The market for real world assets (RWAs) is really taking off now that big investors are getting involved. CoinGecko latest report shows that tokenized real world assets are worth $19.3 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2026. It is one of the most impressive growth stages for blockchain financial products, marking a significant surge.
INSIGHT: RWAs have more than tripled in market cap since 2025 — hitting $19.3B by the end of Q1 2026.
While only 6.4% compared to the size of stablecoins, RWAs growth outpaced stablecoins over the last year, climbing up from 2.7% at the beginning of 2025. pic.twitter.com/pNUDkMPq90
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) May 7, 2026
The report has observed that the number of tokenized offerings of the RWAs has grown by 256.7% within a span of about a year and a half. The sector’s value was $5.42 billion at the start of 2025.
As of March 31, 2026, that number had nearly quadrupled with an increased demand from the crypto native community and traditional financial institutions participating in the tokenization of Treasurys, commodities, stocks, and ETFs.
2025 is a pivotal year for tokenization, according to industry analysts. Early blockchain use cases with asset creation slowly gained traction and scale. This provided institutions with greater clarity for working and more trust in joining the industry.
The regulatory environment around key markets also helped to alleviate uncertainty, enabling companies to bolster their approach to tokenization with the support of institutions.
Tokenized Treasuries Continue Dominating the Sector
Tokenized Treasuries continued to be the biggest asset category during the reporting period. The asset class’s value rose by almost $9B or 225.5% during this period. More than half of the expansion of the entire sector of the business was represented by new treasury-backed products during the period.
Following this milestone on February 11, when the market cap of tokenized Treasuries hit $10 billion for the first time, momentum continued to increase. However, while holding onto market share, Treasuries fell a small share of market value as other asset classes became tokenized more aggressively.
The total RWA market tokenized Treasuries accounted for 67.2% of the market at the end of Q1 2026. The 73.7% on January 1, 2025, represents the diversification of this industry as a whole.
Gold-Backed Tokens Push Commodities Higher
One of the best-performing sectors in the period was tokenized commodities. The category grew from $1.4B to $5.5B, with significant demand from investors hungry for gold-backed digital assets.
Tether Gold and PAX Gold were definitely on top of the surge. As people got worried about the economy and inflation, they started looking for investments. They became interested in gold because it seemed like a safe choice.
In the first quarter of 2026, the trading volume for gold tokens was $90.7 billion. This was higher than the 2025 trading volume of $84.6 billion, emphasising the speed at which the market grapples with the increased participation of traders.
At the end of the quarter, RWAs with tokenized commodities represented 28.7% of the total RWA sector.
Tokenized Stocks and ETFs Gain Momentum
Major RWA growth was also seen in tokenized stocks after their expansion in mid 2025. By the end of the first quarter of 2026, this category had reached an approximate value of $500 million in market capitalization, according to the report.
In the tokenized stock section, technology-related equity led the way as investors looked for a way to access the main public companies via blockchain, around the clock. Spot traded tokens’ value was $15.1 billion in 2026 Q1, higher than the $14.8 billion trade volume in the first two quarters of 2025.
Meanwhile, tokenized ETFs had already jumped to a market capitalization of close to $300 million. Still young in terms of size, but showing strong growth trends, ETFs showed a wider variety of types being launched
