Funding agency Pantera Capital claims that the actual world asset (RWA) tokenization market remains to be in its early levels of growth.
In its newest report revealed on Might 6, 2026, Pantera notes that a lot of the RWA business continues to copy conventional monetary constructions reasonably than constructing really native autos for decentralized networks.
To assist his thesis, Specialists in contrast the present second of tokenization to the early days of the web. Concerning this they are saying:
The primary section of Web media consisted of newspapers copying and pasting articles onto their web sites. Supply velocity has been improved. Availability has been expanded. Nevertheless, the format was the identical.
Pantera Capital, an funding firm.
The corporate is presently doing one thing comparable with the vast majority of its tokenized belongings. Though the technological channels have modified, the operational logic stays largely the identical as in conventional finance.
Most belongings are nonetheless within the “wrap” section
The corporate analyzes 542 tokenized belongings from 11 completely different classes. This equates to roughly $320.6 billion in trailing market worth. The examine concluded: 77.6% of rated merchandise nonetheless belong to the “pre-packaged” classThat’s, a construction by which digital tokens exist, however the precise performance of the belongings stays depending on the underlying belongings held by custodians, exterior registries, and conventional monetary intermediaries.
Examples of this mannequin embody some tokenized US authorities bond funds, reminiscent of BlackRock’s BUIDL. On this case, the token capabilities as a digital proof of an actual asset, reasonably than as a totally autonomous instrument.
On this graph, brown represents “wrapped” belongings, 460 of the 593 surveyed. Grey corresponds to hybrid belongings, of which there are 66. Darkish inexperienced signifies native belongings (solely 16). Beige signifies 51 ineligible belongings that correspond to pilots or advertisements that haven’t but been activated. The important thing studying is that 77.6% of the market remains to be concentrated within the “wrap” section.
The report claims that in lots of circumstances, “tokens add a layer of knowledge however don’t change something about how the asset truly works.”
Pantera has additionally developed its personal indexes, together with: Tokenization Progress Index (TPI), designed to measure precise tokenization maturity.. The general common obtained from the belongings analyzed was 2.04 out of 5.
Pantera measures the maturity of every tokenized asset based mostly on three elements: Issuance and redemption. Transferability and Settlement. Complexity and composability, the power of RWA to be built-in and used inside different digital monetary protocols. Within the graph, gentle inexperienced represents the primary dimension. Darkish inexperienced, second. And the third yellow.
Stablecoins have a greater total rating and seem as probably the most superior class. On the different finish of the spectrum, actual property (actual property) and personal funding capital (non-public fairness)two classes that also have low operational maturity.
One of many report’s core knowledge exhibits that 91.1% of valued belongings nonetheless depend on issuance and redemption mechanisms managed by custodians or custodians. Solely 13 belongings reached a mannequin that might be thought-about autonomous. This dependency explains why many merchandise proceed to perform in a “wrapped” state. A token might exist on a community, however its issuance, redemption, or validation remains to be tied to exterior infrastructure.
The corporate clarifies that this doesn’t imply wrapped tokens are ineffective. In actual fact, we acknowledge that it will probably enhance distribution, entry, and operation velocity. however, We imagine they’re nonetheless within the early levels of the method.
For Pantera, the primary drawback is evident. “The market is getting wider, not deeper.”
Market is rising however stays concentrated
In accordance with analysis, In 2025, 168 new tokenized belongings had been launched, a rise of 115% in comparison with 78 merchandise registered in 2024.. Nevertheless, the vast majority of these launches proceed to copy fashions with low technical complexity.
The stacked bars present the variety of new tokenized belongings launched every year by asset class. Golden line displays worth On-chain Market whole. Probably the most important enhance will likely be noticed between 2024 and 2025. When the worth went from $200.6 billion to $313.7 billion. As of the 2026 drawdown, the market reached $321.1 billion.
The doc additionally exhibits the robust focus of the market. Stablecoins are price $293 billion, or 91.6% of the overall worth tracked by Pantera.
On this graph, the bars point out the values On-chain The gold line exhibits the typical TPI for every class. steady coin 293.7 billion was concentrated, and the typical TPI was the best at 2.67.. That is adopted by tokenized US Treasuries with $12 billion and TPI of two.15. This distinction exhibits that the market just isn’t solely concentrated in a single asset class, but additionally within the classes that achieved the best working income.
In accordance with the corporate, presently stablecoins are This has achieved important financial scale, together with tangible utility inside the digital monetary ecosystem.
At Pantera, we imagine {that a} really “native” product is one that’s designed to work straight on a distributed infrastructure, with out counting on parallel registries or exterior handbook processes.
Among the many most superior examples MakerDAO’s Sky Doll (USDS, previously DAI) and Aave’s GHO are talked about.. In contrast to conventional wrapped belongings, CriptoNoticias explains that these belongings are created to work inside a totally automated protocol, with issuance, collateralization, and operations managed via good contracts.
The report argues that the subsequent section of tokenization is not going to be outlined just by “placing extra belongings on the community,” however by constructing devices that can’t be replicated by conventional monetary infrastructure.
For now, Pantera is speaking about future merchandise with steady settlement, automated collateral administration, programmable monetary efficiency era, and belongings that may be traded individually in real-time with separation of money move, danger, and possession.
The report additionally highlighted that enormous conventional establishments are already actively tokenizing. These embody BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Constancy, WisdomTree and JP Morgan, primarily via merchandise linked to tokenized US authorities bonds.
Particularly, Franklin Templeton predicts additional acceleration in market enlargement, highlighting: Tokenization will in the end unify conventional monetary establishments and digital belongings onto a typical infrastructure. In actual fact, we predict it may exceed $16 trillion by 2023.
Nevertheless, Pantera emphasizes that even the vast majority of these institutional developments proceed to function beneath a “wrapped” mannequin, with core processes persevering with to depend on conventional monetary infrastructure and offline verification.
