Over the 15 months leading up to March 2026, the market capitalization of tokenized real world assets expanded dramatically, rising from 5.42 billion dollars to 19.32 billion dollars.
The past year marked a major turning point for the real world assets sector, driven by stronger competition, clearer regulations, and increasing participation from traditional financial institutions. Growth in this segment was so significant that it outpaced that of stablecoins.
According to the 2026 report by CoinGecko, RWAs increased from representing 2.7 percent of the stablecoin market to 6.4 percent as tokenization accelerated throughout 2025. The report tracks developments from January 2025 through the end of the first quarter of 2026.
RWA Market Expands Rapidly Across Asset Classes
During this 15 month period, the total value of tokenized RWAs more than tripled, delivering growth of 256.7 percent compared to January 2025 levels.
The sector includes four primary categories: treasuries, commodities, stocks, and exchange traded funds. Tokenized treasuries remained the dominant segment, adding around 9 billion dollars in value since early 2025, reflecting a 225.5 percent increase. Momentum accelerated further after this category surpassed the 10 billion dollar mark in February 2026.
Despite maintaining leadership, treasuries saw their overall market share decline slightly from 73.7 percent to 67.2 percent, as other segments expanded more rapidly. Commodities grew to account for 28.7 percent of the market, while stocks and ETFs reached 2.5 percent and 1.5 percent respectively by the end of the first quarter of 2026.
The rise in commodities was largely fueled by gold backed tokens such as Tether Gold and PAX Gold. This segment’s market capitalization jumped by 289 percent, climbing from 1.43 billion dollars to 5.55 billion dollars. These two tokens alone were responsible for 89 percent of the growth. Trading activity also surged, with tokenized gold volumes increasing beyond 84.6 billion dollars in 2025 to reach 90.7 billion dollars in just the first quarter of 2026.
Tokenized Stocks and ETFs Gain Momentum
Tokenized equities also saw rapid expansion, with their market value climbing from just over 2 million dollars in mid 2025 to nearly 487 million dollars by March 2026. Growth was driven largely by major companies such as Tesla, Nvidia, Alphabet, and Circle. Trading volume in this category reached 15.1 billion dollars by the end of the first quarter, exceeding activity seen in the latter half of 2025.
Tokenized ETFs also recorded strong progress, with market capitalization rising from just 0.62 million dollars in July 2025 to 297.5 million dollars by March 2026. Although still smaller, this segment has grown to roughly half the size of the tokenized stock market.
Perpetual Markets Show Accelerating Activity
Another notable trend is the rapid increase in trading volumes for RWA perpetual contracts. Total volume rose from 313 billion dollars across all of 2025 to 524.8 billion dollars within the first quarter of 2026 alone.
If this pace continues, total trading activity for 2026 could potentially double the levels recorded in the previous year, underscoring the accelerating adoption of tokenized real world assets.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic
