The on-chain real-world asset (RWA) market’s value has topped $32 billion for the first time, but the industry is increasingly calling for liquidity infrastructure to support actual trading rather than a greater focus on issuance.

Cointelegraph reported that Chris Kim (크리스 김), founder and chief executive of digital asset firm Axis, raised the point as he said Wall Street’s tokenisation race is concentrated on the size of issuance.

The on-chain RWA market value has risen by about $10 billion so far in 2026. McKinsey said the tokenisation market could reach $2 trillion in 2030, while Standard Chartered put it at $30.1 trillion in 2034.

Kim said most projects and traditional financial firms entering the cryptocurrency market are focusing only on the issuance stage. Issuing tokenised assets and making them actually trade in the market are different issues, he said. He added that tradability will be the key factor that separates the tokenisation market’s value going forward.

Liquidity varies widely by asset class. Tokenised U.S. Treasury bonds, which account for about half of the RWA market, are influenced by liquidity in the underlying U.S. Treasury market. By contrast, infrequently traded assets such as real estate lack continuous secondary-market trading, making it difficult to measure their current value accurately.

Tokenised gold was no exception. Trading volume in tokenised gold tracked by Chainalysis was $40.5 billion, but it had little correlation with the traditional gold market for a long time. Cointelegraph said the two markets began moving together only from mid-2025.

Fragmentation of assets across multiple chains was also cited as a problem. Kim said the same asset can be issued in 30 formats across different blockchains, but they are not interoperable.

Kim said he is not sceptical about tokenisation itself, but he sees a wide gap between traditional finance liquidity and on-chain liquidity.