RWAs Overtake DEXs as Fifth-Largest Category in DeFi by TVL

Real-world asset (RWA) protocols are one of decentralized finance’s (DeFi’s) winners in 2025, overtaking decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to become the fifth-largest category by total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama. 

RWAs now account for about $17 billion in TVL, up from $12 billion in Q4 2024, highlighting how quickly tokenized Treasurys, private credit and other real-world claims have moved from niche experiments to core DeFi plumbing. As DefiLlama noted, “At the start of this year, they weren’t even in the top 10 categories.” 

Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, told Cointelegraph that RWA growth is being driven by “balance-sheet incentives rather than experimentation,” with higher-for-longer rates making tokenized Treasurys and private credit attractive as onchain, yield-bearing assets, amid improving regulatory clarity that is lowering friction for institutional allocators.

RWAs move into the DeFi core

Earlier this year, RWAs excluding stablecoins had grown to about $24 billion, with private credit and tokenized Treasurys identified as the main growth engines and Ethereum as the dominant public settlement layer for onchain debt and fund structures.

Related: Emerging market economies to drive RWA tokenization in 2026: Crypto exec

Through 2025, that market has remained concentrated around a small group of large issuers and vehicles on Ethereum, while RWA.xyz data shows a second tier of networks, including BNB Chain, Avalanche, Solana, Polygon and Arbitrum, each capturing low‑to-mid single‑digit percentage shares of public‑chain RWA value.

In parallel, permissioned infrastructure like Canton Network has become a major institutional hub, with over 90% of the total market share, hosting large RWA programs in a privacy‑preserving, regulated environment that can plug into DeFi data and liquidity rails. 

Related: Canton token rallies 27% after DTCC outlines tokenized Treasury plans

What’s driving flows?

Tokenized US Treasurys remain the gateway product, with platforms like the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), Circle’s USYC, Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, Ondo’s OUSG, and similar funds pushing the combined tokenized Treasury segment above the multi‑billion‑dollar mark by December.

Liu said that “the constraint is no longer tokenization itself, but liquidity, and integration into TradFi,” adding that attention in 2026, “attention should shift from headline TVL to control and usage, who owns issuance, where RWAs are deployed as collateral, and which venues capture secondary market flow.”

Gold, silver, and the 2026 story

Rallies in gold and silver are adding a fresh leg to the RWA trade, pulling more capital into tokenized commodities. Recent data put tokenized commodities’ market cap near $4 billion, led by gold products such as Tether Gold and Paxos Gold, which have expanded alongside spot metals, pushing toward new highs. 

Liu said these moves are “elevating [tokenized commodities] from niche RWAs to macro-relevant assets with real demand for on-chain access and settlement in a 24/7 market,” helped by clearer pricing and custody standards that make them easier to plug into DeFi and institutional systems.

Into 2026, he pointed to “behavioral validation” as gold and silver break highs, arguing that price strength attracts issuance, which attracts liquidity and reinforces adoption beyond pure yield narratives.

He also highlighted interoperability as another key signal, and said that “real acceleration” will come when “tokenized commodities can move seamlessly across venues and chains, functioning as neutral collateral rather than isolated products.”