomist; with TokenizeThis by RedStone
- Publisher: Castle Labs (https://castlelabs.io)
- Full PDF (free, email required): https://docsend.com/v/sjv2g/rwareport

## Thesis

The tokenised RWA market stood at $28.2 billion in June 2026, but only about $3 billion was active in DeFi. The report maps asset classes, issuers, legal structures, redemption systems and DeFi integrations to show where tokenisation creates usable onchain capital and where holders still depend on offchain claims and restrictions.

## Key findings

- Tokenised RWAs stood at $28.2 billion, up from $4.3 billion in January 2025, with a peak of $31.8 billion.
- Only about $3 billion, or 10% of the category, was active in DeFi because of access controls, KYC requirements and redemption constraints.
- Public debt represented more than $17 billion, while private credit reached $4.23 billion with a 52% DeFi utilisation rate.

## Key numbers

- $28.2B: Tokenised RWA market in the June 2026 snapshot
- $31.8B: Peak tokenised RWA market value recorded in the report
- $3B: RWA value active in DeFi, about 10% of the total
- $17B+: Tokenised public debt, nearly 60% of the market
- $4.23B: Tokenised private credit, with 52% DeFi utilisation
- $2B+: Tokenised public equities across about 500 products

## What Are Real-World Assets (RWAs) in Crypto?

Real-world assets are tokens that represent a claim on something that exists offchain: Treasury bills, gold, private loans, stocks, reinsurance, private company shares or property. Tokenisation adds fractional ownership, 24/7 transfer and the option to use the asset in DeFi.

Tokenised RWAs are worth $28.2 billion, with a peak of $31.8 billion, up from $4.3 billion in January 2025. Growth came from institutional issuers (BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Apollo), stablecoins needing low-risk yield, and regulation such as the GENIUS Act and MiCA.

**The seven RWA categories, June 2026**

| Category | Onchain value | DeFi use | Typical yield | Leading products |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Public debt (Treasuries, money market funds) | About $17B, nearly 60% of the market | About 6% used in DeFi | 3.3-3.5% after fees | BlackRock BUIDL, Circle USYC, Ondo USDY |
| Commodities | $5.34B, almost all gold | 5.3% | Price only | Tether Gold (XAUT), Paxos Gold (PAXG) |
| Private credit | $4.23B across 18 major products | $2.21B, about 52% | 4.5-5% | Maple syrupUSDC and syrupUSDT, Hastra PRIME |
| Public equities | Over $2B across about 500 products | $103M | Price only | xStocks, Ondo Global Markets |
| Reinsurance | $370M | $310M, the highest share of any category | 7-15% target | OnRe ONyc, Re Protocol reUSD |
| Private equity and venture | $181M across 14 products | $24M | Depends on fund returns | BOSS (Boss Info AG), Stobox STBX |
| Real estate | $96M | Minimal | About 4% in most commercial cities | Reental, TRIZE |

Source: RedStone data in Castle Labs, Real-World Assets: Bringing TradFi Onchain (June 2026)

Public equities grew over 170% year to date against about 60% for public debt, driven by xStocks and Ondo.

## Why Most RWAs Are Not Used in DeFi

Only about $3 billion of the $28 billion RWA market, roughly 10%, is deployed in DeFi. Two problems explain most of the gap. First, many tokens carry KYC and transfer restrictions, so standard lending pools and liquidation bots cannot hold them. Second, redemption takes T+1 to T+3 or longer, while a lending protocol needs to liquidate collateral in seconds.

That matters most for looping, where users borrow stablecoins against a yield-bearing RWA and buy more of it. At a 70% LTV a user can loop up to about 3x exposure on their capital, but if rates spike, unwinding a 3x looped position in a T+1 asset can take 2 to 4 days while interest keeps accruing. A new layer of redemption providers now takes on that duration risk for a fee.

**Instant RWA redemption providers**

| Provider | Launched | How it works | Assets and cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| RedStone Settle | April 2026 | Auction among KYC-verified solvers; the winner fronts USDC at T+0 and is repaid when the issuer redeems at T+1 or T+2 | Market-set discount |
| Upshift Clear | May 2026 | Dedicated USDC vault provides T+0 liquidity; lenders earn the fee plus yield during redemption | 50 bps fee; started with Superstate USCC |
| Grove Basin | May 2026 | Institutional redemption with BlackRock and Janus Henderson, accessed through Anchorage Digital, Galaxy and FalconX | Up to $1B a day; BUIDL and JTRSY |
| Agra | Live | Order book where makers bid below NAV for tokenised credit | wmtUSDC, ACRDX and others |
| 3F | Live | Bridge facilitators and liquidity integrators fund looped entries and instant exits | $7.7M net looped exposure |
| Fission | Live | Instant redemption with thin liquidity | 564 bps fee; ACRED, ACRDX, JAAA |

Source: Castle Labs, Real-World Assets: Bringing TradFi Onchain (June 2026)

## What Legal Rights Do RWA Tokens Give You?

A tokenised asset is not a legal category of its own. It is an onchain record of a claim that exists elsewhere, and two tokens tracking the same asset class can give holders very different rights. Before holding one, ask who the claim is against, what the official ownership record is, whether you can redeem directly and for what, who may hold or transfer it, and what happens if the issuer, fund, custodian or borrower fails.

