Asset Tokenization

Asset Tokenization & the Three Jurisdictions Built to Host It

On-chain real-world assets grew from $5 billion to $24 billion in three years, and BlackRock's tokenized Treasury fund now runs at roughly $2.9 billion across nine chains. This report explains what tokenization actually changes, and why Switzerland, Singapore, and the UAE are where it is happening. Current as of September 2026 (Q3 2026).

1. Executive Summary

Tokenization is the process of representing ownership of a real-world asset as a digital token on a blockchain. That definition is straightforward. What it makes possible is not. Here is the short version of why it matters.

1.1 The Market Went from $5 Billion to $24 Billion in Three Years

The on-chain real-world asset tokenization market grew from roughly $5 billion in 2022 to $24 billion by mid-2025, a 380% increase, and has continued climbing through 2026. That is not speculative capital chasing a trend; it is institutional capital deploying into specific asset classes. Private credit accounts for around 61% of the on-chain RWA market, tokenized US Treasuries make up roughly another 30%, and real estate, commodities, and fund shares account for the rest. The market is already here. It is just unevenly distributed.

1.2 Tokenization Solves the Liquidity Problem in Illiquid Markets

Historically, assets like private credit, real estate, and infrastructure were illiquid by design: large minimum ticket sizes, long lock-up periods, and no secondary market to speak of. Tokenization changes that by enabling fractional ownership and 24/7 secondary trading. An investor who could not afford a $5 million minimum in a private credit fund can now buy $50,000 worth of tokens representing the same exposure. A fund manager who needed to wait 90 days for redemptions can now offer near-instant liquidity through an on-chain secondary market. That is a structural shift, not a marginal improvement.

1.3 Three Jurisdictions Have Built the Infrastructure to Make This Work

Switzerland, Singapore, and the UAE are not just talking about tokenization, they have built the regulatory and market infrastructure for it. Switzerland's DLT Act (2021) and the 2025 licensing of BX Digital as the first DLT trading venue give it the most mature legal framework for tokenized securities in the world. Singapore's MAS Project Guardian has moved from sandbox pilots to an operational guide for tokenized funds and, in 2026, into a commercialization phase backed by a new MAS Future of Finance Institute. The UAE's VARA issued its Virtual Asset Issuance Rulebook in June 2025, and the Dubai Land Department launched a real estate tokenization pilot in March 2025. Each hub is enabling a different asset class. Together, they represent the most developed tokenization ecosystem globally.

1.4 The Institutional Names That Matter Have Already Committed

BlackRock's BUIDL fund, a tokenized US Treasury product launched in March 2024, stands at approximately $2.9 billion across nine blockchain networks, with two further tokenized funds filed with the SEC in May 2026. Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund held roughly $600 million at the start of 2026 across Stellar, Ethereum, Solana, and other chains. JPMorgan's Tokenized Collateral Network is in live production with buy-side firms including Fidelity International. KKR and Hamilton Lane have tokenized fund shares via Securitize, which itself listed on the NYSE in July 2026, the first pure-play tokenization platform to reach the public markets. Over 200 institutional RWA projects are underway, backed by more than 40 leading financial institutions. This is not a niche experiment.

1.5 The Projections Are Large, but the Constraints Are Real

McKinsey projects the tokenization market at $2 trillion by 2030, with Standard Chartered's bull case at $30 trillion by 2034. The range reflects genuine uncertainty: the upside is real if interoperability, custody, and legal frameworks converge. The constraints are also real. Cross-chain liquidity is limited, secondary markets are thin outside the largest platforms, and regulatory frameworks vary enough across jurisdictions to complicate cross-border issuance. The infrastructure is being built. The question for any institution is how early they want to be in.

2. Scope and Methodology

What This Report Covers

This report covers the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) on blockchain infrastructure: specifically how tokenization works, what it enables for liquidity and investor access, and how the regulatory and market infrastructure is developing across Switzerland, Singapore, and the UAE. It addresses the question “what is tokenization?” from the perspective of enterprise finance and investment decision-makers, not technical developers. The analysis covers developments through Q3 2026.

