The tokenized real-world assets (RWA) sector surpassed $10 billion in total value locked (TVL) for the first time on March 18, registering an all-time high on March 21 at nearly $10.4 billion TVL.
Along with the growth in TVL, the RWA sector has become the best-performing segment of the crypto market year-to-date.
The TVL of RWA protocols jumped 30% in 2025 and almost 140% year-on-year. The leap is even more significant compared to March 2023, when RWA protocols had less than $1 billion in TVL, reaching 1,054% growth.
Tokenization represents an asset from the real world in the blockchain’s digital environment.
BlackRock’s tokenized money fund BUIDL leads the market with over $1.4 billion in TVL, growing 140% in the past 30 days. BUIDL is followed closely by MakerDAO’s RWA vault and its $1.3 billion market size despite its 30% decrease in the same period.
Ethena Labs’ stablecoin USDtb is the third-largest RWA protocol by TVL, surpassing $1 billion almost three months after its launch and reaching almost $1.2 billion as of press time. USDtb’s total value locked in the past month soared by 1,222%.
DefiLlama head of growth Patrick Scott highlighted that most RWA protocols are tokenizing treasury bills. Yet, he believes that bonds, equities, “and the entire financial markets” will eventually move on-chain.
Scott added:
“Hyper-tokenization isn’t a theory, it’s already happening. The question isn’t if more assets will be tokenized, but how fast it will scale.”
DeFi propels TradFi
The growth of BUIDL and USDtb is directly related. The stablecoin issued by Ethena Labs holds 90% of its backing in BUIDL shares.
According to USDtb’s transparency page, over $1 billion of its backing consists of BUIDL. As a result, nearly 76% of BlackRock’s fund TVL is propelled by a DeFi application.
Additionally, BUIDL could soon receive a $500 million boost from MakerDAO’s Spark protocol. BlackRock, along with Centrifuge and Superstate, won the Tokenization Grand Prix competition, earning an investment intention from Spark.
However, the allocation remains subject to Sky (formerly MakerDAO) governance approval, with a vote scheduled for April 3.
RWA beats market average
According to Artemis data, RWA-related tokens are down 1% year-to-date. Despite this negative performance, the sector outperformed the average year-to-date crypto market performance of negative 39%.
Mantra (OM) is the best-performing RWA token, with its price climbing over 83% this year. Meanwhile, the recently launched Plume (PLUME) is up 30% over the past 30 days, making it the second-best-performing token in the sector.
Furthermore, the RWA sector’s performance is even more remarkable than other popular crypto narratives. Memecoins have fallen roughly 47.5% on average this year, while AI-related tokens lost nearly 58% of their value over the same period.
