Financial institutions are moving aggressively into tokenization. Matthew Horne, head of digital asset strategists at Fidelity Investments, said the shift toward onchain assets represents a structural turning point for major financial players over the past 18 months.
The math is straightforward: U.S. asset managers can expand their addressable market by tokenizing traditional assets. Horne explained that onchain settlement improves investor access and taps into previously unreachable clients, expanding investment opportunities.
Onchain data backs the momentum. Demand for tokenized real world assets surged 41 percent over the past 30 days, according to RWA.xyz. The number of unique addresses holding tokenized RWAs, excluding stablecoins, now exceeds 493,000.
Ka Yan Chan, head of digital assets business development at UBS, said foundational portfolio assets—Treasuries and equities—will bring billions of dollars onto blockchain networks. "These assets are staples for portfolio construction," Chan said, making their tokenization a critical catalyst for institutional capital flows.
Regulatory tailwinds are accelerating deployment. In December 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a no-action letter to a DTCC subsidiary, enabling it to launch a service for securities market tokenization. In September, the SEC granted a temporary exemption permitting limited trading of tokenized U.S. stocks on onchain venues.
Securitize capitalized on the regulatory clarity. On Thursday, the firm began trading tokenized shares of a dozen widely held U.S. stocks, offering investors direct onchain ownership representation.
Capital inflows are accelerating. OnchainBenchmark data shows more than $1.2 billion moved onto blockchain networks during the past 30 days. The combined total across stablecoins and tokenized assets reached over $323 billion.
Standard Chartered's global head of digital asset research, Geoff Kendrick, projected the total value of tokenized RWAs could reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028, reflecting institutional confidence in the sector's trajectory.
