Tokenized real-world assets (RWA) reached approximately $24.9 billion on Feb. 19, expanding nearly fourfold from a year earlier, according to Nexus data. Institutions are steadily moving assets onchain, with U.S. Treasuries and commodities driving most growth—but their dominance is slipping. Treasury market share fell from 59% to roughly 43%, while tokenized equities and gold filled the gap.
Treasury Volume Triples, Share Shrinks
Excluding stablecoins, tokenized assets grew about 289% year-over-year, adding nearly $18.5 billion. Treasury products alone climbed about threefold to roughly $11 billion. BlackRock's BUIDL became the largest tokenized Treasury fund at $2.2 billion, up 239%. Ondo Finance's exposure approached $2 billion as well. Top-three provider concentration dropped from 61% to roughly 48%.
Tokenized Equities Leap from Zero to $786M
The fastest-growing category is tokenized equities, jumping from almost zero to about $786 million since mid-2025. Major securities such as NVDA, TSLA, SPY, and QQQ now exist in tokenized form onchain. Remarkably, demand held up even as Bitcoin traded below $70,000 during parts of the period. Tokenized gold also expanded: circulating supply rose from ~687,000 to nearly 1.3 million troy ounces, with spot gold up 80%.
DeFi Utilization Barely 11.8%, Compliance Hurdles Linger
Despite the RWA surge, onchain usage remains limited. RWA-backed stablecoins have about $8.5 billion in supply, but only 11.8% ($1 billion) is deployed inside DeFi protocols. The remaining 88% sits idle, largely due to KYC and whitelisting restrictions. In contrast, permissionless assets like reUSD show utilization above 96%.
Macro Headwinds Persist, Exchange Net Outflows Moderate
Analyst Darkfost highlighted persistent inflation, rising unemployment, and a nonfarm payroll print that missed expectations—increasing Fed policy uncertainty. Stablecoin net outflows from exchanges slowed this year: Binance saw monthly net outflows of roughly negative $2 billion and Bitfinex negative $336 million, significantly narrower than the $6.7 billion and $443 million recorded on Feb. 15.