**What you actually own, by structure**

| Structure | Examples | Your claim |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Tokenised fund | Franklin BENJI, BlackRock BUIDL, Ondo OUSG | A share or interest in the fund, not the Treasuries inside it; redemption and transfers follow the fund documents and eligibility rules |
| Tokenised note | Ondo USDY | A debt claim against the note issuer, backed by short-term Treasuries and bank deposits |
| Equity tracker | xStocks | A tracker certificate from Backed Assets (JE); no voting rights and no claim against the company whose stock it tracks |
| Commodity-backed | Paxos Gold (PAXG), Tether Gold (XAUT) | Ownership of, or an undivided interest in, vaulted gold; physical redemption depends on issuer terms, and XAUT redeems in full bars |
| Lending pool | Maple syrupUSDC | Credit exposure; yield comes from borrowers repaying, and defaults flow through to lenders |

Source: Castle Labs, Real-World Assets: Bringing TradFi Onchain (June 2026), from issuer documentation

## Data tables

**The largest tokenised Treasury and money market products, June 2026**

| Product | Issuer | Market cap | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| USYC | Circle (acquired Hashnote, January 2025) | $3.07B | Tokenised US Treasury bills |
| BUIDL | BlackRock, via Securitize | $3B, plus $829M in BUIDL-I | Launched March 2024; reserve asset for Ondo OUSG and Ethena USDtb |
| JTRSY | Janus Henderson Anemoy, via Centrifuge | $860M | Dual external credit ratings |
| USTB | Superstate | $838M | Among the most DeFi-composable Treasury tokens |
| WTGXX | WisdomTree | $791M | About 10% used in DeFi |
| YLDS | Figure Certificate Company | $570M | Backed by Treasuries and repo, on Provenance |
| TBILL | OpenEden | $197M | Rated AA+f/S1+ by S&P and A-bf by Moody's |

Source: RedStone data in Castle Labs, Real-World Assets: Bringing TradFi Onchain (June 2026)

**Where RWAs are used in DeFi, June 2026**

| Protocol | RWA activity | Main assets |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Morpho | Over $1B RWA deposits, $400M active loans, about 10% of total deposits | syrupUSDC, PRIME, AA_FalconXUSDC, mF-ONE, reUSD |
| Aave Horizon | About $500M market size (launched August 2025) | USCC, USTB, VBILL, JAAA as collateral; RLUSD, GHO and USDC lent |
| Aave v3 | Over $330M of Maple deposits | syrupUSDC, syrupUSDT |
| Kamino | $400M | PRIME, syrupUSDC, ONyc, USCC, over $20M of xStocks |
| Fluid and JupLend | $270M | sUSDai, PST, syrupUSDC, SPYx |

Source: RedStone data in Castle Labs, Real-World Assets: Bringing TradFi Onchain (June 2026)

