- On-chain RWA value surged by $7.5 billion in 2025, matching 2024 growth, and outperforming other sectors within the DeFi ecosystem.
- Tokenized treasuries led inflows, with Euro bonds doubling its on-chain value and BlackRocks’s BUIDL capturing 79% of U.S.-treasury-based RWA growth in 2025.
- Tokenized gold beat its 2024 figures in both market cap and new holders increases.
- Ethereum ecosystem’s dominance strengthened, hosting over 83% of RWA value on general-purpose chains.
Real-world assets are no longer a side bet in DeFi — they’re becoming the main event. After adding $7.5 billion in on-chain value throughout 2024, the RWA sector matched that figure in the first five months of 2025. On May 13, on-chain RWA value reached $23.8 billion, up from $16.3 billion at the start of the year.
The surge isn’t just about capital. The number of RWA holders has also crossed a key milestone, surpassing 100,000 addresses, showing a 22% increase in 2025 so far.
This rapid expansion in both adoption and value comes as most DeFi sectors are seeing stagnation or contraction. With the RWA sector surging by 43% in 2025, its on-chain value briefly surpassed total DEX TVL.
The Drivers Behind the RWA Surge and Biggest Winners
While RWAs as a whole are surging, not all sectors are riding the same wave. In 2025, market uncertainty — not just yield — has become the dominant catalyst, and no asset classes reflect that more than bonds and gold.
Tokenized Euro Bonds Doubled in New On-Chain Value
The sharpest RWA sector spike came from Non-U.S. bonds, which saw a 101% increase in on-chain value in 2025 so far. This sector saw distinct inflection points that coincided with political headlines — most notably, accelerated inflows following Trump’s inauguration and another local jump after a selection of tariffs became effective on March 3-4.
Among Non-U.S. bonds, Euro-denominated ones stand out as the biggest winner, adding $102.6 million in on-chain value in 2025, and already outpacing 2024 on that matter. Most of these inflows went to Spiko’s EUTBL, which now accounts for over 80% of this RWA segment, experiencing 114% and 78% increases in value and holders in 2025, respectively.
However, tokenized Euro bonds account only for 1% of the entire RWA sector, meaning this hasn’t been the biggest landscape mover, despite the local surge.
BUIDL Took Over the U.S. Treasuries Segment
Tokenized U.S. treasuries had a much larger impact on the RWA sector, adding over $2.8 billion in on-chain value throughout this year. Around 79% of these inflows were allocated to BlackRock’s BUIDL, which has been securing the top spot in this segment starting mid-March. March 12, when the EU announced retaliatory tariffs, has also been the turning point in rapid BUIDL expansion, as nearly all of its gains occurred after this date. As such, BUIDL showed a more than 343% increase in new value added year-to-date, outpacing even much smaller funds.
Notably, BUIDL has also been among the leaders in attracting new holders, showing a 57% increase in the first five months of the year. This appears to be remarkable as BUIDL is not available on open markets, and features a much larger entry threshold. According to Amberdata, BUIDL features a minimum investment worth $5 million, while USTB, OUSG, USYC, and TBILL — $100,000. This signifies that the expansion of tokenized U.S. treasuries was primarily driven by institutional investors.
Another catalyst that pushed BUIDL forward was the downfall of USYC, which saw an over 3,000% increase in on-chain value in 2024, and dominated the space between November 2024 and March 2025. USYC experienced an over 73% drop in on-chain value in 2025, which began shortly before Circle’s acquisition of Hashnote, USYC issuer. The USYC drop occurred due to the yield-bearing USD0 stablecoin, which utilizes USYC as a primarily backing asset, and lost 60% of its TVL this year.
Tokenized Gold Overshadowed Its 2024 Performance
In parallel with the surge in fixed-income RWAs, tokenized commodities, especially gold, have emerged as a resilient safe-haven sector, benefitting from the same macro tailwinds. Total market cap for tokenized commodities grew by over $547 million in 2025 to date, with gold-backed tokens accounting for nearly 98% of that growth.
This momentum has been largely led by Paxos’ PAXG, Tether’s XAUT, and Kinesis’ KAU, which together make up 88% of gold-related trading activity. Among them, XAUT saw the most significant growth in user base, nearly doubling its number of holders (+102%) since January. Despite this, PAXG still dominates the space in terms of holders, outpacing XAUT by nearly 10 times.
As such, tokenized gold has already managed to beat its 2024 figures in both increased on-chain value and new holders.
While tariff-induced uncertainty served as a major catalyst to boost tokenized gold, activity stayed elevated even after the tariff noise began to subside. On April 22, tokenized gold trading volumes spiked to nearly $400 million, coinciding with gold spot prices hitting an all-time high above $3,500. This is the highest daily trading volume that tokenized gold showed since the U.S. banking crisis in March 2023.
Ethereum Ecosystem Strengthened Its RWA Dominance
In 2025, Ethereum’s role as the central infrastructure layer for RWA has become even more pronounced. The combined Ethereum ecosystem — including both mainnet and L2s — now accounts for over 82% of total RWA value hosted on general-purpose blockchains, up from 75% at the start of the year and 70% in early 2024.
This growing dominance is driven by two complementary trends: the rise of products originally launched on Ethereum such as BUIDL, and the rapid emergence of new RWA platforms on Ethereum L2s. The most notable example was the debut of Tradable, a private credit-focused platform that deployed over $1.7 billion in assets on zkSync. This single launch catapulted zkSync into the position of second-largest general-purpose blockchain in RWA.
Furthermore, unlike most other chains that depend on a single RWA vertical or flagship project, Ethereum offers the most diversified spectrum of RWA products. This gives Ethereum an inherent advantage: it’s not overly reliant on the success of any one sector. Instead, it acts as the primary execution layer for RWA growth wherever it happens.
While Ethereum dominates the general-purpose blockchain landscape, it’s important to note that in a broader view — including purpose-built blockchains — Provenance technically takes the top spot. This is largely due to its private credit platform Figure, with nearly $10 billion in RWA TVL.
Final Thoughts
RWAs are not only leading the DeFi recovery — they’re setting the pace of it. With over $7 billion in new on-chain value added in under five months, the sector is evolving to become a core infrastructure in both institutional and decentralized finance.
That said, the sector’s further short-term trajectory will largely hinge on the outcome of the existing tariff uncertainty. If trade tensions escalate, the flight to safe-haven and yield-generating RWAs could intensify even further. But a resolution, or even a de-escalation, could test the sustainability of the current inflows. Either way, RWAs have already proven their staying power as a response to market chaos.
Sources
The data used for this research consists of publicly available information from RWA.xyz, CoinGecko, DeFiLlama, and Amberdata. The observation period for this study was focused on RWA’s 2024-2025 performance, with data points starting January 1, 2024, and ending May 14, 2025.