DWF Labs says more than $31 billion in real-world assets have moved onchain, but most of that capital remains inactive. The firm argues that tokenization’s next phase will be won by platforms that make these assets liquid, tradable, and useful inside DeFi.
Key Takeaways:
DWF Labs says $31B+ in RWAs is onchain, but under 10% is active in DeFi.Blackrock’s BUIDL highlights liquidity issues, with fewer than 30 transfers monthly.Maple Finance and Figure are building tools to unlock RWA trading, yield, and scale.That gap raises a central question for tokenization: is capital simply being digitized, or is it becoming more productive?
Why Tokenized Capital Is StuckDWF Labs identifies three structural barriers holding back secondary activity.
The first is pricing. Private credit and real estate assets often rely on net asset value updates that arrive daily at best. That makes it difficult for market makers to quote large trades tightly.
DWF Labs says that the imbalance is beginning to change.
The next opportunity may come outside the dominant U.S. dollar market. 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 also sees room in tokenized commodities and equities. Commodities have already shown demand, while tokenized stocks have grown to more than $1 billion with 185,000 holders in about a year.
For DWF Labs, tokenization’s first phase proved that assets can move onchain. The next phase will test whether those assets can trade, settle, and generate yield at scale. Whoever solves that problem may capture more value than the issuers themselves.