Where the Data Comes From

Market sizing draws on Market.us, RWA.xyz, RedStone and Gauntlet, McKinsey, Standard Chartered, and BCG. Adoption data references publicly disclosed fund sizes (BlackRock BUIDL, Franklin Templeton BENJI), platform data from Securitize and Ondo Finance, and survey data from institutional investor studies. Regulatory analysis draws on FINMA, MAS, VARA, ADGM, Chambers and Partners, and primary government publications.

A Note on the Numbers

Tokenization market sizing varies considerably by definition. On-chain RWA figures (the $24 billion figure) capture assets with verifiable on-chain token supply and exclude stablecoins. Broader estimates (hundreds of billions to trillions) include permissioned platform data, tokenized money market funds, and projected pipeline. This report uses on-chain figures as the primary reference and notes where broader estimates are being cited. CAGR projections reflect consensus midpoints and should not be read as forecasts.

3. Key Findings

Finding 1: The RWA Tokenization Market Grew 380% in Three Years, and the Pace Is Accelerating

On-chain tokenized RWAs reached $24 billion by mid-2025, up from $5 billion in 2022, and growth has continued through 2026 as new tokenized fund filings and bank platforms come online. Private credit dominates at around 61% of the market, with tokenized Treasuries at roughly 30%, commodities at 7%, and institutional funds making up the remainder. The asset mix matters: these are yield-bearing, institutionally backed instruments, not speculative tokens.

Finding 2: Institutional Adoption Is No Longer Tentative

BlackRock's BUIDL grew from $40 million at launch to $1.8 billion within 18 months and roughly $2.9 billion by 2026, spread across nine blockchain networks. JPMorgan's Tokenized Collateral Network moved from pilot to live production with major buy-side institutions. Securitize leads tokenized fund issuance and converted that position into a July 2026 NYSE listing that raised approximately $400 million. By early 2025, 86% of institutional investors had exposure to or planned to invest in digital assets. Among the largest asset managers, tokenization is now an operating decision, not a research question.

Finding 3: Liquidity and Access Are the Structural Benefits, Not Just Speed

The efficiency gains from tokenization, faster settlement, lower admin costs, and automated compliance, are real but secondary. The primary structural benefit is what tokenization does to asset classes that were previously inaccessible or illiquid. Fractional ownership reduces minimum investment sizes from millions to thousands. Trading on 24/7 secondary markets unlocks liquidity that simply did not exist in traditional structures. For fund managers, tokenization expands the investor base. For investors, it opens asset classes that were previously only available to institutions and HNWIs.

Finding 4: Switzerland, Singapore, and the UAE Have the Most Mature Enabling Infrastructure

These three jurisdictions have done more than signal support for tokenization, they have built the regulatory and market infrastructure for it. Switzerland has the world's first licensed DLT trading venue (BX Digital, March 2025) and a DLT Act that gives legal certainty to tokenized securities. Singapore's Project Guardian has produced an operational guide for tokenized funds with more than 24 financial institution partners and moved into commercialization. The UAE's VARA has a live Virtual Asset Issuance Rulebook and the Dubai Land Department is running a live real estate tokenization pilot. Each hub serves a different segment of the market.

Finding 5: The Market Could Reach $2 to 30 Trillion by 2030 to 2034, and the Range Reflects Real Uncertainty

McKinsey's consensus estimate is $2 trillion by 2030. Standard Chartered's bull case is $30 trillion by 2034. The global tokenized assets market is projected to reach $2.8 trillion by 2034 at a CAGR of 60% (Market.us), and BCG expects tokenized real estate alone to reach $3.2 trillion by 2030. The variance is large because adoption depends heavily on legal harmonization, secondary market depth, and custody infrastructure, all of which are in progress but not complete. Institutions that wait for the range to narrow will find the market has already consolidated around early movers.

4. Data and Evidence

4.1 Adoption

The adoption picture in tokenization is more nuanced than a single market size figure. It is worth separating the on-chain RWA market (assets with verifiable blockchain token supply) from the broader tokenized assets market (which includes permissioned platform data and projected pipeline). On-chain RWAs stood at $24 billion as of mid-2025, growing at approximately 85% year on year. Tokenized Treasury and money market fund assets reached $7.4 billion in 2025, up 80% year to date. The broader tokenized asset market, including permissioned platforms, was estimated at $412 billion by early 2025, a figure that excludes the roughly $7.5 trillion a month now settling through Broadridge's tokenized repo platform. Institutional investors accounted for 69.8% of deployed RWA capital in 2024, and over 200 institutional RWA projects are underway, supported by more than 40 financial institutions.

