The market size for real-world assets (RWA) has surpassed $33.8 billion, bringing related cryptocurrency projects back into focus as a core investment theme for 2026.

On May 23 (local time), blockchain media outlet The Crypto Basic reported that the market is paying attention to projects linked to tokenised assets, institutional payment infrastructure and the building of blockchain-based financial rails.

Over the past 2 years, as the cryptocurrency industry’s focus has shifted from memecoins and short-term speculative assets to practical financial infrastructure, the RWA sector has also grown quickly. More attempts are being made to process corporate and government bonds, commodities, payment systems, invoices and stablecoin payment structures on blockchain. Global banks and asset managers are also expanding experiments with tokenised financial products, it said.

Changes in the regulatory environment were also cited as a factor behind the market’s expansion. Some countries and regions are spelling out rules for tokenised securities and blockchain payment systems. Innovation exemption guidelines under review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were also mentioned as a variable for expanding the securities tokenisation market. The market sees such regulatory clarity as lowering barriers for entry by traditional finance.

Among top RWA projects by market value, Chainlink drew the most attention. Based on oracle infrastructure connecting blockchains and external financial data, it is benefiting from the expansion of the tokenised asset market. Its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) has been adopted by SWIFT, Coinbase and SBI Digital, it was introduced. LINK was tallied at $9.80, with market capitalisation at about $7.15 billion.

Stellar (XLM) has continued to grow on the back of international payments and a low-cost settlement network. The amount of tokenised RWA on the network topped $2.4 billion, and the increase over the past 30 days was 11 percent. Over the same period, transfer volume was $275.5 million. The most tokenised assets on the platform were U.S. Treasury securities. XLM’s market capitalisation was $4.96 billion.

Avalanche (AVAX) is attracting interest from the financial sector by emphasising a subnet structure tailored for institutions. The amount of RWA being operated on the network topped $1.8 billion, with a large portion made up of directly issued assets. AVAX’s market capitalisation was $4.17 billion.

Hedera (HBAR) is highlighting corporate partnerships and an enterprise governance structure as strengths. In February, it ranked first in RWA blockchain development activity and is targeting institutional demand to move real-world assets on-chain through a low-cost, high-speed structure. HBAR’s market capitalisation is $3.9 billion.

Ondo (ONDO) was mentioned as a project that grew quickly by promoting tokenised products based on U.S. Treasuries. The amount of issued tokenised assets topped $3.85 billion, most of which were based on short-term U.S. Treasury products. Its price gain since the start of the year was introduced at about 14 percent.

Sky, Algorand, Quant, XDC Network and VeChain were also cited as major RWA projects. Algorand tokenised real estate assets worth more than $99 million. Quant is promoting Overledger OS, focused on connecting traditional financial systems and blockchains. XDC Network is concentrating on trade finance and corporate payments, and VeChain was shown to be expanding use cases in supply chain tracking and logistics verification.

Market participants are paying attention to RWA-related projects because their use cases are relatively clear. The outlet reported that many projects are building partnerships with payment companies, asset managers, financial institutions and enterprise software firms. It also said forecasts are emerging that the tokenisation market could expand to the trillions of dollars over the long term.

Uncertainty still remains. Global regulatory standards are not yet unified, and it is unclear how quickly traditional finance will adopt blockchain infrastructure. Several networks are also competing for status as standards for institutional payments and tokenised finance, and concerns are emerging that there is no guarantee every project will succeed in long-term survival.

Security risks, smart contract vulnerabilities and the cryptocurrency market’s high volatility are also being cited as key risks across the RWA sector. The market sees the long-term value of RWA projects as depending on the pace of institutional rulemaking and the scale of actual institutional adoption.