## Charts

- Tokenised RWA value (PDF page 5): Tokenised RWAs are worth $28.2 billion, after a peak of $31.8 billion, up from $4.3 billion of active onchain value in January 2025.
- Tokenised RWA value vs stablecoin market cap and DeFi TVL (PDF page 8): RWAs did most of their growing in the last two years and outpaced both DeFi and stablecoins, as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and Apollo moved capital onchain for atomic settlement.
- Fixed income and Treasury wrappers by tokenised value (PDF page 29): BlackRock's BUIDL, launched through Securitize in March 2024, and Hashnote's USYC anchor the category. BUIDL is worth $3 billion, plus $829 million in its institutional class, BUIDL-I.
- Tokenised equity wrappers by value (PDF page 35): Tokenised equities are worth about $2 billion, led by Ondo ($940 million) and xStocks ($510 million). The two give different claims: xStocks' Jersey SPV holds real shares with Alpaca Securities, while Ondo issues structured debt notes through a BVI entity.
- xStocks tokenised value by stock (PDF page 36): Strategy, Tesla, Circle and Nvidia are xStocks' largest products. Backpack launched in June 2026 with SpaceX, which reached $10.8 million with over 40% of it used in DeFi.
- Maple Finance market size (PDF page 41): Maple grew by becoming collateral on Aave and Morpho and feeding loops. syrupUSDT is 86% utilised, mainly through Aave on Plasma, and syrupUSDC 26.88% across several lenders.
- Wildcat Finance market size (PDF page 42): Wildcat runs $185 million of undercollateralised credit lines for borrowers such as Keyrock, Auros and Wintermute. Wintermute's wmtUSDC is now Morpho collateral, a first for undercollateralised private credit.
- Midas tokenised value by product (PDF page 43): Midas runs six products across four strategies. Private credit (mF-ONE, $70.2 million) is the largest, ahead of T-bills (mTBILL, $52 million) and funding-rate harvesting (mHYPER, $37 million).
- Tokenisation platforms by tokenised value (PDF page 45): Securitize is the largest US-regulated tokenisation platform by AUM, with $4.4 billion tokenised on its rails, including BlackRock BUIDL, Apollo ACRED and Hamilton Lane HLSCOPE.
- RWA TVL used in DeFi, by category (PDF page 51): Private credit is the RWA category DeFi uses most, ahead of fixed income and reinsurance. Morpho, Maple, Aave, Kamino and Fluid carry most of that usage.
- RWA TVL actively used in DeFi (PDF page 52): About $3 billion of RWAs are used in DeFi, roughly 10% of the market. KYC rules and slow redemption keep the rest out of lending pools.
- Pendle RWA markets: TVL vs fixed APY (PDF page 54): Pendle holds $956 million across 11 chains and is DeFi's main fixed-rate venue. Stablecoins lead its RWA markets, with USDat and apxUSD near the top, reUSD adding reinsurance and USDai AI-compute credit.
- Morpho RWA deposits (PDF page 57): Most of Morpho's recent RWA growth came from syrupUSDC, PRIME and AA_FalconXUSDC. Isolated markets keep bad debt in one RWA from spreading to other depositors.
- Aave Horizon market by asset (PDF page 59): Aave Horizon, launched in August 2025, is about $500 million and accepts USCC, USTB, VBILL and JAAA as collateral. RLUSD, boosted by rewards, dominates supply.

## Questions

### How big is the tokenised RWA market?

$28.2 billion in June 2026, after a peak of $31.8 billion, up from $4.3 billion in January 2025. Public debt is the largest category at about $17 billion, nearly 60% of the market, followed by commodities at $5.34 billion and private credit at $4.23 billion.

### What is the largest tokenised Treasury fund?

Circle's USYC at $3.07 billion and BlackRock's BUIDL at $3 billion, plus $829 million in its institutional class BUIDL-I. BUIDL, launched in March 2024 through Securitize, is also a reserve asset for Ondo OUSG and Ethena USDtb.

### Why are RWAs not used more in DeFi?

Only about $3 billion, roughly 10%, of tokenised RWAs is deployed in DeFi. Many tokens are restricted to KYC'd or whitelisted holders, which standard lending pools and liquidation bots cannot handle, and redemption takes T+1 to T+3 or longer while liquidations need instant exits.

### Which RWA category is used most in DeFi?

Private credit in absolute terms, with $2.21 billion deployed out of $4.23 billion. Relative to its size, reinsurance leads: $310 million of its $370 million is used in DeFi. Public debt, despite being the largest category, has only about 6% in DeFi.

### Which lending protocol has the most RWA collateral?

Morpho, with over $1 billion of RWA deposits and $400 million of active loans. Its isolated markets keep each RWA's risk contained, and curators can set custom collateral ratios and compliance checks. Aave Horizon has about $500 million, Kamino $400 million and Fluid $270 million.

### Do tokenised stocks give you shareholder rights?

Usually not. xStocks, for example, are tracker certificates issued by Backed Assets (JE): holders get price exposure but no voting rights and no claim against the underlying company. Your claim is against the issuer under the certificate terms.

### What is instant RWA redemption?

A service where a third party pays out USDC immediately and waits for the issuer's normal T+1 or T+2 redemption, earning a spread for taking that duration risk. RedStone Settle (April 2026), Upshift Clear (May 2026, 50 bps fee) and Grove Basin (May 2026, up to $1 billion a day) are the main examples.

## Method

Castle and TokenizeThis classify RWAs by asset type, issuer, legal claim, redemption path and DeFi use. The June 2026 snapshot combines public market dashboards, protocol records and product documentation, then separates total tokenised value from assets actively deployed in DeFi.

## Sources

- [DeFiLlama RWA market value](https://defillama.com/rwa?chartType=onChainMcap)
- [DeFiLlama active RWA TVL](https://defillama.com/rwa?chartType=defiActiveTvl)
- [RWA.xyz tokenised equities](https://app.rwa.xyz/stocks)
- [Securitize BUIDL product record](https://securitize.io/blackrock/buidl)
- [Ondo OUSG product record](https://ondo.finance/ousg)