Metric

Value

Source

On-chain RWA market (mid-2025)

$24 billion

RWA.xyz / RedStone

On-chain RWA growth (2022 to 2025)

380%

RWA.xyz

Private credit share of RWA market

61%

RWA.xyz, April 2025

Tokenized Treasury / MMF assets (2025)

$7.4 billion

CoinLaw / Market.us

BlackRock BUIDL AUM (2026)

~$2.9 billion, nine chains

Securitize / RWA.xyz

Broadridge DLR monthly tokenized repo

$7.5 trillion (June 2026)

Broadridge

Institutional investors with digital asset exposure

86%

Survey data, early 2025

Institutional share of deployed RWA capital

69.8%

Mordor Intelligence, 2024

Global tokenized assets market (2034E)

$2.8 trillion

Market.us

McKinsey consensus projection (2030)

~$2 trillion

McKinsey, 2024

Standard Chartered bull case (2034)

$30 trillion

Standard Chartered / RWA.xyz

Real estate is the largest single tokenized asset class by issuance, representing roughly 31% of tokenized issuance in 2024. Private credit is the largest by on-chain value. Commodities are growing fastest at over 50% annually. The mix reflects where liquidity problems are most acute and where the ROI case for tokenization is clearest.

4.2 Performance

Performance in tokenization is measured in terms of liquidity improvement, settlement efficiency, and investor access expansion, not blockchain throughput. The relevant benchmarks are what tokenization delivers compared to traditional structures.

Metric

Tokenization vs Traditional

Settlement time (bonds / fund units)

Near-instant on-chain against T+2 or longer in traditional markets

Minimum investment size

Fractional ownership can reduce minimums from $1M+ to $1,000 or less

Secondary market trading

24/7 on-chain secondary markets against illiquid OTC or no secondary market

Compliance automation

Smart contracts handle KYC, AML, and transfer restrictions automatically

Administrative cost

Back-office reductions above 40% documented where smart contracts replace manual processes

Cross-border transfer

Global and borderless via blockchain against multi-day correspondent settlement

The performance case is most compelling for assets that were previously illiquid or inaccessible: private credit, infrastructure debt, real estate, and private equity fund shares. For liquid public market instruments like government bonds, the benefit is primarily operational efficiency and programmability rather than liquidity improvement.

The performance constraint that matters most right now is secondary market depth. Most tokenized assets trade on thin order books. Until secondary liquidity develops to the point where large institutional positions can be entered and exited without material price impact, tokenization's liquidity benefit is primarily theoretical for large allocators.

4.3 Cost

The cost case for tokenization depends on which costs you are measuring against which baseline. The efficiency gains are real, but so are the upfront and ongoing costs of building compliant tokenized structures.

Where the Cost Savings Are Clear

Smart contract automation eliminates most of the manual back-office work in asset administration: interest payments, distributions, corporate actions, investor onboarding, and compliance checks all happen programmatically. Back-office cost reductions exceeding 40% have been documented in early deployments. For fund managers, the ability to issue directly to a global investor base without a distribution network of intermediaries is a meaningful cost advantage. Token-based issuance also removes layers of reconciliation between custodians, transfer agents, and clearing houses.

Where the Costs Are Real

Setting up a compliant tokenized structure requires legal wrappers (SPVs or trust structures), smart contract audits, KYC and AML integration, and custody infrastructure. For smaller issuances, these setup costs can erode the efficiency gains. The cost calculus is more favorable for large, repeat issuers who can amortize the legal and technical infrastructure across multiple products. For a one-off tokenized bond below $50 million, the cost-benefit case is marginal unless the issuer is building toward a longer-term tokenization program.

The Custody Cost Is Still Underappreciated

Institutional-grade custody of tokenized assets, particularly in regulated jurisdictions, carries costs that do not exist in traditional securities custody. Multi-party computation key management, hardware security modules, and insurance against smart contract exploits all add to the total cost of ownership. Breaches in DeFi-adjacent infrastructure have exceeded $1.7 billion in a single year. For institutional programs, custody is a non-negotiable cost line, not an optional extra.

