Risk-Off Capital Shifts Toward Tokenized Assets as DeFi Pulls Back
Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) continue to grow despite a bearish crypto market, indicating capital is rotating within the ecosystem rather than exiting. Distributed asset value in the RWA sector grew 8.68% over the past month, reaching $24.84 billion. In contrast, DeFi’s total value locked (TVL) dropped 25% to $94.84 billion, with major protocols experiencing significant declines. Growth in RWAs is driven by increased interest in tokenized U.S. Treasury debt, commodities, and private credit, which rose 10%, 20%, and 15% respectively in distributed value. Experts attribute this structural shift to RWAs’ offer of real-world enforceable rights, regulatory clarity, and cash flows independent of token emissions, unlike DeFi. However, while the fundamentals for RWA assets remain strong, sector-related tokens have underperformed due to the broader market downturn. The value is accruing to the underlying financial instruments themselves rather than the governance or utility tokens, decoupling token price from protocol adoption.
