The $321 billion market for tokenized real-world assets continues to expand rapidly, yet Pantera Capital says the industry still operates like traditional finance with a blockchain layer added on top.
In a new report, the crypto investment firm reviewed 593 tokenized assets across 11 categories and found limited progress toward fully functional onchain finance. Most products still rely on centralized controls, restricted access, and offchain settlement systems instead of automated blockchain infrastructure.
Pantera’s Tokenization Progress Index (TPI) showed the market averaged just 2.04 out of 5 for onchain maturity. About 77.6% of the assets remained in what the firm described as the “wrapper” stage, where blockchain mainly serves as a digital shell for traditional financial products. Only 2.7% reached the “native” category with features such as continuous settlement, composability, and automated onchain operations.
Stablecoins dominate while utility remains limited
Stablecoins continued to dominate the tokenized asset market, accounting for more than $293 billion of tracked value. That figure represented roughly 92% of the total accountable market size of $320.6 billion, showing how heavily the market still depends on dollar-linked digital tokens for activity and liquidity. Pantera said stablecoins remain the only tokenized assets operating at meaningful scale with clear real-world blockchain use.
However, the report found that most other tokenized assets still struggle to deliver practical decentralized finance utility. Only 10.6% of the reviewed assets showed meaningful DeFi composability, a feature that allows assets to interact across blockchain applications.
In addition, 91.1% of projects still relied on restricted minting and redemption systems controlled by intermediaries. Pantera noted that only 13 or 2.4% of the assets supported near-automated mint-and-burn mechanisms without heavy manual oversight.
“The industry has successfully proven that assets can be represented on-chain, but it has not yet proven that on-chain representation fundamentally changes how those assets function,” Pantera wrote in the report.
Institutional interest accelerates across blockchain networks
Even with concerns over market maturity, institutional interest in tokenized assets continues to accelerate across the blockchain sector. Pantera Capital reported 168 new tokenized asset launches in 2025, more than double the 78 launches recorded in 2024. At the same time, tokenized U.S. Treasury products grew to nearly $12 billion, with firms such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, and Fidelity driving much of the institutional demand-led expansion.
Meanwhile, the Solana Foundation pointed to rising institutional activity on its network during Consensus Miami 2026. Chief Product Officer Vibhu Norby said real-world asset activity on Solana has climbed nearly 1,000% since early last year. He also highlighted growing stablecoin payment use tied to Meta’s creator payout programs in Colombia and the Philippines.
Beyond product launches, traditional financial institutions are also expanding blockchain partnerships. South Korea’s KB Financial Group recently signed a strategic agreement with Pantera Capital to explore digital asset investment models and blockchain infrastructure development. The partnership shows efforts by established financial firms to position themselves for the next phase of tokenized finance growth.
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