4.4 Trends

Private Credit Is the Dominant On-Chain Use Case Right Now

Private credit, on-chain loans and structured credit products, is the single largest segment of the RWA market, representing around $14 billion of the $24 billion on-chain total as of mid-2025. The reason is structural: private credit is illiquid by design, expensive to administer, and historically inaccessible to retail and smaller institutional investors. Tokenization solves all three problems simultaneously. Platforms like Centrifuge and Maple Finance have demonstrated that institutional-grade private credit can be issued, serviced, and traded on-chain with full KYC and AML compliance.

Tokenized Fund Shares Are the Next Scaling Opportunity

After tokenized Treasuries and private credit, tokenized fund shares represent the next major scaling opportunity. JPMorgan's Tokenized Collateral Network allows tokenized money market fund shares to be pledged as collateral intraday, freeing up capital that would otherwise sit idle waiting for T+2 settlement. MAS published an Operational Guide for Tokenized Funds in November 2025, giving fund managers, custodians, and service providers a shared framework for governance, NAV calculation, and compliance, and BlackRock's May 2026 SEC filings for further tokenized funds and on-chain share classes of a $7 billion money market fund show where the largest managers are heading. This kind of standardization is what moves a market from early-adopter to mainstream.

Real Estate Tokenization Is Building Toward Scale

Real estate remains the largest single tokenized asset class by issuance share, but is still nascent relative to its eventual opportunity. BCG projects tokenized real estate reaching $3.2 trillion by 2030 from roughly $120 billion in 2023, and Deloitte projects $1 trillion in tokenized private real estate funds by 2035. The Dubai Land Department's pilot, the first real estate registration authority in the Middle East to tokenize property title deeds, is the clearest example of a government-led effort to create the legal infrastructure for real estate tokenization at scale.

Interoperability Is the Infrastructure Problem That Limits Scale

Most institutional tokenization runs either on public blockchains (Ethereum, Polygon, Solana) or on private permissioned ledgers, and the two worlds do not communicate natively. A tokenized bond on SIX Digital Exchange in Switzerland cannot be used as collateral on an Ethereum protocol without a bridging mechanism. The industry's answer is arriving in layers: SWIFT's blockchain shared ledger, ready for initial use since July 2026, lets banks reach tokenized rails through connections they already have; the Canton Network has become the interoperability venue for institutional issuance, hosting Société Générale's US digital bond, DTCC's tokenization program, and JPMorgan's native JPMD issuance; and Chainlink's CCIP has been used in pilots with SWIFT and UBS AM to bridge tokenized funds and off-chain cash settlement. Until this is solved at scale, the programmability and composability benefits of tokenization remain constrained.

5. Case Examples

5.1 Switzerland: The World's First Licensed DLT Trading Venue and the Most Mature Legal Framework

Switzerland's DLT Act came into force in August 2021, amending several pieces of Swiss legislation to give legal certainty to tokenized shares, bonds, and uncertificated register securities. In March 2025, FINMA issued the world's first DLT trading facility license to BX Digital, making Switzerland the first jurisdiction where tokenized securities can be issued, traded, and settled on a regulated exchange with full legal finality. In 2024, the World Bank, Swiss National Bank, and SIX Digital Exchange issued a CHF 200 million digital bond, the first CHF digital bond by an international issuer settled in Swiss francs using CBDC. The Swiss crypto industry is valued at $593 billion with 17 unicorn companies across Geneva, Zurich, Neuchâtel, and Zug.

What this tells you: Switzerland has the most complete end-to-end legal and market infrastructure for tokenized securities anywhere in the world. For institutions looking to issue tokenized bonds, equity, or structured products under a fully regulated framework, Switzerland is the reference jurisdiction.

