Tokenized Assets: Flawed Metrics Mask True Adoption

Tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on public blockchains are often cited as proof that on-chain finance is still in its infancy. However, a closer look at the numbers reveals that the low utilization rates may be due to flawed metrics rather than a lack of adoption.

The commonly cited 1% figure for RWA utilization refers only to three tokenized money market funds: BlackRock's BUIDL, Circle's USYC, and Franklin Templeton's iBENJI. These funds hold $7.2 billion between them but have deployed only $50 million.

When a broader definition of RWA is used, the utilization rate increases to 11.7% on DeFiLlama's data or about 19% using CoinShares' Q2 count against RWA.xyz's total of $38 billion. This discrepancy highlights the issue with defining and measuring RWA utilization.