A new report called “Real World Assets: A Practitioner’s Guide” was co-written by Libeara, a platform supported by Standard Chartered Ventures that focuses on tokenization. The report shows that tokenized assets are becoming popular in markets around the world.
The report says that tokenization is different from just turning something into digital form. It means making assets that can be programmed and combined in new ways, and these can be settled quickly on a global blockchain system.
Unlike regular financial systems where assets are kept separate by different companies, tokenized assets can be easily moved, exchanged, or combined with smart contracts instantly.
This flexibility lets us do new things like trade tokenized Treasuries for stablecoins directly, or use tokenized loans as security in decentralized finance (DeFi) systems.
From Bitcoin to Stablecoins to Digital Investment Funds
Libeara looks at how tokenization has changed over three stages. The first was Bitcoin, which created a limited supply of digital money, but it was too unstable to be used widely in finance.
The second development involved Ethereum’s smart contracts, which allowed for programmable finance but depended on unreliable cryptocurrencies as collateral at first.
The third phase, starting around 2020, brought together stablecoins and real-world assets (RWAs). This helped make finance more flexible by including things like government bonds, money market funds, and private loans.
This progress has set the stage for organizations to start using it. Stablecoins showed that digital money can work well, and now tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) are linking traditional finance to blockchain technology. More traditional financial companies are getting involved in this process.
Market Growth and Key Factors
Tokenized funds are growing fast, even though they are still much smaller than traditional markets. Tokenized Treasuries are worth just a few billion dollars, which is small compared to the $20 trillion Treasury market. However, their growth is similar to how exchange-traded funds (ETFs) started to grow in the beginning.
CoinShares says that tokenized money market funds (MMFs) are growing faster than exchange-traded funds (ETFs) did in their first ten years. They believe there could be a huge market worth trillions of dollars in the future.
The report points out a few reasons why more people are starting to use it: interest rates are finally positive again, stablecoins are doing well, companies like Franklin Templeton and BlackRock are trying new things, and there have been better changes in blockchain technology.
Blockchain can handle more transactions, and clearer rules are being created in the U. S and Asia These factors have made it possible and beneficial to use tokenization.
Examples of Trustworthiness in Organizations
Examples from big investment firms show this trend is growing. Franklin Templeton’s OnChain U. S The Government Money Fund, started in 2018, showed that controlled digital money funds can work on different public blockchains.
BlackRock started the BUIDL fund on Ethereum in 2024, which made the market stronger and attracted $500 million in assets in just a few months. Fidelity, WisdomTree, and Janus Henderson have introduced their own digital Treasury products.
Global rating agencies like S&P and Moody’s are now giving ratings to tokenized funds, and some of these funds are being classified as investment-grade.
Libeara says that this trust in institutions is important and shows that tokenized funds could grow as fast as, or even faster than, ETFs.