5.2 Singapore: Project Guardian Moves from Sandbox to Commercialization

MAS launched Project Guardian in 2022 as a sandbox for tokenized bonds, deposits, and funds. By late 2025 it had more than 24 financial institution partners and had published an Operational Guide for Tokenized Funds, a shared framework covering governance, NAV calculation, investor onboarding, and compliance, and by 2026 the program had moved into a commercialization phase, with the Guardian Wholesale Network active and a new MAS Future of Finance Institute established in June 2026 to scale the work. In parallel, MAS's Global Layer 1 initiative is building the shared infrastructure standards required for tokenized assets to interoperate across platforms and jurisdictions. Standard Chartered, in collaboration with LIBEARA, launched a tokenized Wellington US Treasury Fund in Singapore, and InvestaX provides end-to-end issuance, custody, and secondary trading for institutional-grade tokenized offerings in the city-state.

What this tells you: Singapore is the most complete institutional tokenization ecosystem for the Asia-Pacific corridor. MAS's combination of regulatory sandbox, published operational standards, and shared infrastructure investment makes it the reference hub for fund tokenization in Asia.

5.3 UAE: Real Estate Tokenization, VARA's Issuance Rulebook, and the Institutional Magnet Effect

The UAE has assembled the most diverse tokenization program of the three hubs. In March 2025, the Dubai Land Department became the first real estate registration authority in the Middle East to tokenize property title deeds, running the pilot with VARA, the Central Bank, and the Dubai Future Foundation. VARA's Virtual Asset Issuance Rulebook (effective June 2025) provides a full framework for asset-referenced virtual assets (ARVAs), the category that covers most RWA tokens. Between July 2023 and June 2024, the UAE recorded over $30 billion in crypto inflows, with institutional-sized transfers rising 55% year on year. BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Brevan Howard, Fidelity, and Marshall Wace all have UAE operations. The FATF removed the UAE from its grey list in February 2024, the European Parliament delisted it in July 2025, and Abu Dhabi's Sirius International Holding has since joined the global 21-institution bank stablecoin company.

What this tells you: the UAE has completed the compliance transition that was previously its weakness. With grey-list removal behind it and VARA's issuance framework live, it is now a credible institutional tokenization hub with a specific advantage in real assets, real estate, gold, infrastructure, where Middle Eastern sovereign wealth and family office capital is most naturally deployed.

6. Implications

For Asset Managers Considering Tokenized Product Launches

The operational framework for tokenized funds now exists in all three jurisdictions. MAS's Operational Guide for Tokenized Funds, Switzerland's BX Digital trading venue, and VARA's issuance rulebook collectively remove most of the regulatory ambiguity that previously made tokenized product development feel risky. The practical question is now about distribution: who is your investor base, what blockchain infrastructure are your counterparties on, and which jurisdiction gives you the best combination of regulatory clarity, custody access, and secondary market infrastructure? Those are solvable questions, not blocking ones.

For Each of the Three Enabling Jurisdictions

Hub

Strategic Implication

Switzerland

BX Digital's DLT trading venue license is a historic infrastructure milestone, but it currently does not permit direct retail access, and custody services sit with intermediaries. For institutions that need a fully regulated, bank-grade tokenized securities venue with legal finality under Swiss law, there is nowhere better. For retail-facing or emerging market-linked products, it is less obviously the right fit. The $593 billion Swiss crypto industry and 17 unicorn companies in Crypto Valley signal the depth of the ecosystem.

Singapore

MAS's Project Guardian commercialization phase and Global Layer 1 initiative position Singapore as the best-equipped jurisdiction for institutional fund tokenization, particularly for Asia-Pacific distribution. The BLOOM initiative, live since October 2025, extends Singapore's settlement capabilities to real-time cross-border settlement for tokenized assets, and the Future of Finance Institute (June 2026) is scaling the program. For fund managers targeting institutional and HNWI investors in Asia, Singapore offers both the regulatory framework and the investor base, and the Variable Capital Company Act already supports blockchain-native fund structures.

UAE

VARA's issuance rulebook for ARVAs and the DLD's property tokenization pilot make the UAE the natural home for tokenizing real assets: real estate, infrastructure, commodities, and sukuk. The no-capital-gains-tax environment, crypto-inflow volumes, and concentration of sovereign wealth capital create a unique demand-side advantage that Switzerland and Singapore do not replicate. Institutions wanting to access GCC investor capital for tokenized products should be engaging with ADGM or VARA now, not after that capital has already been committed to early-mover platforms.

