Why Billionaires Won’t Touch Real-World Asset Tokens (Yet)

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In the madcap dash to smash every physical object known to man onto a blockchain—why not, right?—the market for tokenizing real-world assets is still busy wandering in its very own toddler years. “You’d get faster progress herding cats at a hedgehog convention,” noted Chris Yin, conjurer-in-chief of the Galaxy-backed RWA platform Plume, while lurking on the fringes of Token2049 in Dubai (which is a real place, apparently).

Asked about when the Big Institutions would come galloping in atop their regulatory steeds, Yin shrugged with the sort of wisdom only acquired from watching years and years of cryptographic drama: “These things move slower than a block of freezer-burned molasses. You have to show the thing actually works before the suits sniff around.”
He compared today’s RWA adventures to the olden times—back when Bitcoin was worth about as much as a cup of budget coffee and people used stablecoins for little besides confusing their accountants.

He continued, “Only now—ten years later—are the big brains using stablecoins, and even then, some still look at them as if someone’s asking them to eat their phone charger. Tokenized assets will absolutely follow the same slow-burning, faltering, occasionally face-planting path.” 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♀️

Those $21 Billion Asset Figures? Yeah, About That…

Yin cast a suspicious eyebrow at those delightfully large market estimates floating around the gossip mills (the sort that make VCs clutch their wallets and startups dust off the “To The Moon” rocket GIFs). “Frankly, the data is about as trustworthy as a wizard who can’t spell ‘fireball’,” he mused.

In reality, he suspects the true RWA market cap is closer to $10 billion—mostly government IOUs and hunks of gold, plus just a hilarious dribble of private credit.

RWA.xyz (which apparently does this all day) puts the April 27 total closer to $17.4 billion—with private credit wearing the king’s hat at nearly 60%, Treasurys playing the sidekick at 27%, and commodities slouching in at a modest 8%. Still, it’s not exactly “buy everyone on Earth a Lambo” money yet, is it?

The Private Credit Faerie Isn’t Waving the Magic Wand

Estimating the size of this magical RWA world, especially the bits behind the velvet ropes, is about as easy as collecting starlight in a bucket. “The data’s so fragmented, you’d think it was thrown into a blender first,” grumbled Ross Shemeliak, co-founder of Stobox (certified collector of astonishing statistics).

He reckons the lion’s share is sitting pretty as tokenized Treasurys and bonds—somewhere north of 60%. It’s as if most of the world’s private companies are just sitting quietly, wearing “Tokenize Me” T-shirts nobody can see.

“99.9% of all companies are private, and not a single one has called me to brag about being a blockchain pioneer,” Shemeliak observed. Most, in fact, are simply struggling to get their hands on enough cash and would probably tokenize their office coffee machine, if asked nicely.
Thankfully, tokenization means brand new money-raising potions, happier investors, and—who knows—cap table transparency that doesn’t require a map and a flashlight to understand.

Institutions: They Only Show Up for the Good Bits 🏦💵

According to Yin, institutional capital will frolic into the RWA field only when there’s a big enough pile of gold to justify their trouble—and not a moment sooner. “Let’s not pretend they’re here for the spirit of adventure. They want returns big enough to make the annual bonus lunches tolerable.”

“Nobody gives two satoshis about saving money or efficiency. Especially not Larry Fink, who could lose $2.5 billion down the back of the couch and forget about it,” Yin remarked. BlackRock’s money market fund is “nice and all,” but compared to their $12 trillion asset pile, it’s like a gnat on the rump of a very large ox.

At present, the RWA market is mostly powered by the stubborn, perspicacious, Web3-native crowd who persist in the face of reason. “There are exactly zero institutions putting meaningful money onchain,” Yin quipped. “If anything, they’re devising new ways to siphon off the coins already there. It’s the financial equivalent of selling sand to people lost in the desert.”

“Sure, tokenized assets look small now—like Bitcoin in its infancy wearing a nappy,” admitted Shemeliak of Stobox. But don’t forget, tokenized assets are institutional creatures at heart (they come with paperwork, regulation, and everything that keeps lawyers gainfully employed).

Tokenizing RWAs without involving institutions? Picture a stock exchange operated by wizards, without the tedious business of regulations, guardians, or rules—delightful chaos, until someone actually wants to cash out.

“The wild innovation bursts out of startups and Web3, sure, but when serious money comes knocking, it’s the lawyers, fund managers, and slightly bored regulatory folks who finish building the party tent.”

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2025-05-01 15:28