For Institutional Investors Evaluating Tokenized Asset Allocation

The main question for institutional allocators is not whether tokenized assets are real. BlackRock's roughly $2.9 billion BUIDL fund settled that. The question is portfolio fit. Tokenized Treasuries offer government bond yields with 24/7 liquidity and use as intraday collateral, a genuinely new capability for cash management. Tokenized private credit offers the same yield as traditional private credit with better liquidity terms. Tokenized real estate and infrastructure are earlier-stage but follow the same logic. The allocation case is strongest where the traditional alternative has a liquidity or access problem that tokenization solves. Start there.

The One Thing That Matters Most for Enterprises Right Now

Tokenization is not a single product decision. It is an infrastructure orientation. The institutions that are moving fastest, BlackRock, JPMorgan, Franklin Templeton, Standard Chartered, are building tokenization into their core operating models, not launching one-off tokenized products, and the infrastructure choices they are making now, which blockchain, which custodian, which jurisdiction, will define which platforms become the standard rails for institutional tokenization. For any enterprise in finance and investment, the decision about whether to engage with tokenization is already settled. The question is whether you engage now, while the infrastructure is being built, or later, when you are adapting to infrastructure someone else built.

Appendix: Key Platforms, Funds, and Frameworks Reference

The platforms, funds, and regulatory frameworks below represent the active operational landscape in asset tokenization as of Q3 2026.

Platform / Fund / Framework

Function

Hub

BlackRock BUIDL

Tokenized US Treasury fund; ~$2.9B AUM across nine chains; further tokenized funds filed May 2026

US / Global

Franklin Templeton BENJI (FOBXX)

Tokenized US Government Money Market Fund; ~$600M AUM (early 2026), multi-chain

US / Global

JPMorgan Tokenized Collateral Network

Intraday pledging of tokenized MMF shares as collateral; live with Fidelity International

US / Global

Broadridge DLR

Tokenized repo settlement; $7.5T monthly (June 2026)

US / Global

SIX Digital Exchange (SDX)

World's first fully regulated DLT exchange for tokenized bonds and equities

Switzerland

BX Digital

First FINMA-licensed DLT trading venue for tokenized securities (March 2025)

Switzerland

MAS Project Guardian

24+ FI partners; Operational Guide for Tokenized Funds (Nov 2025); commercialization phase

Singapore

MAS Global Layer 1 (GL1)

Shared ledger infrastructure for tokenized asset interoperability

Singapore

InvestaX

End-to-end issuance, custody, and secondary trading for tokenized assets

Singapore

Securitize

Leading tokenized fund issuance platform; NYSE-listed July 2026 (SECZ)

US / Global

Canton Network

Institutional interoperability blockchain; SG-FORGE US bond, DTCC tokenization, native JPMD

US / Global

SWIFT Shared Ledger

Blockchain ledger ready for use July 2026; EVM-compatible; tokenized deposits as primary value

Global

VARA Issuance Rulebook

Full framework for asset-referenced virtual assets in Dubai (June 2025)

UAE

DLD Real Estate Tokenization Pilot

First ME authority to tokenize property title deeds (March 2025)

UAE

ADGM Virtual Asset Framework

Institutional-grade digital asset framework since 2018

UAE

Swiss DLT Act

Legal certainty for tokenized securities under Swiss law (August 2021)

Switzerland

References

RWA.xyz / RedStone / Gauntlet, Real-World Assets in On-chain Finance Report (2025)

Market.us, Global Tokenized Assets Market Report (2024 to 2034)

McKinsey and Company, Asset Tokenization Analysis and Projections (2024)

Standard Chartered, Tokenization Market Projections (2034)

BCG, Real Estate Tokenization Forecast (2030)

Chambers and Partners, Blockchain 2025 (Switzerland, UAE, Singapore)

FINMA, DLT Act, BX Digital License, and Digitalization Reports (2021 to 2025)

MAS, Project Guardian Operational Guide for Tokenized Funds (November 2025); Future of Finance Institute announcement (June 2026)

VARA, Virtual Asset Issuance Rulebook (June 2025)

Securitize, NYSE Listing Announcement (July 2026)

SWIFT, Blockchain Ledger Ready for Use press release (9 July 2026)

Zodia Custody, UAE Digital Asset Evolution Report (2025)